An elderly woman ditched her Florida home for a life of luxury on a cruise ship, where she has been living for the last seven years, the Asbury Park Press has learned.
Lee Wachtstetter, 86, was left alone in her five-bedroom Fort Lauderdale area residence after her husband died in 1997. So with the advice of her daughter, Wachtstetter sold her home, moved onto the critically acclaimed Crystal Serenity luxury cruise ship and hasn't looked back.
Wachtstetter, whose husband introduced her to cruising, sails around the world on the 1,070-passenger vessel, stopping at Istanbul and so many other locations she can't even remember.
"I stopped counting after 100," she told the Asbury Park Press. "Just say I've been to almost any country that has a port."
For about $164,000 a year, Wachtstetter enjoys her own stateroom on the seventh deck, ballroom dancing every night, meals, movies and cocktail parties with the captain among other amenities. Crew members, who affectionately call her Mama Lee, provide her with anything she needs.
But what convinced her the Japanese-owned Crystal Cruise line was right for her was the ship's dance hosts for single passengers.
"I enjoy dancing, and this was the best of the remaining ships that still use dance hosts," Wachtstetter told the Park Press.
"I dance every night for a couple hours after dinner, have been doing it for years. And I've also trained with the ship's dance instructors," the retired registered nurse added.
As for going ashore, Wachtstetter says she rarely leaves the ship these days, except when she docks in Istanbul, Turkey, where she finds "gorgeously regal or glitzy outfits" at the Grand Bazaar. She visits her family whenever she's back in her native Florida. But she also talks to her three children everyday using her laptop, the newspaper reported.
There are three other passengers besides Wachstetter that live aboard the Serenity, but Wachtstetter has lived there the longest, Serenity hotel Director Hubert Buelacher told the Park Press.
"The day before my husband died of cancer in 1997, he told me, 'Don't stop cruising,'" Wachtstetter told the newspaper.
"So here I am today living a stress-free, fairy-tale life."
