A New Jersey photographer in her 60s sold her home, left behind an “overwhelming” amount of debt, and reinvented her life by working aboard luxury cruise ships.
In first-person essays and interviews, Sue Barr described how decades of home ownership, single parenting, and financial strain pushed her toward a dramatic change that ultimately sent her across multiple continents with a camera in hand.
Barr’s story was detailed in pieces for Business Insider and Daily Mail, along with a separate essay shared with PEOPLE outlining both the rewards and hardships of life at sea.
Barr said she had lived in the same New Jersey house for nearly 20 years, where she built her photography career while raising her son as a single mother. When her child moved to Orlando as an adult, she wrote that “something shifted.”
“I had spent years encouraging him to live the life he wanted. Suddenly, I realized I needed to do the same,” she said in her Business Insider essay.
“Overwhelming” debt led to a drastic decision
Speaking to the Daily Mail, Barr explained that much of her financial stress was tied to the home itself.
“All I wanted to do was travel, but I couldn’t get out from under it,” she said. “Every time I had a little extra money, it wasn’t enough to actually make a dent. It felt like playing whack-a-mole.”
A broken furnace became a turning point. After setting aside money for a Costa Rica trip, she said the savings instead went toward emergency repairs.
“That was the moment I realized it was time to sell the house,” Barr told the outlet.
She soon began searching for cruise ship work after thinking about a friend employed onboard as a sommelier.
“I started searching cruise ship jobs, my algorithm took over, and suddenly Master Photographer roles started appearing in my feed. So I applied,” she said.
In her Business Insider essay, Barr wrote she was offered a contract with a premium luxury cruise line but first had to obtain a Seafarer Certificate that required medical and functional testing.
“At my age it was humbling, but I passed,” she wrote.
Not long after, she boarded a flight to Sydney to begin her first assignment.
“In six months, I had visited three continents, become healthier than I had been in years, and for the first time in decades, my smile came without hesitation,” Barr said. “My financial responsibilities felt lighter, and the spark I had been missing finally came back after years of accumulating belongings and obligations that had kept me anchored when I was ready to sail into another chapter filled with creativity.”
Barr said the transition to ship life was not without difficulties. She described “relentless hours” under “tight deadlines,” writing that “guest satisfaction came at the expense of crew well-being.”
People/Sue BarrShe also detailed cramped crew quarters and constant noise disruptions.
“A steamy shower could trigger the fire alarm, leading to a high-pitched wail that pierced through the corridors and often took over an hour to silence, leaving us all with ringing ears and frayed nerves,” she wrote.
Despite those challenges, Barr said she remains satisfied with the decision to overhaul her lifestyle.
“I had let go of everything that once held me back,” she wrote for Business Insider. “What I gained was freedom, the freedom to create, to travel and to smile freely again, with my camera as my ticket forward.”
When asked what she would tell others considering cruise ship work, Barr told the Daily Mail: “It’s hard, structured work, but if you need financial stability, can live small and don’t mind giving up control, it can be a viable reset.”
