A year in an “assisted-living facility” costs around $28,500 a year, up to $40,000 in large cities. Lee Lindquist and Robert Golub, from Northwestern University believe that a permanent passage on a cruise ship could be the solution, as living in a dedicated cabin aboard the Royal Caribbean‘s Majesty of the Seas rings in at a rather competitive $33,260 a year.

Seniors will get meals and housekeeping, laundry and hair-dressing services, and even an escort to dinner. Plus handgrips in the toilets, walk-in showers, premium-grade ozone, thriving entertainment and medical care. And you can hardly beat the staff-to-client ratio—one employee for every two or three passengers.

“Cruise ships could be considered as a floating assisted-living facility,” explains Lindquist.

The geriatrician envisions no more than 15% of a ship being dedicated to “cruise-ship care” so that seniors are able to mingle with the younger clientele. Grandchildren may even be more inclined to visit granny if she lives aboard a liner in the Caribbean than in an old folks’ home on the fringes of Chicago.

Via Iconoculture and The economist.