88-year-old retires and lives on cruise ship

an estimated 24 million people are expected to take cruises this year one report showed more than a quarter of them are age 60 or older and more than one-fifth are retired from many of those passenger ships are like a second home but for one woman the ocean liner is her only home CBS News travel editor Peter Greenberg met her while covering another story onboard Peter good morning good morning Nora you know part of the reason cruisers are so popular for retirees is because so much has taken care for them the cooking the cleaning the entertainment all the activities but when the cruise is over almost all the passengers return home to their regular lives but Lea walks did or showed us how she found a way to travel the world without ever leaving home did you miss me I did you could say 88 year old Lea watch Center has earned her sea legs but how often are you talking to the family at home abort the crystal serenity she's known simply as mama Lee and she's been living there for the past eight years I don't have to shop I don't have to cook I don't have to do anything I do what I want when I want if I want she and her late husband Mason took nearly 100 cruises together before he died in 1997 the last thing he ever said to me this was the day before he died don't you quit cruising I started frequent cruising but I got very very tired of packing and unpacking so I said there's got to be a better way to do this I mean answer was how about I don't leave at all uh-huh momily sold her house in Florida along with her car and most of her belongings and never looked back everybody knows her ah she knows everybody Berger Borland is captain of the crystal serenity she's a little bit of a diva in a good way she gets along with her day and she it makes herself busy and she has her things and her opinions and she's a wonderful person at your age there are a lot of people who would say well I'm gonna go to a retirement place really not me why do I do that I'm now a great-grandmother and my grandchildren are having children but I don't want to be there every minute for that I love babies but they grow up mama Lee has now done more than 240 cruises around the world and visited hundreds of different ports but where the ship is going irrelevant from mama Lee these days the ship is the destination everything has been there done that if I've been there and done that I don't go off the ship and I love it when everybody goes touring I got the whole ship to myself with all the help you got figure it out oh absolutely and you don't really get off the ship anymore what for cruise director Rick's path considers himself part of her extended family at sea that's leave she doesn't care where the ship goes she loves to dance her way around the world I danced every single day at 5:15 seven days a week did you ever sit back and think about what life would be like if you weren't on the show very boring I think I live a fairytale existence it's it's not a real life I realized that not everybody does this but the lot of people could I still think I do the same dance set with everyday thanks trolley now I know what you're thinking how much does it cost Lee walks that her to do the cruise he estimated about a hundred and seventy five thousand dollars a year and by the way since she goes on the cruise wherever the ship goes she's one of a thousand passengers who spent $22,000 that's the other story were covering this ship was actually gonna be the largest ship ever to attempt the Northwest Passage they started sailing from Seward all the way north going 500 miles north of the Arctic Circle back to New York it's a 32 day voyage and to put this in perspective when it was first done in 1903 it took them three years is there one place she will get off the ship yes when the ship goes into drydock here's what happens it only happens once every like six or seven years yeah they literally pull up to the harbor pull up to the dock there's another ship there and they walk her 50 feet and she goes on another ship where did she get her doctor's appointments and stuff like that I mean doesn't she I mean so far she's dancing yeah every day on the crystal serenity Peter thank you

Channel: CBS Mornings

Views: 5,768,777

Keywords: video, cbs, news, cruise

Id: -dWFKp-bJtk

Length: 4min 26sec (266 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 22 2016