this post was submitted on 02 Feb 2025
57 points (98.3% liked)

Asklemmy

47318 readers
469 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy πŸ”

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

  1. Open-ended question
  2. Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
  3. Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
  4. Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
  5. An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_[email protected]~

founded 6 years ago
MODERATORS
 

It costs over a thousand USD to take some ocean liners.

What are alternative ways that are cheaper, and how would one go about it?

(No planes)

For context, I know someone who went from China to California by freight ship in the 1990s by bribing the captain with beer and their cooking skills.

all 23 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 69 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Well this is just off the top of my head, but… bribe the captain with beer and cooking.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Or like... Get a job as a cook on a ship. Keep the beer for yourself

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago

What you're saying is that if you can cook well enough then the ship's captain will bribe you with a free ride AND give you money? Amazing.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 2 months ago (1 children)

You could find someone planning a sailboat crossing and volunteer to be a crew member using one of the crew finder sites. Although it might be difficult with no experience unless you're a hottie

[–] [email protected] 21 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

I think you can just purchase a passenger ticket on some freight ships. I remember stumbling on the subject on YouTube like 3 years ago. Try doing a search for "passenger on freight ship" into YouTube.

Edit: more like 5 or 6 years ago apparently. I'm old.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Unfortunately, https://web.archive.org/web/20240519145052/https://www.freightertrips.com/bookings/index.html

it seems that freighter trips no longer have official things because of covid.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago

That...makes sense.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 months ago

Cruise ships sometimes have repositioning cruises where they go one way across an ocean to start operating in another region, and they can offer significant discounts. I'm sure there's cheaper ways but it's an option.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 months ago
[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago

Future fish food.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Which ocean? Do you care where you start and/or end your journey? Miami to Barcelona is going to be very different than Long Beach to Shanghai.

You can find some repositioning cruises for close to the price of a flight, but you'll be in a shitty cabin and you would need to get to the departure port.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Many freighters rent cabins for passage. No idea how expensive this is, tho.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago

https://cargoholidays.com/

Also bare in mind that this is a cargo ship, not a modern cruise ship with stabilizers. A modern cruise ship has a maximum roll of 0.5 degrees. A cargo ship can roll up to 12 degrees.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago

Work your passage.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago

Sometimes ships get sold to another part of the world, like a Mediterranean Ship gets sold to the USA. The cabins for this one way trip are extremely cheap

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago

There's plenty of free spare styrofoam and plastic in the great garbage patch in the Pacific, I hear that stuff floats...

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Join the US Navy. They’ll pay you to cross an ocean on a ship and pay for your college tuition.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I don't know why anyone would down vote this. It does answer OP's question. Now whether you would enjoy ~~serving~~ living in a tin can with 200-5k of your closest coworkers is an entirely different question.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I personally downvoted it because it's a terrible idea, op wants to leave the US, not sign their life and soul away to it.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago

Then OP should have said so in their statement.