Recently, our own Arthur Frommer discussed the possibility of seniors ditching the retirement village and moving onto a cruise ship to live full time, 52 weeks a year.
If you've got the money, spirit of adventure, and relative good health for it, the idea doesn't sound like a bad one. After all, on a cruise pretty much everything is taken care of for you—cooking, cleaning, entertainment, activities. And if you lived on the ship, you'd get to travel the world and stay snugly at home at the same time.
As it happens, that's the arrangment currently enjoyed by 88-year-old Lee Wachtstetter, who's been living aboard the Crystal Serenity for the last eight years.
A frequent cruiser even before she decided to take up residence, Wachtstetter has been on more than 240 trips at sea by now and has visited so many ports that she rarely disembarks. “Everything is ‘Been there, done that,'" she told CBS News. "If I’ve been there and done that, I don’t go off the ship."
It's not what you'd call an affordable living arrangement for everybody, however. It costs Wachstetter about $175,000 per year.
