Cost of living on a cruise ship?

[NOSaints1]

I'm just wondering if anyone has thought about this compared to a retirement home, I mean I'm still young enough. How would this actually be cheaper?

 

 

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[snc_cam]

Something my wife and I have thought about, but haven't done much research... Hmmm, now that I am retired, something else to do :)

 

You definitely don't have housing and food since you are on the ship and they cover those costs. Medical could be difficult. You don't have a lot of storage space. List goes on... Costs, not sure... But if you factor approx $75-100/day per person, this would be 4500-6000/month for food, housing, entertainment.

 

Steve

[golfb4cruzing]

I think about it all the time and have told the kids if Mom goes first, hold my mail. I'd do it for at least 6 months. Maybe a round the world cruise on Princess. Anything beats an old folks home. I'm going out, on the Lido, surrounded by bikinis.

Realistically, if you are in decent health, a nothing cabin has to be no more than 400, including tips, a week. Max 2000 a month and that far cheaper than Daisy Hill Farms.

Edited March 9, 2014 by golfb4cruzing

[okgirl]

I think you can negotiate longer term rates with the cruiselines and based on other articles on this subject it is affordable if compared to the cost of assisted living or nursing home care.

[snc_cam]

Definitely much cheaper than a nursing home... and like the thought of the bikinis... Though, I am sure we will get some sexist remarks about that statement :)

 

Hmmm... not thought about the world cruises... I am sure the longer you are at sea, the cheaper it is... Although, I think 400 is a bit on the low side when you factor in the port taxes and fees.

[Shipbound]

Like one of the posts said food, lodging would be covered but medical care would be an issue so if someone has underlying medical issues I would not live on a cruise ship besides even if you were healthy and had a serve medical emergency that required an evacuation the cost would be enormous not to mention the risk.

 

Gary

[4Mast]

Definitely much cheaper than a nursing home... and like the thought of the bikinis... Though, I am sure we will get some sexist remarks about that statement :)

 

Hmmm... not thought about the world cruises... I am sure the longer you are at sea, the cheaper it is... Although, I think 400 is a bit on the low side when you factor in the port taxes and fees.

 

To take the sexism out of it - I am male and under the circumstances of this post would if need be wear a bikini. I know how to enjoy myself - its the rest of you that would suffer

[Hlitner]

There are actually a few folks who do live on cruise ships and, over the years, we have met two. One was a widow who lived on the QE2 and other was another widow who lived on Princess (she used to be on the old Royal Princess...and not sure where she is now). Both of these ladies were quite wealthy and well known by some regular cruisers. We have heard of others on Princess. Cruise ships are not nursing homes so folks do need to be somewhat healthy. But the lady on Princess told us she saw it somewhere between apartment living and assisted care :). As to the cost, given that one could probably negotiate a deal for under $150 a day/person it is less costly then many assisted care facilities.

 

Not sure what these folks did about medical insurance, but there are annual travel med policies available.

 

Hank

[zoncom]

My elderly Father almost got kicked off cruise ship many yrs. ago for knocking on wrong doors.I have been told several times they do not tolerate ccruisers. I would consider it. My cable Tv access just went to $70 mo. But I have a medi suppliment policy that does evacuation for $200 copay anywhere in world,ski hill or cruise ship included. Going to start with many B2B s around world, hopefully 2016.You do not hear about most full time cruise residents. They value privacy.

[kitty9]

World cruises are not cheap, especially because it's mostly the luxury lines that do them. For instance, on Crystal, the smallest cabin for their 2015 world cruise is $40,000 and that does not include a lot of things like port taxes and excursions. On Cunard, an inside cabin for their world cruise is $20,000 plus about $1400 in port charges. And on Cunard, nothing is included like beverages, tours and such.

 

If you rely on Medicare, living on a cruise ship would not work because Medicare will not cover outside the US. And, a lot of private insurances and HMO's will not cover outside the US.

 

I know it's weird, but as much as I love cruising, I don't think I could handle living on a ship full time. The food and entertainment would be monotonous after a while and I would miss some of my TV and sports shows.

[MrsPete]

I think this is more of a joke than a reality. While the math might look attractive, the actual experience probably wouldn't work out.

