Wyoming Couple Trade Home In Laramie For Four Years On Luxury Cruise Ship

Paul and Lynn Montoya are living a luxury, high-seas lifestyle that sounds like something only the wealthy could afford. 

They’re cruising up and down the coastline of South America, releasing sea turtles in Acapulco, watching dolphins play in El Salvador and eating monster-sized prawns — too large to dare call them shrimp. 

The Montoyas are on a four-year cruise around the world on the Villa Vie ship Odyssey. The journey started in April and will ultimately take them all the way around the world, calling on ports in 425 destinations in 147 countries, plus 100 tropical islands. 

There’s an adventure awaiting them at each destination, plus aboard ship.

But this amazing experience is not costing the Wyoming couple an arm, a leg and their firstborn child. In fact, they’re not spending any more money than they would have if the couple, who ran a bed and breakfast near Vedauwoo, were still living in Laramie.

“That’s one of the things the Odyssey really does is they’re trying to program this for affordable living,” Lynn told Cowboy State Daily during an overseas phone call on their way to Hawaii. “It’s similar to maybe like a retirement community, like a 55-plus community.”

It’s not just a retirement community, Paul added.

“They are also aiming at a lot of people who are digital nomads,” he said. “They’ve actually taken a section of the ship and created a business center. 

“And, as we’re talking on right now, we have high-speed internet, because naturally we can’t get cell service out here in the middle of the ocean. So, they’ve actually put in a complete system using Starlink internet.”

That would have been difficult, if not impossible to do, as little as five years ago, Paul added.

“They have, I think, about 12 offices that are private offices you can lease per month if you have a business,” he said. “And they also have an open office area with cubicles that anyone in the ship can use, kind of first-come, first-serve.”

A COVID-Inspired Dream

The Montoyas have been surprised by just how many of the 600-some passengers who have joined this voyage of the Odyssey aren’t retirees. 

They are people with full-time jobs who work aboard ship during the day and play at night, whether aboard ship or at whatever port of call. 

“I think what really set this in motion was once COVID happened, we saw you could live anywhere in the world and work remotely,” she said. “And then the world is your oyster, right?”

Lynn estimates about 30% of the ship’s residents are full-time workers, maintaining their jobs back home, whether it’s for a software company, a financial institution or some other occupation that allows for remote work.

“Some of them run real estate or property management from here,” she said. “We have a couple of people who are book authors. And there are families too, who are homeschooling their children and experiencing the world.”

The Montoyas decided to go nomad after hosting world travelers for years, hearing stories about the countries where they live. 

“We realized we hadn’t seen the world, running a business like we did in Wyoming,” Paul said. “We never had time to do much travel. We actually went to Europe for the first time in our lives last year, and we’re in our 60s now, so we’d realy like to explore the world.”

Flying to and from destinations can be exhausting, the couple added.

“Some parts of the world, you get there and it takes a couple of days to get over the jet lag,” Paul said. “Plus, going from hotel to hotel. You’re always packing and unpacking. 

“Last night, we went through a time change and no one even noticed, except that they set their clocks differently. So, this just makes it a wonderful way to travel.”

C’Mon What’s It Really Cost?

The cost for this around-the-world living option starts at $129,000 for an inside cabin, according to Villa Vie’s website, good for at least 15 years of occupancy. 

The occupancy range could be more than 15 years, depending on the actual life of the ship, but it is guaranteed to be at least that long.

Cabin costs range on up to $429,999 for a more spacious villa with a balcony and a stunning view. Or, do what some cabin owners do. Buy multiple cabins side by side and remodel to suit. 

The monthly maintenance fee to stay aboard ship in the $129,000 cabin is $2,999 for one person, which works out to around $45,000 annually for one person in one cabin.

For two people, the fee for that cabin is $3,999, or $57,000 annually. 

The Montoya’s cabin costs about $6,000 per month, and their costs are more like $80,000 annually. 

The monthly fee includes three meals a day for each of them, as well as entertainment, housekeeping, laundry and high-speed internet. They have free access to all the public amenities, too, like a fitness center, swimming pool, hot tubs and pickleball court, as well as diverse social gatherings and other events.

“If you’re living in California or New York or something that’s, I don’t think you could even live in a rented apartment for that nowadays,” Lynn said. “For them, this is probably an easy decision. For us, this is the same lifestyle we had in Laramie, but we’re getting to see the world.”

The Montoyas have options for their cabin should they decide they need to attend family events like a wedding or a funeral. 

They can rent it out like an Airbnb or, if they tire of their high seas lifestyle, sell the cabin outright, something they said they’ll evaluate in three years or so.

Cabins can be sold back to Villa Vie for a depreciated value, or they can be sold outright to a new cabin owner. In the Montoyas’ case, their cabin is already worth about $20,000 more than what they paid for it. 

