The scene is an all-too-familiar one: A celebrity aboard a luxurious yacht, sailing across the French Riviera. Or an A-lister disembarking a luxurious yacht headed for a night out on the town in St. Tropez. Or a star riding on a jet ski while a luxurious yacht idles nearby. You get the idea.
As long as there have been celebrities, there have been celebrities vacationing on yachts. They like to enjoy the finer things in life, especially when said finer things are cruising right towards a Greek island. This is not news. But what is news is that, in reality, very few of these actors, singers and moguls actually own these water mansions. While most people would consider someone like George Clooney or Leonardo DiCaprio to be of utmost richness, it is actually absurdly expensive to own one of these behemoths.
(And, if you're Leo, you're also probably concerned with the environmental factor—can you imagine how much gas they guzzle?)
That being said, let's take a look at which A-listers are actually cruising around on their very own piece of boat property.
1. Steven Spielberg
Life is good for the Jurassic World producer, because rumor has it that last year he upgraded yachts. He used to own a $200 million boat called The Seven Seas, but he apparently sold it last summer to make room for an even bigger boat. Rumor has it he was building a 300-foot goliath, which means that pretty much the entire dinosaur cast of Jurassic World could vacation with him.
2. Sean Diddy Combs
Did you actually think the ultimate king of parties would ever spend time on a rented yacht? Diddy's boat is called Oasis, and he bought it off a Google chairman for over $70 million, which is actually a bit of a steal in the yacht world. Many a vacation has been hosted on the Oasis, so don't be surprised to see fellow celebs borrowing it from time to time.
3. David Geffen
The creator of DreamWorks may not be a full-on celeb himself, but when you work in movies and also happen to own the world's tenth-largest yacht (along with a smaller version, for which you paid $300 million), you're going to attract a lot of A-listers. Most recently, Tobey Maguire's family decided to take him up on vacation offer.
4. Dolce & Gabbana
Yes, Dolce and Gabbana are real people and yes, they own a yacht with an inflatable slide that hosts many a celeb, including one Kylie Minogue.
5. Soon-to-be Mariah Carey
Okay, so technically the singer's almost-husband is the one who owns the yacht, but they're engaged so it's as good as Mariah's. Plus, she's already brought the whole family to test it out, and it was a perfect fit.
As for the rest of those A-listers you see hob-nobbing around on European cruisers? They're on borrowed (yacht) time, of course. Some go through legitimate rental avenues (Beyoncé and Jay Z; they're classy like that), but others simply enlist their billionaire friends. Leonardo DiCaprio, for his part, has been known to show up on the aforementioned Geffen's yacht. When Zac Efron spent his 2014 summer vacation perpetually on a boat, he enlisted both Justin Bieber and Italian businessman (and yacht owner) Gianluca Vacchi.
Yet another example of the fact that celebs are just doing life right. Now, who wants to volunteer to lend us their yacht?