The vessel is home to 142 families from 19 countries and Monday was the 13th time The World has docked in Lisbon since its maiden voyage in 2002 which, coincidentally, set sail from Lisbon.
With prices that go up to close to €13 million, all of the spacious apartments have balconies, and are designed so that their occupants can stay onboard the mammoth floating community for as long as they wish, without having to disembark.
Passengers pay yearly maintenance fees of €700,000 each for the upkeep of their onboard luxury lifestyle, €30,000 of which goes towards meals.
According to Diário de Notícias, the majority of residents spend an average of three months on the boat, but some do sail year-round, and the average age onboard is 62 years, with some of the passengers still being professionally active.
Designed by architects Petter Yran and Bjørn Storbraaten, The World was built in Rissa, Norway, between 2000 and 2002.
Quoting the vessel’s management, ROW Management, the piece stated, “Unlike most ships, The World spends twice as long in ports than at sea. Every few days residents can wake up and look out their window at a new and exciting port of call”.
After Lisbon, The World was due to sail to Tromso, Norway, before embarking on an 11-day expedition around the Svalbard archipelago, then it will be heading south, passing through Portugal again, stopping at the ports of Portimão and Funchal, before sailing down the African coast towards Cape Town for New Year.
By the end of this year the floating apartment block will have travelled 40,000 nautical miles, having docked at 120 ports in 30 countries.
In related news, Lisbon has seen a 15 percent increase in cruise ship passengers.
According to Lusa News Agency, the port of Lisbon handled an extra 28,387 cruise passengers (15 percent) in the first half of this year compared with the same period in 2017, the port announced on Monday.
The first six months saw 221,072 passengers moving through the port, compared with 192,685 between January and June 2017.
The Port said the growth was due to a 5 percent increase in turnaround passengers (ships leaving and arriving in Lisbon and not just calling at the port), from 19,468 to 20,518 and a 16 percent increase in transit passengers from 173,217 to 200,554.
If port forecasts are confirmed, the port of Lisbon will see a 15 percent increase in passengers and a 4percent increase in the number of calls this year, and a total of almost 600,000 passengers, which will be a new record.