Luxury Liner Home: Fairy Tale Life of Lee Wachtstetter on Crystal Serenity

Summary: Crystal Serenity is the setting for the fairy tale life of Lee Wachtstetter, who celebrates her 87th birthday and seventh year on board in March 2015.

"Woman pays $164K per year to live on luxury cruise ship," article and photo, "Special to the Asbury Park (N.J.) Press, Neptune, N.J.," by Si Liberman: PNJ @pnj, via Twitter Jan. 20, 2015: PNJ @pnj, via Twitter Jan. 20, 2015

In May 2015, Lee Wachtstetter will celebrate her 87th birthday as well as her seventh year aboard the Crystal Serenity, one of three luxury liners, along with Crystal Harmony and Crystal Symphony, in the Crystal Cruise Line.

Founded in 1988 and headquartered in Los Angeles, California, Crystal Cruise Line is owned as a subsidiary of Japan's shipping giant, Nippon Yusen Kaisha. For almost two decades, Condé Nast Traveler and Travel + Leisure readers have consistently recognized Crystal Cruises as the world's best.

Lee's love of cruising is a legacy of her husband Mason, a banker and real estate appraiser. The couple enjoyed 89 cruises during their 50-year marriage. Before he succumbed to cancer in 1997, Mason urged Lee to keep on cruising.

After Mason's death, their daughter, now deceased, suggested that her mother sell her five-bedroom home, located on 10 acres in Fort Lauderdale, in southeastern Florida, in favor of year-round cruising aboard a luxury liner. Lee's decade of floating the seas began aboard a Holland America liner, her home for three years.

Another of Lee's great passions is a couple of hours of dancing every night after dinner. After three years, Holland America announced the discontinuance of their dance host program. Wanting to continue combining cruising with dancing, Lee made the switch to Crystal Cruise Lines.

Crystal Serenity was built as the third and largest Crystal Cruise liner in 2003 by South Korean shipbuilders STX Europe at Alstom Chantiers de l'Atlantique, their shipyard in Saint-Nazaire, a traditional fishing and shipbuilding town in northwestern France's historic region of Brittany (Bretagne).

Crystal Serenity's graceful outline of 13 decks spans a length of 820 feet (249.94 meters) and a width of 105.6 feet (32.3 meters). With passenger capacity of 1,070 and crew numbering 655, Crystal Serenity offers a desirable guest to crew ratio of 1.65:1.

Needlework is another of Lee's great passions. Afternoons find her practicing her craft amidst the scenic luxury of the Palm Court lounge. Lee has enjoyed creating needlework for five decades. Nowadays she gifts the crew, who have nicknamed her Mama Lee, with her needlepoint creations.

In her seven years aboard Crystal Serenity, Lee has racked up over 100 cruises as well as 15 world cruises. Lee stopped tallying her countries-visited count after 100. If a country has a port, she most likely has been there.

When Crystal Serenity lies in port, Lee tends to stay onboard. She loves the quietness of basically having the entire dream ship to herself.

Irresistible, though, for drawing her ashore is a stopover in Istanbul, northwestern Turkey's exotic bridge between Europe and Asia. Istanbul's Grand Bazaar, one of the world's largest and oldest covered markets, beguiles Lee with its gorgeous array of glitzy or regal, fairly inexpensive merchandise.

Lee's yearly rent of $164 thousand ($164,000.00) includes such entertainment, food and lodging luxuries as: single-occupancy seventh-deck stateroom; regular and specialty restaurant meals; nightly ballroom dancing with dance hosts; and Broadway-caliber entertainment.

No matter where she is on the high seas, Lee is able to stay in daily contact with her landlubber family by way of her computer.

Her three sons and seven grandchildren all reside in Miami, Florida. In 2014, Crystal Serenity docked five times in Miami, allowing Lee to enjoy personal visits with her family.

Lee's floating home on the world's seas provides an idyllic lifestyle that she describes as a stress-free fairy tale.

Perhaps Lee's halcyon retirement confirms the proverb that inspired the Phoenicians, the ancient world's great seafarers:

"The Gods do not deduct from man's allotted span those hours spent in sailing."

Crystal Serenity at Waitohi Wharf, Picton, northeastern South Island, New Zealand; Friday, Feb. 18, 2011, 13:16:55: Sid Mosell (SidPix), CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Flickr

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

"Woman pays $164K per year to live on luxury cruise ship," article and photo, "Special to the Asbury Park (N.J.) Press, Neptune, N.J.," by Si Liberman: PNJ @pnj, via Twitter Jan. 20, 2015, @ https://twitter.com/pnj/status/557570500067852288

Crystal Serenity at Waitohi Wharf, Picton, northeastern South Island, New Zealand; Friday, Feb. 18, 2011, 13:16:55: Sid Mosell (SidPix), CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/sidm/5457304738/

For further information:

PNJ @pnj. "Florida widow Lee Wachtstetter, 86, has lived on a @crystalcruises ship for the last 7 years." Twitter. Jan. 20, 2015.
Available @ https://twitter.com/pnj/status/557570500067852288