Setting up house onboard the Queen Elizabeth 2

Assisted living facilities are so...yesterday. The new hotness is moving in to a 5-star cruise ship! Mrs. Bea Muller has lived on Cunard's Queen Elizabeth 2 since 1999 and is still going strong. The 86-year-old has received quite a bit of media attention over the years for this gambit, and the Newark Star-Ledger recently did us the favor of tracking her down for an interesting update.

Mrs. Muller started her journey onboard QE2 after her husband passed away, and she plans to keep it up "'till I'm bored or dead." This in spite of a minor snub when Cunard declined to move Mrs. Muller to the Queen Mary 2 when it took over QE2's trans-Atlantic crossings.

Interestingly, Mrs. Muller's story has caused some pundits to semi-seriously question whether cruise ships could be the retirement wave of the future. Her expenses run about $66,000 a year which is compared in the article to $48,000 for a high-end assisted living center. We're going out on a limb here and guessing that QE2 is at least $18,000 more fun than even a swank assisted living facility.

Newark Star-Ledger: Life is a cruise for QE2 senior