86-year-old woman lives on a cruise ship
When Lee Wachtstetter’s husband, Guy, sadly passed away in 1997, he told her, “don’t stop cruising”. And she hasn’t. Mrs Wachtstetter has now spent 10 years living aboard cruise ships, sailing the world and living the high life in her state room.
Mrs Wachtstetter sold her five-bedroom house in Florida, and has been using the proceeds to fund her “dream” life ever since. For three years, she spent her days aboard a Holland America Line ship, until they discontinued their dance program. After that, Mrs Wachtstetter moved aboard the Crystal Serenity, and has been there ever since.
“This was the best of the remaining ships that still use dance hosts.” Her husband didn’t like to dance, but now “Mama Lee”, as the staff affectionately call her, dances for a couple of hours every night after dinner.
When she’s not dancing, Mama Lee likes to spend time doing needlepoint work, giving the finished products as gifts to the ship’s staff. She says warmly that the staff have become “almost like family”.
Coming in at around US$164,000 a year, Mrs Wachtstetter’s cruisy life isn’t a cheap one, but she has no intentions of stopping. “I’m so spoiled, I doubt that I’d be able to readjust to the real world again.”
Mama Lee has been to hundreds of countries now, and these days tends to stay aboard when the Crystal Serenity is docked. It’s a “stress-free, fairy-tale life”, she says.
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