May 14, 2024
12/1/23 Will the third time be the charm?
But alas, I heard about one other company who was trying their hands at an affordable Residential Cruise Ship. I apprehensively decided to try one final time, to make this dream travel plan a reality. This time I am pinning my hopes on a new American company out of Florida, cruise capital of the world. It's a husband and wife CEO /COO couple who have both worked in the industry for years and it turns out that they were involved with both Storylines
and Life at Sea, as partial joint ventures, but severed both those relationships when they saw problems, with both firms, early on. There company is Villa Vie Residences (VVR), and their concept too, is to purchase an existing mid size cruise ship and retrofit it for residential living before setting sail May 15, 2024 from Southampton, England.
VVR's
sales model is a little different than the other two failed enterprises. You can buy your unit on the Ship upfront for 15 years ( the anticipated remaining life of the ship) or you can just buy the segments of travel you are interested in. There are 17 segments, that make up the full 3.5 year circumnavigation of the World. The segments are geographical based - so you can focus on only those that appeal to you or the time period, as they vary in length. As an owner you can rent out your unit when you are not using, either thru VVR
or on your own, like an Airbnb, or even exchange it through a House Share program. If you do segments, you pay as you go.
Needless to say, I proceeded cautiously to evaluate the options and signed a non disclosure agreement in December, to be able to have my financial advisor review along with me all the company specifics. After careful consideration, I have chosen to purchase a unit, a balcony cabin, in the middle of the ship, on the starboard side of deck 6. Unit 6065 and am again preparing to pack it all up and trust that this third time will truly be the winner!
I really enjoyed my first trip to Thailand! On our final morning here we went to try breakfast at this spot, down the road, we had been hearing rave reviews on, King Of Bread . The hype was correct, the breakfast was delicious and they had some unique choices. I had eggs benedict on a croissant, in lieu of the standard english muffin and Bosco had it on Milk Bread, which was equally tasty.
We love having authentic experiences with locals to really get a chance to see how they live and thrive in the Ports we visit. So when I found a cooking class, by a local woman offered in her home, we were excited to book. Um ( our teacher) picked us and brought us back to our hotel along with the family of 4 from Sydney, Australia, that had also signed up for this afternoon class. Um's house, which has a lovely open air kitchen, garden and dining area, was about a 30 minute drive and turned out to be on the beach, right next to the Grandparent Rocks.
The nightlife scene doesn't really get going till after 11pm and goes till 5 am in the Chaweng section of Koh Samui . We made our way over to the club district, and one of the hot spots called the ArkBar a little past 10pm to have some dinner, while watching the beach fire shows.