posted on January 16, 2006 05:10:39 PM new
Thought you all would enjoy this as well. I know where I'm going to spend my retirement!
No Nursing Home for Me
About 2 years ago my wife and I were on a cruise through the western
Mediterranean aboard a Princess liner. At dinner we noticed an elderly
lady sitting alone along the rail of the grand stairway in the main dining
room. I also noticed that all the staff, ships officers, waiters, busboys,
etc., all seemed very familiar with this lady.
I asked our waiter who the lady was, expecting to be told that she owned
the line, but he said he only knew that she had been on board for the
last four cruises, back to back.
As we left the dining room one evening I caught her eye and stopped to say
hello. We chatted and I said, "I understand you've been on this ship for
the last four cruises".
She replied, "Yes, that's true."
I stated, "I don't understand" and she replied, without a pause, "It's
cheaper than a nursing home".
So, there will be no nursing home in my future. When I get old and feeble,
I am going to get on a Princess Cruise Ship. The average cost for a
nursing home is $200 per day. I have checked on reservations at Princess
and I can get a long term discount and senior discount price of
$135 per day. That leaves $65 a day for:
1. Gratuities which will only be $10 per day.
2. I will have as many as 10 meals a day if I can waddle to the
restaurant, or I can have room service (which means I can have breakfast
in bed every day of the week).
3. Princess has as many as three swimming pools, a workout room, free
washers and dryers, and shows every night.
4. They have free toothpaste and razors, and free soap and shampoo.
5. They will even treat you like a customer, not a patient. An extra $5
worth of tips will have the entire staff scrambling to help you.
6. I will get to meet new people every 7 or 14 days.
7. T.V. broken? Light bulb need changing? Need to have the mattress
replaced? No Problem! They will fix everything and apologize for your
inconvenience.
8. Clean sheets and towels every day, and you don't even have to ask for
them.
9. If you fall in the nursing home and break a hip you are on Medicare; if
you fall and break a hip on the Princess ship they will upgrade you to a
suite for the rest of your life.
Now hold on for the best! Do you want to see South America, the Panama
Canal, Tahiti, Australia, New Zealand, Asia, or name where you want to go?
Princess will have a ship ready to go. So don't look for me in a nursing
home, just call shore to ship.
PS. And don't forget, when you die, they just dump you over the side at
no charge!
posted on January 16, 2006 05:47:03 PM new
Niel: I saw this a couple of years ago and just loved it. But people pointed out that there would be other costs--and a cruise ship may not have everything medically that a nursing home would have. I've forgotten what their concerns were about that setup. Still, it's so tempting!
______________________________
posted on January 16, 2006 05:53:35 PM new
Forget retirement - I'm ready to go that route now! I figure with mortgage, meals, gas, utilities I spend close to $100 a day - perhaps with an inside stateroom - I could cut a deal with them!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Caroline
posted on January 16, 2006 06:00:37 PM new
Heck, my PROPERTY TAXES are $69/day (these NY suburbs are expensive!).
Having said that, I have taken a few cruises, and I didn't really care for the food. But if I were single, one of those small cabins might not be so bad. It gets a bit claustrophobic with more than one person.
posted on January 16, 2006 06:07:22 PM new
I think I will get rather lonely,all these people come and go and you are left behind and the cabin is not really your home,you cant decorate it and you cant hoard your stuff and I will get tired of the food.The food is not really that fresh.
and you dont really have any friend on the ship.
what if you need medical attention?how good is the cruise doc??and special equipment??It would be the loneliest journey in my life.
/ lets all stop whining !! /
posted on January 16, 2006 06:17:20 PM new
Yeah...But think of all the neat Ebay stuff you could get at yard sales in Tahiti, Greece and Jamaica. Of course shipping items when they sell might be a little troublesome not to mention trying to scrounge the right size shipping boxes aboard ship.
A $75.00 solid state device will always blow first to protect a 25 cent fuse ~ Murphy's Law
posted on January 16, 2006 06:40:02 PM new
Is that the same lady that sells Princess Cruise Ship ash trays and Princess Cruise Ship hand towels on ebay???
posted on January 16, 2006 08:14:32 PM new
Hey hwahwa --- Waaa Waaa Waaa!
