Permanent residency aboard cruise ships continues to grow in popularity.
More Australians are choosing to sell their homes to chase an endless summer around the world as permanent cruise ship residents, but for those investigating the leap from land to water there are many unanswered questions.
Life at sea is a growing trend backed by the construction of several cruise ships targeted specifically at people seeking permanent residency away from traditional holiday vessels.
For many, the numbers simply add up. Payments for mortgages, rent, cars, electricity, water, council rates, food, home and vehicle insurance all simply funnel into one smaller payment aboard a cruise ship that covers everything from accommodation to food and entertainment.
As the cost of living crisis continues to push daily prices higher across a range of industries, the cruise life allows people to enjoy their money and see the world at the same time.
In fact, an analysis by cruisepassenger.com.au found Aussies could save up to $2500 per month by ditching land for cruise ship living. The number crunch found the monthly costs of rent, food, and entertainment in Sydney were nearly double the cost of living at sea.
But what about those unanswered questions? Here are three popular cruise ship myths that we’ve explored to find the truth.
Cruise ships have their own jails – TRUE
It’s something 99.99 per cent of cruise ship passengers never see but, yes, the majority of ships do have a brig in the event of security emergencies.
Professional cruiser and Cruise Globe app founder Emma Le Teace said thankfully most cruise jails never had to be used.
“(The jail) isn’t usually visited on ship tours for security reasons. Because of this, many people forget that it exists at all,” she told her followers.
“The on-board jails are small and used as a place to hold guests suspected of breaking the law or those who are acting dangerously or recklessly.”
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Cruise ship jail is pretty basic: A small windowless room and a bed. Picture: TikTok
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Ms Le Teace said most incidents on cruise ships can be solved by having someone confined to their cabin and security posted outside the door.
But, occasionally, for more serious issues like assaults or murders, the brig was utilised to lock people up safely.
Anyone thrown into cruise jail is usually handed over to local authorities for a proper investigation at the next available port.
Cruise ships fake their fresh food – FALSE
It’s hard to trick the modern day cruiser, especially with food, so the majority of cruise companies don’t try.
Given the sheer volume of food passengers consume aboard cruise ships the turnover of ingredients can be pretty high and, therefore, fresh.
Cruise companies maintain fresh stock by investing in supply lines that mean they take on new produce at the ports they visit along the journey.
P&O Cruises sources all of its food and drink directly from Australia and New Zealand, taking pallets of fresh produce aboard every time it stops at ports from either country.
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There’s heaps of food to choose from on a cruise ship and most of it is sourced locally. Picture: TikTok
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P&O Cruises’ Peter Little told Escape the company sourced its ingredients from local producers like Grima’s Farm Fresh Produce in Western Sydney and Caroline Pisciuneri’s Seven Springs Orchard at Batlow, NSW.
“Given our volumes, and to maximise freshness, much of our fresh produce is picked, packed and put on pallets at the farm, then loaded onto trucks and taken straight to the ships, in Sydney and Brisbane,” he said.
“It also means not only do our guests get to enjoy the most delicious fresh food, we are also helping provide year-round certainty to farmers and small businesses right across Australia.
“It’s a big job supplying enough fresh fruit and vegetables for a cruise taking over 2500 guests on a holiday at sea.”
Upside-down pineapples are a thing – TRUE
The use of upside-down pineapple imagery skyrocketed through the 1990s as a symbol of the swinging community.
No-one really remembers how or why the pineapple was chosen but to this day it remains an enduring signal that someone is in the ‘lifestyle’.
While upside down pineapples are not exclusively used on cruise ships, it is understood to be an accepted way for swingers on holidays to identify other like-minded people.
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Pineapples on a door of your cruise ship have a special meaning. Picture: TikTok
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CruiseCritic reported in 2024 that some cruise companies were well aware of passengers fixing pineapple images to their doors and that staff were instructed to remove any they found.
A Carnival Cruise Line brand ambassador even commented as such in a since-deleted 2024 social media post.
“Thank you for mentioning that, [upside-down pineapples] are definitely no longer allowed on the ships and they will be removed from any cabin door. Thank you for reminding me to mention,” the comment read.
So, while cruise passengers might not see many inverted pineapples around their ship, they may still pop up from time to time.
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