Why a retiree planning to pay $1 million to live on a luxury cruise ship changed his mind: "Is this going to happen in my lifetime?'

• A 70-year-old buyer has asked Storylines to refund his deposit for a $1 million condo on the MV Narrative.
• The startup has delayed the launch of its residential ship from 2019 to December 2026.
• This uncertainty eventually wore the buyer down: "Is this going to happen in my lifetime?"

At least one buyer who had put down a deposit for a $1 million condo on Storylines' residential cruise ship has changed their mind as the startup continues to delay the launch of its condos-at-sea concept.

Two years ago, Mike Kasperzak, a 70-year-old retiree, was trying to picture what the next 20 years of his life would look like. As a San Francisco Bay Area resident who doesn't have kids and doesn't play golf, Kasperzak told Business Insider he was "getting to that stage of life where 'what am I going to do when I grow up' becomes an important question."

At the time, it seemed like he had found the answer through a Facebook ad for Storylines and its luxurious $900 million residential cruise ship. Aboard the future 18-deck MV Narrative, the startup says there will be comforts like a farmers market supplied by onboard hydroponic gardens and the promise that residents will live longer with "antiaging" services like bioidentical hormone-replacement therapies.

Shiny amenities like these have drawn buyers to the MV Narrative. Compelled by this idea of life at sea, Kasperzak put down a $10,000 deposit in 2021 for a $1 million condo on the ship. And he's not alone: As of July, more than half of the ship's 530 cabins have been reserved, Alister Punton, Storylines' cofounder and CEO, told Business Insider.

It seemed the startup was making progress — the same year Kasperzak sent his deposit, Storylines announced the shipyard Brodosplit would build the Narrative.

At the time, Storylines had been telling buyers that the Narrative would set sail in 2024, which was already a delay from the initial 2019 schedule. Since then, this launch date has again been pushed back twice, now to December 2026. Nine former employees, consultants, and investors told Business Insider they question if the MV Narrative will ever exist beyond renderings.

After two years of waiting with no ship in sight, this uncertainty has dwindled Kasperzak's excitement for life aboard the Narrative. And in the early fall, he finally sent Storylines a refund request for his deposit, wondering, "Is this going to happen in my lifetime? I'm getting a little more risk-averse."

"It still seems like an awesome idea," Kasperzak said. But "personal changes" and the potential for more years-long delays are "a little more than I can bear at this point in my life, which is why I finally decided I'm just going to get out."

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