The lady with just over 10,000 days is on the move

[496and706]

Mama Lou is headed to Miami tomorrow to get on the Maasdam (?) I think. I couldn't find a roll call for this, so I'm taking a guess at the ship.

 

She just celebrated 10,000 days a few days ago.

 

Just thought I would give her fans the heads up.

[innlady1]

Can you imagine??? Wonder why she's jumping ship? Maybe some of her "favorite crew" have moved from Ryndam to Maasdam ???

 

She wasn't on the Ryndam when we were on her last winter...so maybe we'll see her on Maasdam in January!

 

Thanks for the heads up.

Edited December 1, 2013 by innlady1

[TracieABD]

Wow! That is amazing! She has been at sea for over 27 years!

 

(and this leads to the bigger-- and tackier-- question) How does she afford it?:confused:

[BumperII]

Wow! That is amazing! She has been at sea for over 27 years!

 

(and this leads to the bigger-- and tackier-- question) How does she afford it?:confused:

I would not pretend to know how she can afford it, but cruising doesn't have to be all that expensive, especially if one is a little older. There are families that put the seniors on a cruise ship simply because it is cheaper than assisted living!

[TracieABD]

I would not pretend to know how she can afford it, but cruising doesn't have to be all that expensive, especially if one is a little older. There are families that put the seniors on a cruise ship simply because it is cheaper than assisted living!

 

My mother has already made this request. She doesn't want to go into assisted living. She just wants to go on a very long cruise!:)

[Lovely other]

Having just received the bill for my recently deceased Grandmother's care home, it would certainly be much cheaper to cruise. My husband and I have already decided this is the way we want to live out our older years ...

[hal lover]

MS Maasdam in Miami? Sail7Seas is this possible? No matter, happy sailing to Mama Lou!

[innlady1]

MS Maasdam in Miami? Sail7Seas is this possible? No matter, happy sailing to Mama Lou!

 

Not Sail, but the short answer is "no". HAL doesn't sail out of Miami. In FL, Fort Lauderdale and Tampa. Apparently, Mama Lou is switching from Tampa to Fort Lauderdale.

Edited December 1, 2013 by innlady1

[boards]

Hopefully the Maasdam will not be in Miami because it is scheduled to be in Port Everglades to pick us up for a Southern Caribbean Cruise for 14 days on Dec. 6, after having completed at TA both ways (42 days).

[innlady1]

Hopefully the Maasdam will not be in Miami because it is scheduled to be in Port Everglades to pick us up for a Southern Caribbean Cruise for 14 days on Dec. 6, after having completed at TA both ways (42 days).

 

HAL does not use the Port of Miami. No worries.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Mama Lou is headed to Miami tomorrow to get on the Maasdam (?) I think. I couldn't find a roll call for this, so I'm taking a guess at the ship.

 

She just celebrated 10,000 days a few days ago.

 

Just thought I would give her fans the heads up.

 

 

HAL doesn't have any ships leaving out of Miami.

Maasdam's next scheduled cruise is on Dec 6 -- same day as Noordam -- out of Ft Lauderdale.

Did Mama Lou tell you this information?

[mamaofami]

Maasdam sails out of Ft. Lauderdale. No Hal ships leave from Miami.

[OlsSalt]

Care facilities cost close to $6000 plus a month in California. That could buy an inside cabin for a month easily. Month after month.

[startwin]

In my area, you can spend anywhere from $1,700 to $4,000/month, CDN, for a fully inclusive care facility. The government requires that you have at least $250/month for personal spending money, toiletries, etc. if you have a subsidy. Mama Lou likely has a decent pension that covers her monthly cruising costs. More power to her.:D

[erewhon]

Thanks for news of Mama Lou.

[TiogaCruiser]

I would not pretend to know how she can afford it, but cruising doesn't have to be all that expensive, especially if one is a little older. There are families that put the seniors on a cruise ship simply because it is cheaper than assisted living!

 

A cruise ship doesn't provide Assisted Living services (help with eating, dressing, bathing, toileting and other activities of daily living). So do these families then pay a caregiver to go along?

 

A cruise ship provides only the room, board, entertainment and clean up. It's closer to an Independant Living community. Including when one needs acute medical care beyond what can be provided on site, one is sent to the local hospital.:eek: there's a thread going regarding a gentleman who got admitted into a hospital in Italy.....

