Ten years ago, Lee Wachtstetter sold her home in Miami and went to sea. “I’m here for the dancing,” she said. “I cruised often with my husband when he was alive, but he didn’t like to dance.” After he died, she moved into a stateroom aboard one of the Holland America Line ships. “But when they discontinued having dance hosts, I began to cruise with Crystal,” she said. “I love the ambassador hosts.” She’s been on 11 World Cruises among the 200 Crystal cruises she’s completed the past four years. She keeps the same stateroom cruise after cruise and rarely goes ashore. “I’ve seen most of the ports in my younger days when I cruised with my husband,” she said. “Now I have arthritis and don’t want to deal with cobblestones. I also don’t use the stairs. I’m glad I can still dance and don’t want to do anything to risk an injury that would keep me from it.” She said she didn’t dance for 50 years, but since her husband died 15 years ago, she’s danced every day. The ship’s Filipino staff nicknamed her Mama Lee, explaining it was a high compliment in their culture, which revers older people. “Nobody can pronounce my last name anyway, so it’s fine with me,” she said. The Serenity’s staff and crew have become like family to her. She knows about their families and she tells them about hers. The biggest problem aboard the ship is not gaining weight, she said. “The food is so good, but I rarely go to the Mozart Tea or the other events when they bring out all the desserts.” She enjoys good health and takes no regular medications. “I stay as far away from doctors as I can, although I did have cataract surgery a few years ago,” she said. Last December she lost a daughter to cancer. “She didn’t want me there to see her dying,” she said. “But I wrote her four times each day for two years.” She exchanges regular emails with her adult grandchildren and arranges for them to come aboard for dinners when the ship is in Miami, where they all live. They tease her about being homeless, she said. “I tell them I may no longer have my home, but you should just see my yacht.”