 

A retirement home is for people who can't live on their own any longer. These places are designed for elderly people: handicapped bathrooms, emergency call buttons in various places, hand grips here and there. In contrast, ship staterooms are smaller than typical apartments, and the rocking of the ship could mean difficulty in walking for a person unsteady on his or her feet. Also, a person whose health is fragile might need more care than an on-ship doctor, and this person might have a greater than average chance of needing hospital care in a foreign country.

[calliopecruiser]

I think the only way it could work would be if you had no home on land and were in good health. If you had a home, you'd still have to pay for its maintenance while you're gone (even things like insurance and taxes must be paid, even if you're not there using power or food).

 

I think the thing I would miss most would be cooking my own food - I'd hate to eat in a restaurant every day, even if I got "take out" (i.e. room service). But it might be interesting to try for a transition period - say if after selling the old home, one kept a minimum of things and lived on cruise ships (or hotel rooms in the port cities between voyages) for 8 or 10 months before moving into a smaller apartment. I might think about that in 15 years..........

[Hlitner]

There are a couple of "high end" ships like the Residensea's The World where the cabins are actually owned like Condos. There are quite a few folks who live on the The World for most of the year. On that ship they have pretty large suites with amenities like small kitchens. But The World is a very expensive way to live as you must first buy your cabin and then pay big monthly fees.

 

Hank

[RWolver672]

One thing that would bother me is the menu is the same every week. I think you'd get sick of it after a while.

[paul929207]

One thing that would bother me is the menu is the same every week. I think you'd get sick of it after a while.

Menus have more variety if you are on a ship doing longer cruises. If you are doing 7 day cruises, then you would repeat every week. We go on 2 & 30 day cruises on Princess where there are no repeated menus.

[Hlitner]

One thing that would bother me is the menu is the same every week. I think you'd get sick of it after a while.

 

You have to change your thinking away from 7 day cruises. There are ships that do cruises over 100 days long without repeating menus. In fact, there are cruisers who seldom to ever take a cruise less then 14 days (and we are not talking back to back). Our average cruise length is now about 25 days (we have been on some that were longer then 60 days). We now try to avoid any cruise less then 14 days for various reasons.

 

Hank

[snc_cam]

Hank,

 

Would definitely like to learn more about this... though I just retired (last June), am waiting for my wife to retire (probably in 5 years, hopefully less). At that point, would be a lot more interested in doing the "extended" cruises. Next year is our first "longer" cruise. We are doing a reposition one that is 14 days.

 

Steve

[kitty9]

Hank,

 

Would definitely like to learn more about this... though I just retired (last June), am waiting for my wife to retire (probably in 5 years, hopefully less). At that point, would be a lot more interested in doing the "extended" cruises. Next year is our first "longer" cruise. We are doing a reposition one that is 14 days.

 

Steve

 

How about starting out doing a segment or two of a world cruise? Most world cruises are divided into shorter segments going anywhere from 17 days to 30 days. That would be a good way of testing the waters, so to speak, to see if you'd like really long cruises.

 

As for repeating menus, sure they do if you take a mainstream cruise line that only does 7 day cruises. But from my experience taking a couple of WC's, eventually menus are repeated, but not so much as you'd mind.

 

The World of ResidenSea cruise line is a condo cruise line that travels the world. The only problem is that the cheapest condo is around $2 million and the yearly condo fees start at around $80,000. Not for your usual retiree.

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

We cruise about 120 days a year ..

[Hlitner]

Hank,

 

Would definitely like to learn more about this... though I just retired (last June), am waiting for my wife to retire (probably in 5 years, hopefully less). At that point, would be a lot more interested in doing the "extended" cruises. Next year is our first "longer" cruise. We are doing a reposition one that is 14 days.

 

Steve

 

Before we started taking longer cruises, we had done a lot of cruising for about 30 years on cruises of 7-14 days in length. During all that time I think we actually took 2 cruises that were a little longer then 2 weeks, but like most of the working...we just did not have time for longer cruises. Once we retired (about 8 years ago) it was like kids in a candy store. We immediately started with longer cruises, and gradually increased the length to our longest cruise of 62 days. We had wondered how long is too long, and figured that at some point we would start screaming "get us off of this ship!" But it never happened. Even the 62 day cruise, which was on a small ship (Prinsendam) was not too long, and we found ourselves realizing that for us, it cannot never be too long.

