Marty and Jessica Ansen have been married for 57 years and love traveling by cruise, although due to work and family they did not do it as much as they would have liked. In June 2022 they decided to take a radical turn to your lifestyle and they boarded the Coral Princess cruise ship for the first time in Brisbane, Australia. That moment marked a journey across the seven seas that has not yet ended.
Since then they have traveled on some 111 cruises, making these enormous ships your new floating home, with confirmed reservations until September 2027. According to his family, traveling the world aboard a cruise is cheaper than a residence …and much more fun.
On endless vacations
As the cruise company Princess Cruises in Australia shared in your Instagram profileMarty and Jessica Ansen have been on cruises for 2,335 days of their lives, on 111 voyages, and they already have 33 more cruises booked until 2027.
This routine of non-stop sailing has allowed them to enjoy trips around the world, with access to unlimited food, high-level entertainment and a community atmosphere on board where they have even made friends among the crew and other passengers.
On board, the couple combines the adventure of waking up every day in a different port with a comfortable life, since the cruise includes cleaning services and food included, which saves them from many of the responsibilities of life on land. “Now we no longer know how to wash the dishes or make our beds because we haven’t done that in a long time. So now we have to stay on board to survive,” Marty joked in an interview for Australian television.
Plus, they can stay connected with their family. The couple of cruise passengers take advantage of the scales that cruise ships do in different parts of Australia to visit their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Plus, as Ren van Rooyen, hotel manager aboard the Coral Princess, said, Marty and Jessica are “kind of like local celebrities,” so it’s easy for them to make friends during their travels.
Tap on the photo to go to the original message
How the couple told in a report of The TelegraphThey also take advantage of these stops to visit friends from all over the world that they have made during their travels. “When our ship visits other countries, we meet up with family and friends we have met at sea in places like Ireland, Canada, the Netherlands, Alaska and New Zealand,” Marty told the British newspaper.
Living aboard a cruise ship
The most common thing is to imagine cruise ships as a temporary place to stay during a vacation. However, just as there are people who live permanently in hotels, there are also those who live all year round. on board cruises.
That is the case of Marty and Jessica who, according to their children and grandchildren, find it cheaper to live on board the cruise than in a nursing home. According to their statements, the budget includes everything: from unlimited food to a bed made daily. Furthermore, it includes access to activities and medical services on board, which is an important advantage for elderly people.
To stay healthy and active, retirees have created a simple but effective daily routine that includes an hour of table tennis together each morning. This daily exercise contributes to their physical and mental well-being, while they enjoy the changing landscape and the multiple services that the cruise offers.
Although this way of life has multiple advantages, not everything is perfect for the couple. A big drawback is the constant changing of time zones while traveling around the world, which makes it difficult for them to keep clear control of elapsed time and can lead to some disorientation.
Additionally, Marty jokingly confessed that he misses “being able to drive wherever I wanted to go whenever I wanted,” a limitation typical of life in the sea. However, these small setbacks are considered minor details compared to the experience of living aboard a cruise ship and enjoying a unique lifestyle that for them is more economical and satisfying than a traditional nursing home.
Image | Princess Cruises
GIPHY App Key not set. Please check settings