I live on a cruise ship for no cost. This is what it’s like staying a ‘wife on board,’ in addition what I expend just about every 7 days.

• I’m a “wife on board” — I are living on a cruise ship for 50 % the calendar year when my husband works on it.

• There are a lot of benefits, together with totally free laundry, food, and space assistance.

• We usually invest just underneath $100 a week on strategies, specialty meals, and net access.

Hi, my name is Christine, and I live half the 12 months on a cruise ship.

Some would say I reside like I am on vacation each individual working day — and I do. Just about every day, I’m in a new location and my biggest conclusions are whether I want to go to teatime, lie in the sunlight, or do a wine tasting.

Here is some backstory: I am a previous cruise and vacation director, and my spouse is a employees main engineer. I have been sailing on and off for virtually 12 several years, and he’s been executing so for 30.

When the pandemic hit in 2020, I shed my occupation because of organizational shifts. Now, I sail with my partner as a “wife on board,” also recognized as a WOB. When we aren’t living on a cruise ship, we connect with Vlissingen, Netherlands, property.

Not all crew users can have their associates sail for absolutely free — it truly is a privilege typically reserved for higher-position officers. In advance of the pandemic, my husband took edge of this perk as a “husband on board” while I worked 12-hour days.

This is what my week looks like and what I invest:

I fork out $20 a week for online accessibility

As I create this, I’m hunting out more than the ocean as we sail off the coastline of California.

Crew members on board — together with my spouse — can use WhatsApp for free, but I shell out for endless net obtain.

I will need internet at all occasions due to the fact I create about and share our globe on my TikTok account, @Dutchworld_Americangirl.

$10 a week goes to tipping our home steward

I consider to maintain our room tidy, but we also have a great space steward who comes by just about every working day. He vacuums, variations the sheets, dusts, cleans our tiny rest room, and leaves us refreshing towels.

A place steward is a perk for higher-ranking officers on the ship, and we pick to generally leave a idea.

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Commonly, we give him $10 a week. Occasionally, we are going to pick him up objects in port or toss him an additional $20 if he’s likely ashore for lunch.

Tipping culture is really different on ships. I might say my spouse and I are considered wonderful tippers when we are crew tipping our fellow crew, particularly considering the fact that lots of really don’t “feel” in tipping.

Our laundry is finished every single day for absolutely free

Yet another perk is obtaining our laundry performed each individual day for totally free.

Every single morning about 7:30, immediately after my husband has left for work, our room steward checks whether or not we have something that desires to be washed. I basically put soiled clothes in a cloth bag and checklist what’s inside of on a slip of paper.

There is certainly also a place to wash personalized items and a totally free laundry spot for crew customers.

Meals are totally free, but we expend further on specialty dining places and space provider

The bulk of our foodstuff on board is totally free and I’m nicely fed. You will find a broad range, which include a buffet, pizza, hamburgers, hotdogs, ice cream, and sushi — fundamentally, everything you can desire of.

We pay back for food items only if we make a decision to dine at one of the ship’s specialty dining places, which usually costs involving $20 and $50 a person. We ordinarily idea amongst $5 and $10.

Room provider is free to order on the ship, and we usually tip among $2 and $5 each and every time.

In whole, a standard week of this way of living fees us below $100

Ordinarily, we expend $20 on internet access, about $27 on tips, and $40 on specialty dining for a whole of $87.

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