Although that might be a few (25) years from now for us, my wife and I are ready to sign up now!
Been on a few cruises and planning to take one to Alaska this summer. Haven't had a bad one yet. Can't imagine that -- a bad day in an exotic locale often beats a good day in the Northeast US...
posted on January 16, 2006 08:16:48 PM new
Very interesting. I find this topic equally exciting and depressing. I think in reality most people in nursing homes have been forced to spend down all their assets and are on Medicaid. But if you have money(these days about an income of 60K a year) in your retirement years...then the cruise option is attractive to me. Friends.....you make them among the staff...and they don't die off or move to the Alzheimer's unit as they do in nursing homes. Medical care....who cares....at that point just live life and go when the time comes. The food may not be 5 star but it beats any nursing home I've ever been in. Gambling, shows, adventurous ports of call...hmmm.
posted on January 16, 2006 08:32:17 PM new
I need to sign up fast. I may not be able to get on board if I wait. OH my aching bones. LOL
**************
Can't touch this! uh huh, uh huh.
posted on January 17, 2006 12:59:36 AM new
Other benefits (not in cruise ship brochures):
low cost funerals at seas - no casket or preservation costs. Flag does cost extra. Food poisoning is free however.
posted on January 17, 2006 03:45:28 AM new
"Heck, my PROPERTY TAXES are $69/day (these NY suburbs are expensive!).
Having said that, I have taken a few cruises, and I didn't really care for the food. But if I were single, one of those small cabins might not be so bad. It gets a bit claustrophobic with more than one person.
Claude"
Claude where do you live? I live about 70 miles north of New York City.
posted on January 17, 2006 07:25:19 AM new
I dont think too many of us want to sell our home and just live on a cruise ship forever??
I think you folks are thinking of a cruise not a home,with the option of getting off and coming home to a real home anytime you wish.
This thread was first posted under Vendio Round Table.
(I have a relative who is doing just that-he gets on a freighter ship and travel wherever it goes,while the crew is loading and unloading at different ports,he goes sightseeing,he has meals with the captian and his crew,he even get to work alongside with them,all that exercise and the air and the sea make him very healthy,but he is the loneliest person in the world and he always look forward to coming home to his real home when the journey is over.)
/ lets all stop whining !! /
posted on January 17, 2006 07:39:33 AM new
niel35: Yours is a joke email that has made the rounds many times but it is based on the real-life Beatrice Muller.
Mrs. Muller, who was 82 at the time, made news around the world in 2001 when she revealed she was living in cabin 4068 on Queen Elizabeth 2 at a cost of about $5,000 a month.
4068 is an inside cabin, meaning it has no windows or balconies.
I was amused to see her characterized in some news reports as a "rich widow". Having had reason to do much research into retirement homes. I can tell you that a local continuing care facility charges $1 to $2 million to buy a "unit", plus maintenance fees from $3,500 to $7,800 a month. Also, you must be in good health to be accepted. Basically they figure you're going to sell your house and live off your investments...and they want every penny of it.
We were on QE2 in 2001 but missed Mrs. Muller. From time to time she got off the ship to visit her sons for a few weeks and this was one of those times.
There are other people who live on cruise ships. There was a woman who lived on Crystal Harmony right up until it was renamed and sent to Japan at the end of 2005. This was confirmed by Crystal staffers we talked to.
Far more elderly people than you might think essentially live on cruise ships, some for 1,000 days or more before returning home. Although contrary to the joke email, cruise lines don't offer deep discounts for repeat cruisers.
While QE2 has a well-equipped clinic, medical care on cruise ships is intentionally perfunctory. If you become ill enough to need hospitalization, you will be transferred at the next port. We've seen it happen on every cruise we've been on.
