Lee Wachtstetter

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Leona Wachtstetter
BornMay 1928 (1928-05) (age 95)
NationalityAmerican
Other namesMama Lee
Known forLiving on a cruise ship for a decade
Notable workI May Be Homeless, But You Should See My Yacht
Children4

Leona Wachtstetter (born May 1928), nicknamed Mama Lee, is an American author and long-term passenger on

MS Prinsendam
in 2005.

Wachtstetter, who spends hours dancing on cruise ships, moved in 2008 to living full-time on the Crystal Serenity after Prinsendam stopped providing trained dance partners. It cost her US$164,000 in 2015 to live on the Crystal Serenity. In 2017, she published the book I May Be Homeless, But You Should See My Yacht detailing her life on Crystal Serenity for a decade.

Early and personal life

Leona Wachtstetter

Adelphi College's pre-nursing curriculum. After her father had an unsuccessful eye surgery, he needed to resign from his dentist job. Her father, mother, and brother relocated to Hollywood, Florida. Wachtstetter continued attending classes at Adelphi but several months later, her father asked her to join them and she visited Hollywood during the Easter break in 1946 for two weeks. She returned to Adelphi, where she completed her spring semester before moving to Florida to enroll in the School of Nursing at University of Miami's Jackson Memorial Hospital. She met her husband, Mason Wachtstetter, on a beach in Hollywood.[3]

Her husband did

real estate appraisals and worked as a banker, while she was a registered nurse at South Broward Hospital and Clinic.[6][7] They lived in a five-bedroom, 10-acre Fort Lauderdale, Florida, house.[6] She went on her first cruise with her husband in 1962 on P&O's cruise ship SS Florida that traveled from Miami to Nassau, Bahamas.[3][8] Her husband cofounded the Hollywood Playhouse,[9] and in the 1960s, she performed in plays including A Majority of One in 1966 and the comedy Dear Me, the Sky is Falling in 1967.[10][11][12] She and her husband went on a three-week cruise and upon returning chose to have him retire in 1976 from Home Federal Savings and Loan Association, where he had been vice president.[13] They were married for 50 years until he died on September 25, 1997, from cancer at age 76.[6][9][14] The Wachtstetters went on 89 cruises together.[15] While she was a dancing enthusiast, her husband did not enjoy dancing, so he told her to ask cruise ship dance hosts to dance with her. The couple had four children (three sons and a daughter), who accompanied them on numerous cruises, and seven grandchildren.[6] Her daughter died of cancer in December 2011.[16] In the early 21st century, Lee underwent cataract surgery.[16]

Living on cruise ships

Wachtstetter's husband advised her, "Don't stop cruising," the day before his death.[6] Following his advice, Wachtstetter initially traveled numerous times on cruise ships with a friend before boarding ships as a solo traveler. A friend maintained the house while she was away for as much as 11 months in the year.[17] After her daughter proposed that she do so, Wachtstetter sold the house along with her car and nearly all her possessions.[18][19] In 2008, the friend who was maintaining the house purchased it from Wachtstetter.[17][18]

Beginning in 2005 when Wachtstetter was 76, she lived on the

MS Prinsendam. Wachtstetter is a dancing enthusiast. After Prinsendam stopped providing trained dance partners, she moved in 2008 to living full-time on the Crystal Serenity.[17] Crystal Serenity has 13 decks and 535 rooms and accommodates 1,070 passengers and 655 crew.[18][20][21] Wachtstetter liked that Crystal Serenity provided dance partners. Each evening, she spends two hours dancing on the ship's Palm Court lounge while the Crystal Sextet band performs music. Multiple times every week, the ship's dancing teachers give her and other passengers free lessons.[18] In a sign of deep respect for her based on their customs, the Filipino crew gave her the nickname Mama Lee.[16]

In 2015, Wachtstetter spent US$164,000 to live in cabin 7080, a one-person window room on the seventh deck of Crystal Serenity that is 276 sq ft (25.6 m2).

ballroom dancing every night with dance partners provided by the cruise line. She needlepoints for a substantial amount of time on the ship's Palm Court lounge, and gifts the embroidered work to the ship's staff.[6] Items she makes for the staff include toys, tablecloths, and handbags.[18]

Wachtstetter seldom leaves the ship when it docks since she probably previously has been to the ports, but when the ship docks at Istanbul, she visits the Grand Bazaar, which offers a lot of fancy clothing that she likes. While cruising, Wachtstetter uses her laptop to remain in contact with her children and grandchildren, one of whom she reportedly speaks with every day.[6] Her family joins her for dinners when the ship docks in Miami.[16] Wachtstetter visits her family whenever her cruise ship stops in Miami, which happens around five times per year.[6][25] Every year during Christmas, she spends several weeks on land with her children and grandchildren. She views it as a good opportunity not to be on the ship, as numerous guests are often children.[18]

Wachtstetter wrote a book about her experience living on Crystal Serenity titled I May Be Homeless, But You Should See My Yacht.

assisted living facility.[29] CNN said her memoir describes "her cruising shenanigans" such as a Thailand auto rickshaw driver's kidnap of her and her encountering a Mediterranean "rogue wave".[30] CNBC called the book "a much-read memoir".[31]

Before becoming a long-term passenger on Crystal Serenity, Wachtstetter had been on about 200 cruises.[22] By January 2016, she had been on the ship for seven and a half years, which amounted to 215 cruises.[22]

Works

  • Wachtstetter, Mama Lee; Kita, Joe (2017). I May Be Homeless, But You Should See My Yacht. K-S Publishing.
    ISBN 978-0-692-93256-8
    .
  • Wachtstetter, Lee (March 7, 2016). "What it's like to live on a cruise ship for 8 years". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on August 7, 2022. Retrieved August 7, 2022.

