I sold my house to live full time on a luxury cruise ship

A wealthy divorcee has sold her luxury home to finance a new life on the high seas.

Mimi Bland, 59, is one of hundreds of high-flyers buying cabins on the luxury residential cruise ship MV Narrative owned by maritime company Storylines.

The liner will circumnavigate the globe uninterruptedly once every three years with intermediate stops at ports around the world.

Mimi has sold her £500,000 three-bedroom home in the Buckinghamshire village of Farnham Common to fund her new life.

She plans to work on board as a mindfulness mentor and see the world free from the stress of everyday life in the UK.

What Storylines’ cruise ship MV Narrative will look like in dock when it sails in 2025. It is currently being built in Croatia

Mimi plans to work onboard as a mindfulness mentor and looks forward to helping other high-flying executives

Mimi said: ‘I want to see the world while working and without ever leaving the comfort of my own home and meet lots of other ambitious people looking for a new life full of excitement and fun.

‘I’ll be 60 next year and it’s time for a reset. I love my life helping highly successful executives de-stress their lives and achieve a better work-life balance.

“But I realized I had to do that for myself and embark on an exciting new journey of adventure and discovery.”

Mimi also poured into her savings to spend £850,000 on one of the luxury properties on MV Narrative and will spend a further £50,000 a year thereafter to buy her all her meals and access to all the incredible onboard facilities.

Mimi, 59, looks forward to traveling the world and is used to going on holiday five times a year

The chance to travel on the job is a big part of the appeal for Mimi, who divorced more than 20 years ago

Mimi said the pandemic has proven it is possible to work from anywhere in the world and she is looking forward to combining her career with travel

The current cost of running her home and luxury lifestyle with car and up to five holidays a year is £70,000 a year – so Mimi will be better off by £20,000 a year living a simpler and more fulfilling life on the line while still always works.

Mimi, who split from her husband more than 20 years ago and has not remarried, said she had realized over the past three years that she needed to radically change her life.

She said: ‘I think we’ve all gone through a big change in the last three years and we’ve realized that many of us are lucky enough to be able to work anywhere in the world.

‘In my new life, the crew takes care of everything and I can run my business, see the world and meet other executives who want to have fun too.

She added, “I can’t wait to get into the next phase of my life. I want to keep working as long as possible and I will do my mentality mentoring with residents on the ship and also clients at home who see me online.

What a bedroom aboard Storylines’ cruise ship MV Narrative will look like when it’s finished. Sleeping quarters range from 22 square foot one bedroom cabins to nearly 2,000 square foot penthouses

A luxurious bathroom suite complete with his and hers sinks and freestanding bath. The cruise ship will set sail in 2025

The sitting area in one of the luxury cabins on board costs between £850,000 and £6.5 million for the most luxurious apartments.

“We all live much more flexible lives and I realized I didn’t want to be pinned down to the same house for the rest of my life with ever-increasing bills. It’s much more fun to go out to sea.’

MV Narrative uses cleaner burning liquefied natural gas and will have a solar powered hydroponic garden.

The ship will accommodate 1,000 residents in 547 fully furnished residences, ranging from the smallest one-bedroom cabins measuring 22 square meters to penthouses measuring nearly 2,000 square meters.

Prices start at £850,000 and go up to £6.5 million for the most luxurious apartments.

MV Narrative has three pools and sundecks and 20 bars and restaurants, along with its own microbrewery.

Residents can enjoy a library with 10,000 books, a cinema and an art studio.

Sports enthusiasts can take advantage of an outdoor running track, the latest golf simulators and pro shop, and a watercraft marina.

The ship also features a 10,000 square foot health center, a fully equipped hospital and an anti-aging clinic.

Other Brits who have signed on include a Derbyshire software magnate in his 40s and his wife, a former head teacher, who plan to spend up to nine months a year on board with their 17-year-old daughter.

There is also a marketing manager in his sixties from Southport, Merseyside, who has holiday homes in Spain. He has a passion for yacht travel and wants to stay on board for up to eight months a year.

Storylines CEO and founder Alister Punton said: ‘We all have this perception of cruises – that they are long vacations for retirees and people who travel the world as couples in their twilight years.

‘Storylines’ superyacht is nothing like that – it’s a residential cruise ship for working people and young families who have realized during Covid that they can work from anywhere and don’t want the hassle and expense of being tied down to one property.

‘It’s for people who have a wanderlust but also enjoy the comfort of their own home and find traveling from hotel to hotel too stressful and expensive.

“The other thing that’s exhausting about traveling is meeting new people, and the exciting thing about Storylines cruises is that there’s a whole community of like-minded people there, so you’re never lonely.”

The liner has 11 types of luxury apartments – from single beds to the most luxurious suite that is spread over two floors with four bedrooms, two bathrooms, a dining room, a balcony and a walk-in closet.

The ship will dock in ports for three to five days to allow residents to explore local attractions.

If you are traveling through Italy, you must first visit Naples in the south, go through Rome to Venice in the north.

MV Narrative is currently under construction in Croatia and will set sail in 2025.