The Magellan, an 860 ft long, luxury residential cruise ship will be completed in 2009. The ship will offer both full ownership and fractional ownership in a variety of suite sizes. Owners will be able to circumnavigate the globe every two years, with stops at 150 ports of call each year.

This is clearly not your typical Private Residence Club, and is the first vessel we've seen of this size to offer fractional ownership.

The range of luxury services and amenities include a retractable marina, on-call private Bell 429 helicopters, 24-hour on-call concierge service, a spa, an observatory, and 4 dining rooms.

The Magellan will be 860 feet long, 106 feet wide, weigh 76,000 tons and have 15 decks. It's maximum occupancy will be 1,070 passengers, looked after by a multinational crew of 350. The only other comparable residential cruise ship that we know of is The World, which doesn't offer fractional ownership. The World is somewhat smaller with a maximum capacity of 650, but typically averages about 200 residents and guests on board at any one time.

Fractional pricing for a one-bedroom condo on the Magellan begins at $156,250 with full ownership residence pricing beginning at $1,875,000.

Note the annual fees are likely to be quite high if the fees on The World are anything to go by, since the resident owners are paying for the upkeep of the ship and for the crew. On The World the annual fees vary between $70k and $500k per year.

These ships do provide a very interesting and rather unique way to see the globe. So if you like to travel in a relaxed environment, that lets you see a wide variety of places, then Magellan could be worth checking out.