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G/A/F Florida Woman pays $164K per year to live on luxury cruise ship

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$164K doesn't even sound all that bad for everything she's getting for the year.

She estimates living the good life on the Serenity this year will cost her $164,000. That'll cover costs of her single-occupancy seventh deck stateroom, regular and specialty restaurant meals with available lunch and dinner beverages, gratuities, nightly ballroom dancing with dance hosts and Broadway-caliber entertainment — as well as the captain's frequent cocktail parties, movies, lectures, plus other scheduled daily activities.

"The crew members bend over backwards to keep me happy. Some are almost like family now. If they don't have what I want, they get it. even if they have to buy it off the ship or make it to my specific needs."

Sounds like a nice retirement.
 

DietRob

i've been begging for over 5 years.
Good for her! It's great that she is able to do this. I love cruising it's a very pampered experience all 4 times I've been.
 
Sounds pretty awesome. If I were old and had no reason to save my money and felt like blowing it and enjoying the last few years, I think this would be a great way to do it.
 

terrisus

Member
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Prologue

Member
$164K doesn't even sound all that bad for everything she's getting for the year.

Yep. Food is covered, specialty food at a huge discount. Some entertainment covered, others are a huge discount.

I think you've misunderstood. She's just one passenger on the cruise ship, not the only passenger.

Personally, I think it sounds nice. Always being around happy people on holiday having a good time. At least she's probably not lonely.

I went on a cruise for the first time last summer. I was expecting to dislike it but it really was a wonderful experience. By the time we landed back home, my gf told me that the next batch of passengers will be arriving within the hour. I was shocked and no longer felt like I was unique snowflake. I thought I created a bond with the shipmates :(
 
Sounds like a great idea... with the cost of retirement living pushing ever upward, she's only paying about three times what it costs for a nice one bedroom suite with kitchen facilities around here ($4.5K a month)... the lack of stability to establish close personal relationships with those living around you would be the biggest drawback, I'd imagine... Maybe I could do it for like half the year.... ?
 

Zoe

Member
Pretty much. Actually kinda jealous of her, though I'd probably get sick of it after a month or so.

Well she says she spends most of her day just knitting. She rarely gets off the boat to see any of the destinations.

Sounds better than the nursing home.
 
Its actually fairly common in that most ships have 1 or two retirees living on board.

And you can do it for much cheaper too, she opted for a more upscale line, probably in a suite.

Think about it, a retirement home goes for $3,000-$6,000 a month

You can get a balcony room on a good ship (Princess) for $4,000 a month.

-All lodging, utilities, maintenance
-All cleaning, including room serviced twice a day
-All meals, including lobster, filet mignon etc every night
--Significantly more food options than any retirement home, with better quality
-Constant activities
-Pool, Broadway theater, bingo, game show night, etc etc
-Casino
-See the world

And frequent cruisers get things like laundry done for free as well. Most throw in free internet for the most frequent guests too

Downside, while theres a medical clinic on board, it doesnt compare to a land hospital, so you have to be reasonably healthy.


Sadly, by the time Im that age, it wont be affordable anymore.
 

Syriel

Member
I wonder if she needs to check in and check out after every single week or something. Hopefully they do not let her do that and just let her automatically check in. All that packing and unpacking sounds like a real hassle if they do not let her do that.

The line she's on isn't doing 1 week cruises.

They do 2-4 weeks and travel the world.
 
I would have guessed Australia
if I had a chance to.

EDIT - kind of funny that my local news station - in Colorado - is reporting on this,
 
Better than living in a nursing home.

Yes I think so. If you can stare out at sea in a wheelchair every day. It doesn't sound like a bad life at all.


Nursing homes are so depressing because you're trapped. The follks who work there try to do the best they can, but often it is little actual care and emotional support they can provide because so much of their time goes on cleaning and preparing meals.

I hope by the time I get to that age, that there will hospital beds and wheelchairs and automated showers and toilets, that even with little to no movement, that I can have some dignity, instead of nurses cleaning my diaper and I lay there dementia ridden making a ruckus. I don't want to show my 95-year old crusted nutella poo hole to some young nurse who is just trying to make the world a better place.

There has to be a better way. One with more dignity. It doesn't make sense you work your entire life, pay taxes your entire life and then you end up there, just waiting to die. If you got dementia or something that inhibits from pure thought then that is understandable, but for those that are fresh in the head, it shouldn't be like this. They are sitting right now, just dying for social company. In elementary school we had to perform school plays and stuff like that on old folks homes. Most of them liked it, but you also had those who hate kids. It felt like it mattered to a lot of them.
 

Ovek

7Member7
Wait they just let her stay? Bizarre and awesome at the same time, I caught the headline as some point today and just thought she refused to leave.
 

Miletius

Member
I'd be up for that sort of thing, provided I can come and go as I please. I wouldn't want to be on the boat full time, or have to live there, but I'd like to be able to just hop on whenever I'm feeling like a ride.
 

old

Member
The last cruise I was on had many of these people. And while it seems extravagant, I support it. She's spending her money. People are getting jobs, money is spreading around, and the economy is better for it. This is very much preferable over someone in her position simply hoarding their wealth.
 
I could see my parents doing this. They weren't big cruisers until they went on a 30 day world cruise from which they recently returned. My mom especially loved it. It was one of the more upscale cruises with a smaller ship, so free food and open bar on everything. I think the price was like 16k per person, so that about lines up with the 164k this woman pays for a year.
 
What does she do if she has to go to the hospital? I can't imagine cruise ship medical bays are exactly top of the line or can meet the potential needs of an 86 year old woman.
 
What does she do if she has to go to the hospital? I can't imagine cruise ship medical bays are exactly top of the line or can meet the potential needs of an 86 year old woman.

I don't know about the standard cruise lines but the more luxury ones have pretty much everything you need (even a morgue). I went on one of the nicer cruise lines last January and my mom is a doctor so she was chatting with the head doctor on the ship and told me about it.

Given that the clientele is typically older, these ships know they have to be equipped to handle issues more common to the elderly.
 

poppabk

Cheeks Spread for Digital Only Future
Given the median cost of a nursing home in Florida is approximately $100k a year, this seems like a fairly cost effective choice as long as you don't need specialty care.
 
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