Adjusting to a 140-square-foot cruise ship stateroom becomes easier after you lived with your significant other in an RV for 14 years.
So the first three weeks of Jim and Chris Guld’s new life traveling the world aboard the Villa Vie Odyssey has been smooth sailing, the couple said during a recent video call with the South Florida Sun Sentinel.
In the mornings, they wake up aboard the 30-year-old, 480-cabin cruise ship that was converted by Pembroke Pines-based Odyssey Vie Residences and marvel that they can spend their days any way they want.
“You know, it’s like a fantasy,” Jim says.
Chris adds, “Anytime you want to go for a little walk, you have the promenade deck, and you’re out at the ocean and seeing the sunsets, and sometimes you’re rewarded by some dolphins jumping around out in the water.”
Jim dismisses the few inconveniences they have endured as “first-world problems.”
The ship’s Starlink internet connection sometimes freezes during video calls. The magnetic strip on their room key stops working after their cellphone gets too close and demagnetizes it. Dinner is served later than the couple was used to eating.
They say they’ll adjust.
The Gulds — Jim is 71 and Chris is 72 — said they decided to sell their home and move aboard the ship to rid themselves of the chores, decisions and hassles that were squeezing the juice out of their semi-retirement in Oakland Park.
After a tryout voyage in December, they forked over $170,000 for their 15-year option and began emptying their home. They’re also paying $5,000 a month for living expenses that includes water and electricity, internet service, laundry and twice-weekly housekeeping, all of their meals and beverages, education and entertainment programs, and use of fitness facilities.
The ship is scheduled to make 425 stops in more than 140 countries over its first 3½-year “Continual World Cruise.” If they make it through two trips, or seven years, the couple says they’ll decide whether to keep going or sell their cabin to someone else.
During the video call, the ship was anchored at Acapulco, Mexico — the ship’s 10th port after the Gulds climbed aboard at Cartagena, Colombia, on April 20.
After leaving Cartagena, the ship stopped at two Panama ports before maneuvering through the Panama Canal, then anchored in Costa Rica, El Salvador and Guatemala.
Six more Mexico stops follow Acapulco before the ship comes “home” to the United States with five stops in Hawaii in June. Then it’s off to San Diego, Los Angeles and San Francisco before heading to Canada and Alaska in July.
Keep on geeking
The couple, who have been posting tech-tip videos since 2003 as “Geeks on Tour,” continue to create their videos on board, working from desks positioned back to back in the narrow cabin’s living space between the bed and bathroom.
They keep fans apprised of their new adventures by posting blog entries, videos and photos. One video shows the two checked bags and two carry-ons that they carried out of their Oakland Park home last month.
“Now we have already shipped a few things to the ship prior,” Chris explained, “but these are all of our personal belongings. Untethered, we will be living on the cruise ship wherever in the world.”
Other photos show the taxi ride from the airport to the cruise port, the arrival to the ship — “Here we are, we’re home!” Chris says — followed by a shot of her fast asleep inside a cabin they were given while their own cabin underwent last-minute repairs.
Once in their permanent space, they wasted little time dressing it with a few pieces of home, including a tapestry and watercolor by Chris’ friends, and a wooden display cabinet that an Amish builder in Indiana made for their RV. It sits above a desk with a keyboard tray that Chris purchased from Amazon.
But the room’s main attraction is the large picture window that, depending on the time of day, shows either a giant ocean vista or the port where the ship is docked. “That’s our weather channel,” Chris says.
The Gulds say they’ve had no problem getting along together in the small cabin.
“We were RVers for so long that we’re comfortable in a small space,” Jim says.
Chris adds, “And we are comfortable being quiet, you know. I think that’s important. I know some people who have to talk all the time when they’re with each other. And that could be a problem.”
There’s no hurry
Despite their enthusiasm for sightseeing, Chris says they’ve remained on the ship during several of the port calls.
“And I’ve been feeling kind of guilty about that, you know, saying, ‘Oh, here we are, in Costa Rica with the forest, and I still haven’t seen a sloth and we’re in Guatemala and we’re in El Salvador,’ where I know there’s just so much interesting stuff.”
Plenty of time awaits for what Chris calls “tourist” things, including a planned excursion later in the day to see Acapulco’s famed cliff divers.
And the Asia leg of the voyage begins in August, with multiple stops this fall in Japan, Philippines, China, Indonesia, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, India, and more.
An August stop will bring the couple to Osaka, Japan, in time to visit Expo 2025 — the first World Expo hosted by the country since 1970.
Even without the port calls, there’s so much to do on the boat, it can be difficult to make time for a nap, Chris says.
“For example, yesterday was a day at sea, which you’d think, ‘I can get some of my work done,’ you know, record videos or write some blog posts. But no. First, we tried to make arrangements to meet another couple for dinner. But then a woman wanted some Google Photos advice from me.
“So I tried to make an arrangement to see her and we said, ‘OK, how about how about 2 p.m. (for dinner)? Oh, no, there’s a dance class that I want to go to at 2 p.m. OK, how about 3 p.m.? No, there’s a port talk about what’s coming up at 3 p.m. OK, how about 4? There’s no time for a nap.”
Jim says some residents hardly ever leave the ship. “It’s a lifestyle,” he says. “It’s not just a vacation cruise where you have to go, go, go.”
Finding old and new friends
The best part of the journey so far, the couple says, has been found right on the ship, meeting new friends and getting reacquainted with old ones.
Before leaving Cartagena, a couple who had followed the Gulds online since their RV days texted them from a Celebrity ship that had just docked next to the Villa Vie Odyssey.
Their first dinner onboard was spent with a couple whose website, residentialcruising.com, inspired the Gulds to pursue the idea of moving onto a cruise ship.
And while docked in Costa Rica, they attended the wedding of Angela Harsanyi and Gian Perroni, who met and fell in love on the ship while it underwent repairs last summer that delayed its departure from Belfast, Ireland.
“They invited everybody who lives on the ship to participate,” Chris says. “We had a wonderful time. It was just a blast. The captain officiated, and he took the plunge with them into the pool. That was way cool.”
Ron Hurtibise covers business and consumer issues for the South Florida Sun Sentinel. He can be reached by phone at 954-356-4071 or by email at rhurtibise@sunsentinel.com.
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