Yes, but if you’re a senior living full-time on a cruise ship, the odds of your needing hospital care at some point are higher than for the average cruise passenger or crew member.
I assume that only seniors in general good health would even consider such an idea.
Commasense was responding to a comment about a potential disruption of the eldercare industry. That industry deals with a very different population than ‘seniors in general good health.’
An assisted-living facility at sea would have to be a hospital ship.
Okay, that’s different. Yes, cruise ships aren’t appropriate for seniors in poor health.
When I went to Antarctica, there was a long medical form to be signed off by my doctor, and a waiver attesting that I understood that in a medical emergency, there might not be anything the ship could do.
The general cruise industry deals with medical stuff all the time for a spectrum of people. I’ve been on two cruises that were diverted to provide medical rescues, and at least two where people were helicoptered off the ship.
Yes, there are ways to deal with the occasional emergency. But the frequency of such emergencies would likely be much higher in an assisted-living perma-cruise.
In the alternative, many elderly folks’ desire is to not be hospitalized for one last desperate miserable week (or month) after a major health event (e.g. stroke, heart attack) and before their death.
Positioning themselves where such help simply isn’t available might be a way of ensuring that doesn’t happen. They still have the same stroke or heart attacks, but now it’s one and done.
However, the cruise ship will still take actions to get care for them, even if that requires cutting a cruise short or evacuating them by helicopter. That’s going to inconvenience everyone else, so if the goal is to get to a place where care is unavailable, do so on your own.
Yes, and right at this second, there are many people on extensive cruises, even if not 3 years’ duration. As noted above, there are people eho functionally love on cruise ships. There are half-year itneraries. Some ships have dialysis machines. Long cruises by older people isn’t a new thing in the industry, and is courted by some lines.
That’s likely to be impossible at the point when it becomes an issue; and pretty much nobody’s going to be able to tell when it’s going to become an issue. Might be tomorrow afternoon, might be twenty years from now. Very few people want to put themselves out of reach of medical help for less drastic issues when they might have decades left in reasonable health if they don’t do so – not to mention that putting oneself out of reach of massive medical intervention would by most other methods involve putting oneself out of reach of all sorts of not only less drastic help, but most conveniences, visitors, entertainment, etc.
We need better laws around this stuff.
Yeah, on the only cruise I ever went on the Coast Guard winched him off the ship. The ship was on the way home and took a sharp right to be close enough for the helicopter to reach it. Full steam ahead, all night.
Then we limped to home port. I suspect that the emergency diversion used up a lot of fuel, so they couldn’t go very fast. Pretty much everyone missed their flights, had to book hotels etc.
Fuel might not have been the problem, but berthing. Big cruise ports schedule their turnovers very far in advance, and if the diversion caused too long a delay, there may have been another ship in the spot your ship was expecting to use.
To say nothing of the nightmare of having to evacuate such a ship if it ever got into serious trouble, like fire or sinking.
DNR on the high seas.
Putting your two comments together I’m reminded of a saying we had in USAF for somebody who painted themselves too far out on a limb: “YOYONA” pronounced like the “yo-yo” toy plus “Naah” sounding like “Naah, you shouldn’t do that”. Emphasis on the “na” syllable.
You’re On Your Own Now, Ace.
A severely infirm person spends most of their life at the mercy of luck & good fire prevention. They are screwed if the building they’re in catches fire, the car they’re in crashes, they encounter an inattentive bike rider, or a semi-bad guy in any form. And yes, they’re utterly incontrovertibly screwed on a cruise ship that has a serious problem.
Kinda like my brother said about shipboard life in the Navy:
It’s like being in prison, but with the added risk of drowning in your cell.
Remember when I said this, way back on 10/20/2023? 
https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/three-year-cruise-latest-update/index.html
And its most recent officially planned departure date – November 11, from Amsterdam, instead of the original November 1 from Istanbul – has been pushed back again.
After passengers said they were told over the weekend that the new planned date will be November 30, a spokesperson for the company told CNN that there is not yet any confirmed embarkation date or location.
Apparently, they are making efforts (or claim to be making efforts) to take care of those currently waiting in Instanbul and/or credit (ONCE ON BOARD) the ‘residents’ for some of their expenses (flights, stays, etc) due to these delays. Oh, and the article confirms they STILL haven’t closed the sale on the SHIP.
Obviously the honest thing to do at this point is wet-lease a ship from an established operator and lose millions (a billion?) on the deal. Or to simply fold the con, refund everyone their 3 cents from the trivial remaining funds, and go into hiding in some hard-to-extradite country.
One of my favorite stand up comedians describes lofe aboard a cruise.
Sounds accurate.
Unsurprising to anyone except the truly deluded.
What a clusterfuck
Some of the passengers who booked the 111 cabins sold are still in Istanbul, having made their way there ahead of the original departure date. Others say they have nowhere to return to, having sold or rented out their homes in anticipation of the round-the-world voyage, as well as jettisoning their possessions.
Most have spent tens of thousands of dollars on what was meant to be the experience of a lifetime, and now face a wait of at least several months to get their money back. The company has said it will make repayments in monthly installments, starting from mid-December and completing repayments in late February. It has also offered to pay for accommodation until December 1 and flights home for anyone now stranded in Istanbul. But some say they have no homes to return to.
I smell lawsuit(s)….