Featured Image Credit: CNN
Topics: Cruise Ship, Travel, Real Life, TV And Film
Jess Hardiman
A man has opened up about the ‘scandals and secrets’ while living on board the world’s most exclusive residential cruise ship, saying ‘a lot of partying’ goes on.
Retired lawyer Peter Antonucci spent six years as a resident of The World, a luxury cruise ship launched in 2002 as an exclusive playground for multimillionaires to travel the world.
He and his wife had first heard about it in 2012, when he was 52 and settling in to his early retirement.
“When I first got on, I thought it was ridiculously expensive,” Antonucci told CNN.
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“I couldn’t believe the apartments cost so much. I couldn’t believe the maintenance costs were so much and couldn’t imagine why anybody would do this.
“But the second day, I was saying, ‘How many apartments do you have available and when can I sign up?’”
He estimates he bought the first on-board apartment for around $1.6 million, before going on to buy even pricier units for around $4 million a pop.
Since selling up in 2019, after realising he’d seen everything he wanted to do and was ready for something ‘new’, Antonucci turned his hand to writing books about his time on The World, describing the experience as a ‘country club meets sorority house’ vibe.
“The politics, and the gossip on the ship got a little overwhelming,” he also admitted.
Antonucci explained to CNN that to compare The World to fictional hotel chain The White Lotus - the setting for HBO series of the same name – would not be ‘inaccurate’.
“There are a lot of wealthy people doing playful things, sometimes naughty things, sometimes scandalous things,” he said, adding that ‘a lot of drinking and carousing’ can often lead to ‘scandals and secrets’.
“Stuff happens. Some of it is fun. Some of it is people just getting blasted and singing songs and just having a good old time. And that’s relatively harmless.
“And then even some of the affairs and things are harmless – if the people are available, single, that’s fine.
“But there are married people, married couples on the ship, who are not always sleeping with their spouse.”
Antonucci said he never ‘engaged in that’, but would often enjoy having a good laugh about it over a drink with friends.
According to the dad-of-two, the ‘greatest asset’ of the ship wasn’t all the bells and whistles, but the crew, who were always able to anticipate his every need.
“It was like an orchestra with a lot of different parts,” he recalled.
“Each one was great. But together, it was a symphony.”
As for the ‘most incredible thing’ he’s seen throughout his exclusive cruising life, Antonucci said he doesn’t ‘even know where to begin’.
“I could talk about the Solomon Islands,” he said.
“I could tell you how every time we went to South Africa, we would get off and go on a safari for a week.
“We set a Guinness World Record for being the vessel that traveled furthest south of any vessel in history.
“[...] Those are all very, very special memories.”