Retiree Makes Permanent Home on Cruise Ship

Updated: Mon, Jul 02 7:44 AM EDT

LONDON (Reuters) - A retired British woman has decided to sail round the world permanently on a luxury cruise ship because it costs no more than staying in an old people's home, a newspaper reported on Sunday.

Beatrice Muller, 82, only pays 55 per cent of the official brochure price for making her home on the QE2 due to loyalty bonuses from five previous world cruises.

Muller chose to make the liner her full-time home after the death of her husband two years ago. She pays 3,424 pounds ($4,818) a month to reside in Cabin 4068.

The very basic, minimum cost of living in an old people's home in London is about 2,000 pounds, she told the Sunday Express.

And while her fellow pensioners while away their hours in a retirement home in Britain's damp climate, she travels the high seas, stopping at sunny destinations, playing bridge and dancing with handsome stewards.

"This is where I live and I love it," she told the newspaper. "I don't have to do any shopping, I don't need to do any shopping, I don't need a car and there aren't any gas or phone bills."

She enjoys films from the ship's cinema and communicates with her family by e-mail from the computer room.

"I would have to pay around the same to stay in an old people's home and it wouldn't nearly be as much fun as here," she told the newspaper.

Two foreign nuns have just arrived in the USA by boat and one says to the other, "I hear that the people of this country actually eat dogs."

"Odd," her companion replies, "but if we shall live in America, we might as well do as the Americans do."

Nodding emphatically, the Mother Superior points to a hot dog vendor and they both walk towards the cart.

"Two dogs, please," says one.

The vendor is only too pleased to oblige and he wraps both hot dogs in foil and hands them over the counter. Excited, the nuns hurry over to a bench and begin to unwrap their 'dogs'.

The Mother Superior is first to open hers. She begins to blush and then, staring at it for a moment, leans over to the other nun and whispers cautiously, "What part did you get?"