Some people seek out golf courses and gated communities for their retirement; others choose the ocean. That's exactly what Beatrice Muller, an 89 year-old widow from New Jersey, did. She's spent the last nine years living the life on the high seas, cruising around the world on the RMS Queen Elizabeth 2. Muller finds this much more pleasant than any old retirement home and she plans to keep up her worldly accommodations, except for one problem: the 41 year old QE2 is retiring in November. What is an old, sea-loving woman to do? Find another ship of course.

Muller says despite her preferred ship's retirement, she refuses to return to land. "What would I want to do that for?" she was quoted asking The Times. Her cabin costs about $7,000 a month, and according to her estimates, that's about the same as a retirement home in Florida, just "far more pleasant."

Actually living on the sea isn't as strange as it sounds. Magellan offers a Residential Cruise Line, where for $4 million and up you can buy your own on-board condo. The World is another "seagoing community" popular with the financially secure crowd.

We'll just have to wait and see what Muller chooses as her next home. As for the QE2, it's headed to Dubai to become a floating hotel.

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Filed under: Stories, Hotels and Accommodations, Transportation