A year in an “assisted-living facility” costs Americans, on average, around $28,500 a year. In large cities such as Chicago, costs are even higher, topping $40,000. Living in a dedicated cabin aboard the Royal Caribbean’s Majesty of the Seas, on the other hand, rings in at a rather competitive $33,260 a year.Luxury liners offer many of the same amenities as old folks’ homes: meals and housekeeping, laundry and hair-dressing services, and even an escort to dinner. They have handgrips in the toilets and walk-in showers. And they also provide plenty of things that land-based facilities do not—such as premium-grade ozone, nightly entertainment and round-the-clock access to medical care.
“Cruise ships could be considered as a floating assisted-living facility,” says Lee Lindquist, a geriatrician at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. She first took a cruise last year and was struck by the untapped potential. She has now proposed a new model for old-age living, which she calls “cruise-ship care”, to be published in November’s Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.
fo4 on February 23rd, 2005 at 3:02 am
My mother-n-law just returned from a cruise on the QE2 where she played bridge with a woman doing just this. Living on the liner rather than a retirement village. Makes perfect sense if the numbers are right.
Andrew Hume on February 23rd, 2005 at 3:12 am
Although is that the market that the cruise promoters are aiming at?
“Come and spend a relaxing 2 weeks aboard the QE2. It’s just like being at an old people’s home.” ;)
Dane Carlson on February 23rd, 2005 at 9:05 am
Although it’s not the market that the promoters are aiming for right now, it definitely could expand the market..
Cruise lines wouldn’t care if they had a ship full of old people — as long as everyone is paying full fares.
Geoff on February 25th, 2005 at 6:15 am
I wonder if they include a free sea burial?