“If we die, our family can actually inherit it, too,” Paul said. “But we’re hoping the value will be there where we can actually sell (the cabin) for the amount we paid, maybe more if it’s really popular.”

For those who can’t afford to buy a cabin outright, there are other types of pay-as-you-go plans, like purchasing segments aboard the ship. 

One of the guests doing that is a gentleman the Montoyas met from Fort Collins who owned two condos, one he lived in and one he rented out.  

“Now what he’s doing is renting both of those out and, with the money he’s renting it for, he’s paying for life on the ship,” Lynn said. “He’s one of the ones who left in August, so he’s been doing that for some time.”

The Cabins Are Small

Some flexibility is required for life at sea, the Montoyas said. 

Weather is changeable, so plans may have to change as well. The cabins on this residential ship are typical of most any cruise ship — quite small. They’re not intended to serve as tiny homes on the sea, but tiny bedrooms on the sea, which is how the Montoyas use their space.

“A typical cabin is about 200 square feet,” Montoya said.  “And you normally have a bed and a desk, maybe a side chair, and a small bathroom.”

There’s a flat-screen television on the wall and a small, college dorm-sized refrigerator for pop, leftovers or other snacks.

The Montoyas don’t buy a lot of souvenirs because they don’t have a lot of space to put things. They might buy a magnet or two, or they might buy a gift to ship to someone who had a special request. 

Some of Villa Vie’s Odyssey passengers decide to upgrade to larger cabins for a fee, or they’ll buy multiple cabins side by side and remodel them. There’s even a construction crew on board to help passengers customize their cabins to suit.

“We’re actually having the construction crew on here tear out all of the cabinetry, and we’re going to re-wallpaper it,” Paul said. “We’re also going to replace the bed with our own bed.”

That will be arriving when the couple hit the port in San Diego.

“We just want it to be a little more efficient for storage,” Lynn said. “You know, have more drawers or cabinets, have more desk space in our cabin.”

That makes it a little more efficient, but it’s not where the couple plan to spend most of their time.

“We sleep there, change and shower there, that’s about it,” Lynn said. “The rest of the time we’re on the ship or in the business center or we’re in the gym, or we’re at port doing another activity.”

The ship has a lot of public access areas devoted to entertaining guests. 

There are patios where people can sit and watch the water go by or read a book, there are lounges to buy cocktails, restaurants that provide meal service, and there’s even a theater that seats 400 people for shows, lectures and other programs.

Lectures often focus on what there will be to do at the next port, so they’re not dull and dry at all, but particularly relevant to life aboard the Odyssey.

“The two people who co-founded this actually had quite an extensive background in cruise lines,” Paul said. “So, they didn’t go into this blindly. They knew what the costs would be and what it would really take to run a ship this way.”

That knowledge shows in all aspects of the experience so far, the Montoyas added. Like the friends and family cabins. 

“I think there’s 35 cabins and once every quarter, as an owner, we can actually bring someone on or a couple people on for two weeks at a time,” Paul said. “They can rent the cabin, or we could pay for the rental of the cabin, at a really low rate, and they’d get all of the amenities and be treated just like they own the cabin here.”

From Sea Turtles To Dolphins

The Montoya’s tour of the world started with stops all along the coast of Mexico and South America, including Acapulco, where they released more than 4,000 turtles to the sea. 

They share their new lifestyle on their YouTube channel, Lynn and Paul’s Excellent Adventure.

One video shows them standing on a sandy beach, waiting for the tides to roll in and sweep the turtles to their new home in the sea. 

When the sea does come for the turtles, it’s a dramatic, fun moment. It’s also poignant, given that the Montoyas also now have a new home on the sea.

In another segment, the Montoyas share a dolphin surprise. Lynn had looked out the window of their villa and noticed dolphins that morning. So, they threw on clothes and rushed out to watch, a free coffee in hand.

In Costa Rica, the couple climbed Monteverde and even stayed overnight in a bed and breakfast, enjoying more exotic, local cuisine that they have found both delicious and surprising.

The ability to stay overnight at a port of call is one of the other reasons they chose the Odyssey for this adventure.

“We’d been following other ships that have tried to do this for a number of years now, but this is the first company to really come forward and be able to do it like this,” Paul said. “With most cruises, you go to certain destinations, and you might be gone for a couple of weeks, but you’re in port for one day. 

“It’s a nice way to travel, but you really don’t get to experience a lot of the cultures like we have with what we’re doing here on the Odyssey.”

With the Odyssey taking four years to go around the world, that gives the Montoyas plenty of time to really experience each place, including the cuisine. 

That’s how they’ve learned that tacos in Mexico are nothing like tacos in America. 

“We as Americans and people from Wyoming, sometimes we think Mexican food is Mexican,” Paul said. “But you look at the tacos in the different cities, and they all prepare them differently, they all have their specialties.”

In fact, most of the Mexican dishes are unlike anything they’ve ever eaten in America — and that’s the whole point of their adventure.

Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.