Marty and Jess Ansen figured it was way less expensive and a lot more fun to remain on a cruise ship than to go into a home when they retired.
So they did.
The Australian couple has booked 51 consecutive cruises and expects to be at sea until the spring of 2024. They took their first cruise to start the streak on June 16, 2022. They now call Princess Cruises’ Coral Princess their home.
“Eventually, I said to my [travel] agent: ‘Look, whatever comes, just book it!’” Marty said.
And they kept on booking.
“It’s our lifestyle,” Jess said.
This was not a spur-of-the-moment decision. The couple had taken many cruises together during their lifetime and fell in love with the aspect. And when they crunched the numbers and found it would be cheaper to take that many cruises than go into a retirement home or buy a home in their retirement, it was a done deal.
“Where else can you go where you go for dinner, you go to a show, you go dancing?” Jess said. “Through the day, you have all these activities.”
And housekeeping cleans your room, to boot. Marty quipped that he doesn’t even know how to make the bed anymore.
“Everyone knows them around the ship; they’re basically celebrities onboard,” the ship’s hotel manager, Ren van Rooyen, said.
“It’s a wonderful life,” Marty said.
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