If cost is no object, you can buy a cabin on ResidenSea's ultra-luxury ship "The World".
posted on January 17, 2006 08:18:14 AM new
Thanks Fluff for the info. Sounds like a life of luxury in "God's Waiting Room/Ship". Not for me tho, The least little wave and I am heaving over the side. Went on a one day cruise out of Miami and spent the whole time outside in a deck chair.
posted on January 17, 2006 08:44:48 AM new
those cheap cruises lasting 7 days or less will charge you like 35 dollars to see their doctor,as too many people think they can get their free visits when they are not eating all the leftover buffets.
/ lets all stop whining !! /
posted on January 17, 2006 08:47:04 AM new
For what its worth: cruise food is a lot better than nursing home food, having sampled both. However, the vision of becoming fish food in the hereafter is somewhat repelling..
posted on January 17, 2006 08:57:03 AM new
Living on a cruise ship is my vision of one of those "alternate hells" you used to see on the the old Twilight Zone shows! I also think that comparing it to a nursing home does not make sense today because people who go to nursing home generally need a level of assistance you would not receive on a cruise ship.
If you could function in that environment you should do well in one of the assisted living communities. My mother lived in a nice 2 bedroom apartment in Dallas with all her meals as long as she was able. It cost a lot less than the $200 a day mentioned.
-----o----o----o----o----o----o----o----o
“The illiterate of the future will be the person ignorant of the use of the camera as well as of the pen.”
Maholy-Nagy, Vision in Motion, 1947
posted on January 17, 2006 09:22:05 AM new
pixiamom: They don't dump bodies over the side, that's part of the joke. You won't see it on the behind-the-scenes tour, but there is a small refrigerated holding area for recently-deceased passengers on most cruise ships.
Makes sense, really, what else are they going to do if someone passes away at sea? Store them in the kitchen freezer?
photo: A nursing home is different from a retirement home. Today's retirement facilities are for active seniors. A continuing care facility (such as Hyatt's Classic Residences) is designed to provide medical care should the resident need it short or long term, but you have to be essentially healthy to get in and the expectation is that only a small percentage of residents will be in the hospital unit at any one time. Indeed, a retirement community such as Del Webb's Sun City provides no medical facilities at all.
A nursing home is where the elderly with chronic illnesses (dementia and such) go to be cared for. Sometimes nursing home patients surprise you; my great-uncle Joe lived in one for over 20 years and saw his 100th birthday.
My friend Ginny was 80 years old when I met her on a Panama Canal cruise and had enough energy to dance until midnight every night in the ship's ballroom. She took 5 or 6 long cruises every year. She was childless and had outlived her husband; what else should she do with her money than have fun?
Ginny was a wonderful once-in-a-lifetime role model and I intend to be just like her.
posted on January 17, 2006 09:33:39 AM new
Fluffy, that was the point I wanted to make. Not sure why I failed to do so. I intended to say that if you could survive life on a cruise ship you would not be a candidate for a nursing home but for an assisted living community. The original post was comparing the cost and amenities to a nursing home while it would be closer to an assisted living community. Having been involved with both with my mother I know the difference.
-----o----o----o----o----o----o----o----o
“The illiterate of the future will be the person ignorant of the use of the camera as well as of the pen.”
Maholy-Nagy, Vision in Motion, 1947
[ edited by photosensitive on Jan 17, 2006 09:35 AM ]
posted on January 17, 2006 09:44:22 AM new
depends on what you mean by 'fun'??
To me,staying home and not having to work in an office is FUN,shopping and eating my own chow is FUN,altho I do enjoy eating out too.
Doing nothing can be fun too,ask those in the Congress.
/ lets all stop whining !! /
posted on January 17, 2006 12:58:57 PM new
HUMMM what comes to mind is the recent Smith case (missing honeymooner) of the newlyweds on the cruise that the guy dissappeared. When I hear those details I am reminded of the Mastercard commercials.
This is how I see that case of a cruise for this couple. Everything is just too fishy with that lady on a honeymoon and not with her new hubby at all times (well most times) and not even knowing he is missing, because he was sleeping (drunk in a hallway)? A little convenient timing. ha BS
**************
Can't touch this! uh huh, uh huh.
Caroline 
