Are you set for your "Golden Years"?

[Andykev]

The following is from a handout by Princess Cruises:

No Nursing Home in Your 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. Reservations on Princess with a long term discount and
senior discount is $135 per day. That leaves $65 per day for...? (There
is a casino)

Gratuities will only be $10 per day.

I can 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.

Princess has as many as 3 swimming pools, a workout room, free washers
and dryers, and shows every night. They have free toothpast and razors
and free soap and shampoo.

They even treat you like a customer, not a patient. An extra $5 in tips
will have the entire staff scrambling to help you.

I will get to meet new people every 7 or 14 days.

T.V. broken? Light bulb need changing? Need to have the mattress
replaced? No problem! They will fix everything and apologize for your
inconvenience.

You get clean sheets every day and you don't even have to ask for them.

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, Panama
Canal, Tahiti, Australia, New Zealand, Asia, or.....just 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.

And when you die, they just dump you over the side at no charge.

(Printed in the April 2005 California Retired Teachers Association
Newsletter.)

 

[MK]

.

That works for me!

 

[MDFrench]

Yeah, that'd be awesome - provided I don't die prematurely of the Norwalk Virus first.... Filthy cruise ships today....

Mike

 

[IndianaGuybrush]

The NY Times ran an article on this a few months ago. In addition to all the cool stuff you posted about, cruise ships have a doctor on board and on call 24/7, and many of them have trauma centers that are as good as you can get in many major hospitals. Nursing homes and assisted life facilities usually have neither of those things (they usually have a doctor 'on-call' but not on the premises). Also, many nursing homes fail to have handles set up in all rooms and hallways for people who have trouble walking to hold onto. Cruiseships do, true for a different reason, but they're still there.

Also you need to take into account that this is more or less for people who have no major physical or mental problems. For instance, you'd need to able to walk, feed and wash yourself. People with mental disorders such as alzheimer's and/or senile dementia wouldn't really benefit from being on a cruise needless to say. In other words, this is generally for those people who move into elderly assisted living facilities to meet more people their age or just to have somethign constructive to do during their senior years. Let's all pray that we eventually fall into that category!

 

[Canadave]

...The average cost for a nursing home is $200 per day....

THAT can't be right, can it? $6000/month???

David

 

[Andykev]

Sign me up

Oh yes, it can. Medical care and assisted living places are "for profit". Yep.
And those with Alzhimers, how can you get lost on a ship if you don't jump overboard? hahahha :beer:

 

[gandydancer]

Do they take Medicare? If so I am on my way. GRIN!

 

[Chamorro]

I was on a cruise a couple of years ago and the staff told me there was an old lady on board doing just this. Living on the ship and cruising around the world full time. Not a bad life. Not bad t'all.

 

[ITG]

Oh yes, it can. Medical care and assisted living places are "for profit". Yep.

I wonder if it's cheaper in Texas (everything cost more in California).