 

But, we have met folks who do not like being on a ship more then a few weeks. They get bored, sometimes depressed, and can't wait for it to end. But most folks that take extended cruises are generally an older, very well traveled group, who already know they love these kind of trips. It is rare to meet folks on longer cruises (and you do meet many people when you do these long cruises on smaller ships) who have not had a lot of cruise experience. We have cruised over 200 days just on a single cruise line (HAL) (we have also been on 11 other lines) but have found ourselves the least experienced cruiser at a few of our dinner tables. There are quite a few folks who might have over 1000 days just on one cruise line.

 

A long cruise (lets say at least 4 weeks) is a different kind of experience then the more typical 7-10 day cruise. The atmosphere is much more laid back, cruisers are older, many will meet friends from prior cruises, etc. It is not for everyone, but for those of us who love this form of travel it is hard to describe the wonderful feeling when you first get aboard.

 

Hank

Edited March 11, 2014 by Hlitner

[Gunner22aa]

We do take longer cruises these days, in under three weeks we will leave for 31 days on board but I know I couldn't live on one. Don't think I would want to be away from friends and family for really long periods of time. Especially my grandbabies! Also I don't consider any house a home without a dog in it so that too would be a deal breaker. Other than waiting for the next one to arrive after loosing my last there has never been a period of more than two month over the past 40 years that we have not had a dog.

 

The other thing that would concern me is medical coverage and treatment especially. Not sure how it works in the US but here in Canada my provincial health care covers me for up to 6 months at a time out of country but only up to whatever a proceedure would cost here. Assume I run up a 50k bill somewhere but here the same treatment would have been 30k. I'm on the hook for 20k. I do carry extra medical insurance for travel via an annual policy but it only covers up to 31 consecutive days. As many 31 day trips as I want in a year but not longer.

 

Also the ships facilities are very limited. My wife has ER and ICU nursing background and has toured three ships infirmaries. There is no pharmacy if you need something other than the very basics. No surgical capability and basically what my wife calls "bandaid treatment" Longer cruises have big stretches of sea days. My next has an 8 day stretch. I don't want to have something happen when we are out of helocopter evacuation range.

 

As nice and exotic as it seems for me the cons outweigh the pros.

[maryann ns]

I have a 31 day medical insurance plan but it lets me add days. We were away for five weeks this past year and just paid a few dollars for the extra days.

 

However, insurance for more than six months is another matter. We spend over a year in Europe and had special insurance for that. We were told it was a one time only deal.

Edited March 12, 2014 by maryann ns

[sjn911]

Such an interesting thread, wonder if Cunard's ship "hospital" has a little more to it..I know ship to shore medical connections are great for many things..but that medical issue and when one seriously needs assisted living..seem to be the big variables plus cost. I had distant relatives that had a blast in retirement living on freighters but they always kept their SW home and he also created quite a dessert garden beyond their property "walls"...and enjoyed making silver jewelry with collected travel stones and lots of turquoise there of course...many hobbies would be an issue...

Edited March 12, 2014 by sjn911

[iahawkize]

I'm just wondering if anyone has thought about this compared to a retirement home, I mean I'm still young enough. How would this actually be cheaper?

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If you've ever watched the travel channel. there is a ship that is called "The World" and it is basically floating apartments. Of course the price to "buy" one of these apartments is outrageous. but one can dream. It travels the world and people can either cook in their apartment or use the ships restaurant.

 

On my last Carnival Cruise I met a "Diamond" member. Her & Her husband live 20 minutes away from the ports of Miami & Lauderdale. They are Elite members on most all of the cruise lines and hardly use their condo in Boca Raton,FL. Their reason given at the Past Guest party? "We aren't dead yet!"

[calliopecruiser]

Longer cruises have big stretches of sea days. My next has an 8 day stretch. I don't want to have something happen when we are out of helocopter evacuation range.

 

As nice and exotic as it seems for me the cons outweigh the pros.

 

To each his/her own - It never occurs to me how close or far away medical facilities are. My next cruise has a stretch of 10 sea days between Hawaii and New Zealand (or is it 11? I get confused crossing the dateline). It should be an adventure!