From Classroom to Cruise Ship: Retired educator sets sail on a 15-Year ocean adventure

Sharon Lane, a 77-year-old retired foreign language teacher from Orange County, California, has turned her dream of ocean living into a full-blown reality. After decades of teaching high school students in Los Angeles and San Bernardino, she’s now taking a crash course in world travel—aboard a cruise ship she’ll call home for the next 15 years.

Lane recently traded her apartment in Laguna Woods, a popular retirement community, for a villa on the Villa Vie Odyssey, the world’s first perpetual cruise ship. “Not only was it affordable to me—it would actually cost me less money to live here like this, have everyone taking care of me instead of me taking care of everybody,” she told NBCLA from her current port in Vancouver.

And her decision? It took all of 10 minutes.

Sharon moved onboard June 16 and now lives in an interior villa, which she purchased for a one-time fee—reportedly priced at $129,999. She now pays monthly fees as low as $3,000, which cover meals, beer and wine, housekeeping, laundry, WiFi, daily activities, and full access to the ship’s amenities. On their website, Villa Vie calls it “the only affordable residential cruising option offering this lifestyle.”

A teacher at heart and an adventurer by spirit, Sharon Lane is proving that retirement doesn’t have to mean slowing down—it can mean setting sail.

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