[Krazy Kruizers]

We met Mama Lou back in 2008.

She said that she was spending her children's inheritance to stay on the ships.

Back then she had a little over 5000 days -- announcement made by the captain.

She was only on the ship for the first segment of our cruise. She had to get off because she had to sign the final papers for the selling of her house. She was moving into an apartment.

[510picker]

So if she had 5000 days in 2008, it would take over 13 years for her to accumulate another 5000, and that if she never got off the ship. What am I missing here?

[Randyk47]

So if she had 5000 days in 2008, it would take over 13 years for her to accumulate another 5000, and that if she never got off the ship. What am I missing here?

 

Last time we cruised with her was on the Veendam in 2007 out of Tampa and as I remember she was around 5,000 days per her own count back then so 10,000 is mathematically impossible. She sat with us around the Lido Pool one afternoon during our 2007 cruise and she's quite a pistol so no telling what she's saying today. She actually was a bit put off the day we chatted as the Veendam was on her last Caribbean cruise of the season and was headed to Europe so she was going to have to get off in Tampa. It wasn't quite clear but she has or had some kind of apartment or condo in the Tampa area so it wasn't like she had no place to go. She also said, having found out that we were Army people, that her late husband had been a senior officer but I don't recall if he was Air Force or Army. She actually mentioned his name and asked if we had known him but we didn't and I don't recall his name now. She does, or did at one time, cruise out of other ports than Tampa as we'd had cruised with her a couple of times before out of Ft Lauderdale. Whatever though, it's good to hear she's possibly around and cruising some more as I think the last time we heard anything about her it was that she was having health issues and wasn't cruising as much if at all.

Edited December 2, 2013 by Randyk47

[debijaynes]

With a $600K + entry fee and charges of $7000 a month, cruising would have been much better for my parents. Of course there would have been the problem of stopping Daddy from wandering........ I know both of them would have preferred the cruise line!

[trixiee]

With a $600K + entry fee and charges of $7000 a month, cruising would have been much better for my parents. Of course there would have been the problem of stopping Daddy from wandering........ I know both of them would have preferred the cruise line!

 

OMG! That's funny! :D

[2ptu/000]

Isn't there a recent post that someone saw Mama Lou on the Ryndam?

[LAFFNVEGAS]

I know we are all saying that mathematically the 10,000 days would be impossible but could they now be stating "Mariner Days" Do we know what type of cabin Mama Lou stays in? I thought I once read she had a Verandah so that would give her double days on a S class ship. :confused:

[Randyk47]

I know we are all saying that mathematically the 10,000 days would be impossible but could they now be stating "Mariner Days" Do we know what type of cabin Mama Lou stays in? I thought I once read she had a Verandah so that would give her double days on a S class ship. :confused:

 

On the Veendam in 2007 she was in an interior cabin as I recall. In fact I thought she told us she always books interiors and sometimes gets upgraded to outsides or verandahs because they know her so well. Like I said, she's a pistol and you have to wade through a bit of side comments and thoughts to get through a typical conversation with her. The previous cruise we'd been on with her was the Volendam out of Ft Lauderdale and she was disappointed that they'd been unable to find any cabin for her in any category and she was being "forced" off the ship. I didn't question her about how or what she books so I really can't say which category she typically books. When we talked to her again in 2007 it was pretty clear, within reason, that she was talking days on the ship and not calculated Mariner days.

[cruisemom42]

I know a lot of this is just banter, but please be careful not to give the impression that cruising would be considered in any way appropriate for people who need assistance to complete basic activities of daily living (unless they are sailing with a caregiver).

 

I've actually been on a cruise where one passenger, a woman, was newly widowed, elderly, and really unable to function on her own. Not only that, but she was terribly depressed as well. Because it was a small ship, almost everyone met her and heard her story -- her kids basically "dumped" her on the ship for about a month in order to have a break.

 

While it must have been nice for them, this poor woman could be heard crying in her cabin nightly, almost always had to have someone assist her with basic activities on tours and around the ship (sometimes that person was from the ship, sometimes it was a nice but slightly unwilling passenger). Apparently she was also constantly forgetting her medications and was forever calling the desk staff and asking for help with dressing herself! She would go knocking on the cabin doors of passengers near her (myself included) asking for help and/or company.

 

Clearly, it wasn't a pleasant experience for anyone, and it's not the job of the already-overburdened staff and crew to provide full-time support to passengers.