References

  1. ProQuest 1773617560. Archived from the original
    on August 7, 2022. Retrieved August 7, 2022.
  2. ^ a b Wachtstetter, Lee (March 7, 2016). "What it's like to live on a cruise ship for 8 years". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on August 7, 2022. Retrieved August 7, 2022.
  3. ^
    ISBN 978-0-692-93256-8
    .
  4. Newspapers.com
    .
  5. Newspapers.com
    .
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Liberman, Si (January 19, 2015). "Woman pays $164K per year to live on luxury cruise ship". Asbury Park Press. Archived from the original on August 7, 2022. Retrieved August 7, 2022.
  7. Newspapers.com
    .
  8. ^ "15 pessoas e famílias que vivem em casas inusitadas" [15 people and families living in unusual houses] (in Portuguese). Universo Online. November 13, 2015. Archived from the original on August 7, 2022. Retrieved August 7, 2022.
  9. ^
    Newspapers.com
    .
  10. Newspapers.com
    .
  11. Newspapers.com
    .
  12. ^ Behrens, David S. (March 27, 1966). "Samurai Meets Jewish Lady". Miami Herald. Archived from the original on August 7, 2022. Retrieved August 7, 2022.
  13. Newspapers.com
    .
  14. ^ Verde, Tom (February 24, 2017). "Calling a Cruise Ship Home: See the World, Then See It Again". The New York Times. Archived from the original on August 7, 2022. Retrieved August 7, 2022.
  15. ^ Turen, Richard (March 12, 2015). "Shopping, cruising, debauchery and making babies". Travel Weekly. Archived from the original on August 7, 2022. Retrieved August 7, 2022.
  16. ^ a b c d Podolak, Janet (November 10, 2012). "Miami woman lives and dances aboard the Crystal Serenity (with videos)". The News-Herald. Archived from the original on August 7, 2022. Retrieved August 7, 2022.
  17. ^ a b c "Welche Texte gefälscht sind - und welche nicht. Der SPIEGEL arbeitet den Fall Relotius auf. Dazu gehört auch, alle Texte zu überprüfen, die von dem früheren Redakteur erschienen sind. Hier ist der Überblick" [Which texts are fake - and which are not. Der Spiegel is working on the Relotius case. This also includes checking all texts published by the previous editor. Here is the overview.]. Der Spiegel (in German). January 24, 2019. Archived from the original on August 7, 2022. Retrieved August 7, 2022.
  18. ^ a b c d e f Haw, Penny (June 17, 2012). "Dancing queen". Sunday Times. Archived from the original on August 7, 2022. Retrieved August 7, 2022 – via Penny Haw.
  19. ^ Greenberg, Peter (August 22, 2016). "Cruise ship living: Retiring to a life at sea". CBS News. Archived from the original on August 7, 2022. Retrieved August 7, 2022.
  20. ^ Kim, Susanna (January 20, 2015). "What It's Like for 86-Year Old Woman Living Aboard Luxury Cruise Ship". ABC News. Archived from the original on August 7, 2022. Retrieved August 7, 2022.
  21. ^ Heigl, Alex (January 20, 2015). "Florida Woman, 86, Pays $164,000 Per Year to Live on a Luxury Cruise Ship". People. Archived from the original on August 7, 2022. Retrieved August 7, 2022.
  22. ^
    The Free Library
    .
  23. ^ "Hitting the high seas for life: How to ditch the house for full time living at sea". WFTX-TV. May 13, 2019. Archived from the original on August 7, 2022. Retrieved August 7, 2022.
  24. ISBN 978-1-4516-9928-9. Retrieved August 7, 2022 – via Google Books
    .
  25. ^ Pantazi, Chloe (January 19, 2015). "An Old Lady Has Lived on This Cruise Ship for 7 Years". Thrillist. Archived from the original on August 7, 2022. Retrieved August 7, 2022.
  26. Nationwide News. Archived from the original
    on August 7, 2022. Retrieved August 7, 2022.
  27. ^ Buchanan, Gary (May 30, 2022). "Why it could be cheaper to swap gloomy Britain for life on a cruise ship". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on August 7, 2022. Retrieved August 7, 2022.
  28. ^ Halliwell, Elle (July 19, 2022). "Meet the Aussies who live on cruise ships". The Australian. Archived from the original on August 5, 2022. Retrieved August 7, 2022.
  29. ^ Bandoim, Lana (May 29, 2019). "Are luxury cruise ships the new retirement homes?". The Week. Archived from the original on August 7, 2022. Retrieved August 7, 2022.
  30. ^ Ward, Terry (April 15, 2022). "Meet the people who want to spend the rest of their lives on cruise ships". CNN. Archived from the original on August 7, 2022. Retrieved August 7, 2022.
  31. ^ Kaufman, David (May 8, 2022). "Your new 'retirement' home could be a cruise ship". CNBC. Archived from the original on August 7, 2022. Retrieved August 7, 2022.
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