Meet Lorraine Artz, Full-Time Cruiser

Lorraine Artz has spent at least 10 months of the year aboard a cruise ship for each of the last 20 years. At last count that’s 4,120 days, or more than 11 years of bouncy seas and buffets. Or, to put it another way, enough time to get back and forth to Mars in a spaceship 11 times. It’s not a lifestyle I’d ever want to live—I’ve cruised once, and though I’d like to try it again sometime, it can wait—but I have to admire such dedication to travel. In an interview with USA Today’s Gene Sloan, she says she doesn’t know how anyone can get bored on a cruise ship.

Let me give you a little scenario of a day onboard. (After some time ashore) you return to the ship and get ready for the evening. You go down to one of the many bars, and you have a drink. You spend an hour relaxing with friends, and most of my friends, of course, are crewmembers.

(Then) you go into a beautiful dining room with a menu that any fine restaurant would be pleased to present, and when dinner is finished you have options. You either go to a movie or a production show or a comedian or a magic show. And then you go to sleep in a comfortable bed, and you wake up the next morning, open your drapes and you’re in another country.

To honor Artz’s Cal Ripken-esque achievement, Princess Cruises has named her “Godmother of the Royal Princess.”

For more about why the 80-year-old traveler does what she does, check out avidcruiser’s video interview:

 

 

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