Q – I have heard that there is a woman living aboard a Crystal Cruise ship. We’ve never sailed Crystal but we find the idea of spending our retirement at sea absolutely intriguing. Do you have any idea of how this would work and what this woman I read about is actually paying on a yearly basis? We’re in our mid-sixties and quite healthy. Although we’ve never sailed Crystal, we’ve been on five of the Top Ten in your listings and we plan to sail them all. You are our bucket list!
A – Actually, there are between three and five guests living aboard Crystal ships at any one time and other lines have reported the same phenomenon. In most cases, these guests prefer to remain anonymous but the crew certainly knows who they are and treats them with special care.
The industry’s , a best-known “live aboard” is “Mama Lee”, a widow from Ft. Lauderdale who sold her five-bedroom home and decided to live on the Crystal Serenity. She has estimated her total cost to live aboard the ship for a year at $164,000. When you consider that this includes a five-star hotel with incredible food, entertainment, and some of the most gracious service at sea, you wonder why more retirees have not thought of this. When you factor in that she you have no need to ever fly again, that you never have to pack and unpack, that the hotel glides around the world with constant stimulation the option becomes particularly attractive. And then, when you consider that the price includes access to on-board medical facilities and staff with a trained doctor with shore side connections , one has to wonder why more people have never considered this option. Someone someday soon is going to reconfigure an existing cruise ship to become a floating cruise retirement center. Studies have been done to illustrate this would actually be less expensive than traditional retirement care. In the meantime, those who wish to live aboard a cruise ship make their arrangements through top tie cruise consultants who know how to negotiate long-term arrangements.
