Why are the wealthy spending their twilight years cruising?
How many performances of Fogwell Flax’s comedy routine can one flesh-and-blood cruiser take?
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Taking a cruise is, as the old saying goes, the pursuit of the “newly wed, the overfed and the nearly dead”. It seems also to be growing in popularity, so much so that we report today on one American enthusiast who has spent eight years on a cruise ship. Apparently she finds time to do plenty of needlepoint, which is just as well, as even the best appointed of these floating towns have a finite amount of entertainment available. How many performances of Fogwell Flax’s comedy routine, renditions of Grease, or Rob “this is the life” Brydon throwing shapes on the dance floor can one flesh-and-blood cruiser take?
Maybe more entertaining were the reminiscences of the military veteran who spent the last six years of his days aboard MS The World cruise ship, a span uncannily close to the duration of the Second World War he was talking about. But without the U-boats. Now the largest cruise ship ever, MS Harmony of the Seas, has embarked on its first sea trial off the coast of France. This whale of entertainment measures about 1,200ft long, has room for 5,479 guests and enough food and drink to sink a, well, cruise ship. It will also boast three multistorey waterslides, robot bartenders and a “handcrafted” carousel.
Yet all this strangeness comes at a price: about £700 per week per person, meaning an eight-year “get away from it all” break will set you back about £300,000 – rather more than the price of an average home in most of Britain. It confirms what many will suspect: that the prosperous classes have never had it so good, and can afford to spend vast sums of money doing not very much at all. And that many of us are really very easily pleased.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments