Be careful what you ask for...

I was thinking the same thing when I saw the article today! Of course a lot can happen between 2009 and 2011 when the ships the article mentioned are launched. I've also often wondered if any retired folks "live" on ships when the rates are low and "visit" friends and family when the rates are high.

Live on a Cruise Liner Rather than a Retirement Facility?-Speculation! & Truth!

Summary of the eRumor
Summary of the benefits of spending your retirement money living on a cruise ship instead of a retirement home.

The Truth
An email comparison living on a cruise ship with living in a retirement facility has circulated on the Internet for quite a while.
It was mostly speculative and humorous.
Then versions started circulating saying that the writer had actually met someone on a cruise who was living aboard the ship and paying for repeated cruises instead of living on land.
We've not found the source of the original email or anybody who has actually had the experience stumbling across a retired person who has elected to live as a cruse ship passenger because it was cheaper than living on land.

The idea, however, is not complete fiction.

Two experts on elder care from the Northwestern University School of Medicine have evaluated the idea and their thoughts were published in the November issue of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

Then there's the story of 86-year-old Bea Muller of Florida.
Her husband died aboard the Queen Elizabeth 2 while on a world cruise in 2000.
Face with moving back home to live alone in a retirement center, she decided to sell everything and book herself onto the ship one year at a time.
She's been doing that ever since, even after the Queen Elizabeth 2 stopped doing trans-Atlantic crossings and operating only in Europe.
She is said to still dance each night away with her constantly rotating clusters of new friends.

Last updated 1-28-05

About 2 years ago we were on a cruise through the western
Mediterranean aboard a Princess liner. At dinner we noticed an elderly
lady sitting alone along the rail of the grand stairway in the main dining
room. I also noticed that all the staff, ships officers, waiters, busboys,
etc., all seemed very familiar with this lady. I asked our waiter whom the
lady was expecting to be told she owned the line, but he said he only knew
that she had been on board for the last four cruises, back to back.

As we left the dining room one evening I caught her eye and stopped to
say hello. We chatted and I said, "I understand you've been on this ship
for the last four cruises". She replied, "Yes, that's true." I stated, "I
don't understand?"

She replied without a pause, "It's cheaper than a nursing home".

Here's the proof -- 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. I have checked on
reservations at Princess and I can get a long term discount and senior
discount price of $135 per day. That leaves $65 a day for:

1. Gratuities which will only be $10 per day.

2. I will 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 of the week).

3. Princess has as many as three swimming pools, a workout room, free
washers and dryers, and shows every night.

4. They have free toothpaste and razors, and free soap and shampoo.

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

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

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

8. Clean sheets and towels every day, and you don't even have to ask for them.

9. 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, the Panama
Canal, Tahiti, Australia, New Zealand, Asia, or 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.

P. S. And don't forget, when you die, they just dump you over the side at
no charge.

There are several elderly people who are known to live pretty much full time on cruise ships. Doesn't sound entirely horrible to me. One couple was given a lifetime suite on a Princess ship as part of the deal they made with the cruise line when they sold some property they had that the cruise line wanted for corporate offices. The husband has since died but the wife still lives on ships and moves from one to another every couple of years. I understand she is waited on by the staff quite nicely. Some of this info is discussed from time to time on the www.cruisecritic.com website on the message boards where people discuss cruise line news and upcoming trips they are taking and get info on excursions and ports, etc.

The travel channel had a story on a ship built for exactly that purpose. People buy 'condos' on ship and build them to suit and they live on them full time. I didn't realize that people did that on regular cruise lines as well, but seems like an option for some. (I would be seasick most of the time) 🙂

Teresa

East Ender, at those rates they definitely won't be spending any money.

About 10 years ago we were at a Club Med. There was an eldery lady that had lived there the last 3 years. They gave her special rates.

Back to the topic, STX doesn't need that type of cheap cruise ships. I hope they don't get more then 1 or 2 a week of any cruise ship.

Who wants cruise ships anyway? Merchants we talked to when on vacation said cruisers spend less money on-island than people who spend a week, rent a car, shop, sight-see and try lots of restaurants.

"Who wants cruise ships anyway?"

The pp spending of cruise ship passengers has statistically dropped over the years. However, many cruise ship passengers who get their first look at the islands on a one-day stop do return to the islands by air for longer visits, some then return regularly and some even buy property here.

Teresa that ship has been here as well. It's called The World http://www.theworldsuite.com/. You can rent an apartment on it for a week or a month as all the owners don't always live on board.

Terry, you exemplify why St. Croix does not have any cruise ships at all. There are those that call for help in getting them, and then there are those, like you, that don't want them. Which should it be? If the majority does not want them, then stop putting the elected officials through the rigors of trying to get them. Their time would be better spent doing something more constructive. JMHO.

RL

STT Resident,
I agree; that's another way of looking at it. I had STX in mind but wonder if the same conditions apply.

OK, so what do you mean that is why stx does not have cruise ships Ronnie? I know why stx'ers think we lost cruise ships, it would be interesting to hear the stt opinion.

Ronnie can probably answer this better than I (I have a problem with dates, in particular!) but STX unfortunately lost the majority of its cruise ship business a few years ago when a spate of crime directed towards passengers apparently led the cruise ship lines to drop STX as a port of call. If I remember correctly, they "polled" their passenger base and when the results came in they allegedly discovered that STX wasn't that important to their passenger base and so dropped the stop.

There is no doubt that this has been devastating to the island and is reminiscent of the now decades-old "Fountain Valley Massacre" which still gets brought up from time to time even though it happened donkey's years ago. People too often misplace the passage of time and think that something happened yesterday when it happened many years ago, while idle gossip too often perpetuates it.

Just to segue off for a minute but within the same realm, one of my regular customers was in the other night. He has lived on STT for I think about a year now and was talking to another recent "newbie" couple at the bar and telling them a story about how a "local" on STX attacked a woman with no provocation in a public place, beheaded her with a machete and then walked around with her head in his hand until he was apprehended by the police.

I was working away and it took about ten minutes before the snatches of conversation filtered through the old neurons. I too had read that awful story both, I think, in the local newspapers and online on the NY Times but it had NOTHING to do with STX or the Virgin Islands period. I immediately corrected him and told him that this incident had nothing to do with STX and happened elsewhere but I couldn't remember exactly where. He said he had read it in the local newspaper and that it was on STX. I finally and nicely bet him $50 on a handshake that he was wrong, explaining to him that the local newspapers reported not only local but national and international news and that he had made a mistake.

I won't take his $50 but the point is that such mistaken transmission of information and gossip is horribly detrimental to the island it concerns and then gets passed on from person to person as "truth" and gets so distorted in the transmission.

My business suffered horribly from a terrible crime eight years ago which I still find difficult to talk about. The worst of it all was the dreadul and completely untrue gossip that followed for years after and still rears its ugly head to this day.

STX desperately needs cruise ship business and to re-establish itself as a cruise ship destination. The VI Government under the new administration is already making inroads on this and also in setting up a more viable, workable, efficient and nepotism-reduced VIPD infrastructure.

Less than a year ago I was seriously thinking of the future and where I might relocate after over two decades of living here. This is my cherished home, for better and for worse but it had come to that point where my general frustration about the same-old same-old was so intense that I seriously investigated alternatives.

When the new administration came in my general optimism reared up so here I still be, hoping for some good change.

Sorry I veered off subject a bit! Cheers!

STT Res,

As you I am sure are aware, the beheading incident that you are referring to happened on St. Vincent.

If you are ever short on cash and wish to collect from your customer, the incident occurred on 12/12/06. It was widely reported nationally as well as locally a day or so after it happened.

I remember it well because it was so terrible and shocking -- and unfortunate, because St. Vincent and the Grenadines are such lovely islands.

Always take the money. It teaches the losee a lesson.

Mell, do you have a link to the story so I can verify/print out?

I sailed the Grenadines years ago, great memories but nowhere near the joy of innumerable trips througout STT and BVI over many years.

promoguy - you do make a good point so thank you and I agree. Maybe if Mell can provide me with the info, I can present him with that and maybe if I get my $50 bet it'll deter him from passing on BS? XXX

http://www.hardbeatnews.com/editor/RTE/my_documents/my_files/arc_details.asp?newsid=11475%20&title=Archive

Thanks for the link, dntw8up. And, Mell, it was indeed St Vincent. All printed out and ready for the young chef's next visit here which will probably be Sunday.

I won't take his $50 as long as he learns a lesson. Thanks so much. Opinions are one thing but skewed gossip-ridden facts are quite another and with the latter I DO have a major problem. Cheers to you all!

I looked up the machete incident, it happened on St. Vincent, not St. Croix. Your right, we still hear about the Fountain Valley incident that happened over 20 years ago. Hate to think people will think the machete incident happened on STX also. Collect your 50.00 bucks!!!

Re cruise ships. There must be some happy medium between STX - no cruise ships and STT, far too many ships, IMO. With all due respect to those who live on and love STT, I don't think I want 15 ships a week in F'sted.

Linda: The problem with wanting just a few ships is that it won't work. If you start attracting them, and you are successful, you get a bunch. Look at Tortola. They advertised as a no cruise island for years, now they get several in port at a time. On the other hand, Anguilla has resisted not only cruise ships but mega-yachts. They have developed a niche of small but expensive hotels. And if you have ever been on the ferry from St Martin, they aren't a great day trip spot!

I agree with Ronnie, though, that people need to decide what they want. There was discussion this morning on Radio One about how the Caribbean is becoming an old hat destination; people have been here, want to go somewhere else. You also hear people who cruise and don't even get off the ship because they don't care about certain ports. People who stay in hotels and villas go out to eat, buy clothes... except for this new deal with shipping food in! 😉

I was told the real reason that St Croix has never had much cruise ship business has to do with the secret deals that merchants on St Thomas put together with corrupt government officials and the cruise ship industry.

All of the other things were just a smoke screen to cover up the the dishonest deals. It is also true that ,for whatever reason, the perception that St Croix is not as interesting as St Thomas has been pushed by the VI government for years.

No one who really knows the facts has ever claimed that One island is "safer" than the other.

All of that being said, the cruise business is a mixed blessing. With ships comes congestion,crime and tourists. But it also brings jobs and money. But I vote no...

Hi,

Not living on St. Croix, I don't feel that I am in a position to comment on whether or not they should have cruise ships and speculate as to what effect cruise ships will (or won't) have on the local economy.

The only thing I will say with respect to St. Thomas and cruise ships is this:

IMHO this island benefits immensely from the cruise ship industry. Even though I am not directly involved in the tourism industry, I am most appreciative of the fact that cruise ship passengers bring many millions of dollars a year into our economy and I am always happy to see them.

So if there are any cruisers out there, I welcome you to STT and hope you have a lovely day on our lovely island!

🙂

I think everyone on stx has heard the rumors about stt merchants wanting the cruise ship all to themselves and paying off the govt and that the govt or merchants made the cruise ships believe there was more crime on stx. I hadn't heard stt residents story about polling the passengers. Just wanted to see if the stt old timers have a different story then what I've heard. I know if I was a cruise ship passenger and got drop off in Fredericksted the way it looks now I would be very underwhelmed. I understand alot of business were crushed when the cruise ships pulled out. Just with the amount of buildings that are in extremely poor condition, I have a hard time imagining it was that much better just a year before I arrived.

Personally I do not want the cruise ships. I think stx would be better off trying to build itself as a golf/dive/spa location. But first stx must learn customer service to depand the high dollars. That is why the buccaneer really has no competition.

You make a good point about the appearance of Fredericksted. I do not live full time on St Croix, but I have been bouncing around here since 1990 (just a few months after Hugo). During the last 17 years I have seen attempts at revitalizing the cruise business here. We have all seen pictures of Fsted before Hugo and the sad decline after.
If St Croix really wants the cruise industry to succeed it will require a large investment by the VI government in the West End of the island. I don't think that is going to happen.

As Ronnie points out there is certainly some ambivalence among the residents of this island. Even those who would benefit most (the under employed on the west end) fear what they would lose something with increased tourism.

The main reason that the cruise industry is looking towards St Croix is that due to it's growth they need new destinations. Actually St Croix could be a superior destination, but the St Thomas merchants don't want to share. We know that Ronnie and STT Res are in business on St thomas, but according to this board, their businesses are not mainly cruise dependent., so we assume their opinions are not clouded by that.

The comment that St Croix would be better served by developing land based tourism is good. However because of who we are we could never do what Anguilla has done. So, bring on the hungry hoards of cruisers.