Kevin Martin, a 48-year-old from Missouri, has unveiled the realities of spending a year living on cruise ships, detailing his monthly expenses and the unusual experiences he encountered on board.
After 20 years in the military and a career as a corporate lawyer, Martin transitioned to a full-time YouTube creator focused on travel. His latest venture saw him spending 12 months cruising with MSC, NCL, Princess, and Royal Caribbean, costing around £1,000 per month on affordable cruise deals.
Including additional expenses such as his phone bill, insurance, healthcare, and dining out, his total monthly expenditure reached approximately £1,500.
In his recent YouTube video, Martin shared insights into his life at sea, emphasizing that he wouldn’t recommend a full year of continuous cruising. Instead, he found 45 days to six weeks to be the optimal duration.
Among his adventures, Martin recounted one of the oddest incidents: witnessing a passenger fill his cargo shorts with cold, peeled prawns at a buffet.
“His pockets were bulging with shrimp, and then he just left the buffet,” Kevin said, finding the scene “hilarious”.
Food, he noted, was both a blessing and a challenge on cruise ships.
“You have as much food as your heart desires,” he explained. “You can have an elegant dining experience in the main dining room, you can go to the buffet and just pick what you want, need – as much as you want.
“You can go to all the speciality restaurants. You can go to an amazing steak dinner, you can go to an Italian restaurant, sushi bar… all that kind of stuff.
“It’s just really cool. You have an unlimited amount of food. You can eat healthy if you want, there are tons of healthy options. You can eat all the cake you want if you just want to eat desserts.
“There’s just so many food options on a cruise ship.”
Despite the temptation of constant food, Kevin managed to lose weight during his time at sea.
“So… when I started my 100 days on the Ruby Princess I wanted to lose 35lbs”, he shared. “That equated to about a pound every three days and I achieved that goal. I lost 35lbs [and] went from 210lbs to 175lbs. That’s what I am right now, I’m 175lbs. I’m super happy with the results.”
Throughout the year, Martin visited various global destinations, with Tallinn, Estonia, being his favourite port due to its “gorgeous” cobblestone walkways and historic buildings. His favourite itinerary was the “Fire and Ice” trip with Princess, which included stops in Halifax, Canada, and several Icelandic ports.
“Because I was on a small ship, the Island Princess, we were able to go to a bunch of places that the bigger ships can’t”, he explained. “These small towns of like 600 people, deep inside these Icelandic fjords. It was amazing… it was breathtaking.”
Martin experienced a few downsides, including contracting norovirus on one cruise, which left him “violently” ill for over four days. Additionally, noisy passengers occasionally disrupted his peace, especially when they were drunk.
In terms of cruise liners, he found each had unique strengths. He praised MSC for the best private island and Princess for the most comfortable mattresses.
Summing up his year-long experiment, Martin expressed no regrets.
“Everyone gets along, everyone has this shared experience of cruising and they bond over it. It’s really beautiful. I wish the rest of the world would learn from that,” he concluded.
Following his cruise ship experience, Martin plans to integrate cruising into his future travel plans to avoid flying and continue exploring new destinations.