The Magellan Residential Cruise Line
Posted on April 22, 2008
Filed Under Cruising, Luxury Travel |
First off, this isn’t your usual kind of cruising. This is where you can buy an address on a luxury ship and enjoy the world as your backyard. Never see the same destination more than once every four years, your view changes continuously as the ship sails around the earth forever.
As an interesting historical aside, the guy it was named for, never actually made it completely around the world. Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese maritime explorer in the service of the Spanish crown, led the expedition credited with the first circumnavigation of the earth.
He was actually attempting to find a westward route to the “Spice Islands” of Indonesia but was killed in the Philippines in route. It was the Spaniard Juan Sebastian Elcano, having taking command after Magellan’s death, that led the few remaining crew back to Spain 3 years later.
But as is typical in historical accounts, it’s generally the “top dog” that gets the credit, so most people have never heard of Elcano. To be fair, it was indeed Magellan that kept pushing on when his crews wanted to turn back, and his death did provide a distraction which allowed the remaining crew to escape. Anyway, I digress.
As the new namesake of that intrepid explorer, this new ship, the Magellan of Seas will go much further, doing so incredibly faster, and all while providing far more luxurious surroundings than poor ol’ Ferdinand could’ve ever envisioned.
I mean not only has it got all the usual top-end amenities, but comes with it’s own retractable marina, a helipad complete with 2 Bell Jet Helicopters, and even an observatory for checking out all those spectacular constellations and nebulas that are visible no where better than nighttime in the middle of the ocean.
As you’ve no doubt guessed, this type residence is a bit pricey. In fact, if you don’t have a few million bucks lying around gathering dust, this may have to remain a dream. Prices range from just under 3 million to over 16 million, plus an “annual assessment” of several thousand to over a half million bucks. How’s that for a homeowners association?
Actually it’s the monthly fees that pay for utilities, insurance and crew. The big numbers are just buying you a spot. Oh and that spot is supposed to be guaranteed for 100 years, although the last 50 may see her permanently docked like the queen Mary.
Okay, so here’s some good news. The Magellan offers fractional ownership in increments of 2 weeks or a month. So while an average place runs 5 or 6 million plus about 200k annually, you can just take a piece. That brings the cost for a single month down to only a half million with a measly 15k assessment.
Of course that sort of makes it like a time share – a fairly costly one, but it does offer a way in. But then you have to wonder if lowering the bar will let too many of us riff-raff types in. Yup, there goes the neighborhood. 
Yes that was very tongue in cheek. I thought this was a cool idea upon first hearing of it, and I still do. Unfortunately, it’s somewhat out-of-reach. I’ll just have to commiserate with the other riff-raff and stick with buying my cruises a week at a time.
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