Abrupt halt to ‘never-ending’ cruise

The idea was irresistible: sell up, move on to a luxury cruise ship and spend the rest of your life seeing the world.

But for some of the passengers aboard Villa Vie Odyssey, the dream of permanent escape has hit a very earthly obstacle: an “extraordinary” rise in the cost of fuel, said Euronews. It means an epic voyage has now been brought to an abrupt halt in Cambodia. And the instruction for those on board is to “abandon ship” altogether.

Dream runs aground

The ship set sail from Belfast in October 2024, but not before a series of delays that cost the company millions of pounds and left passengers stuck for months.

US-based operator Villa Vie Residences offered a “never-ending cruise around the world with stops at more than 400 ports of call and a global circumnavigation every three-and-a-half years”, said Business Insider. “Permanent residences” were available from $120,000 (£90,000), while some cabins were rented from $3,500 (£2,600) a month.

Then came the fuel crisis. With the oil “chokepoint” of the Strait of Hormuz cut off due to the Iran war, energy prices were sent “soaring around the world”. While the company had budgeted for monthly fuel expenses of $1,800 per cabin, this skyrocketed by “as much as 344%” to around $6,000 to $8,000.

“Nobody that’s tried residential cruising has succeeded, and we’ve gone further than anyone else,” Mikael Petterson, Villa Vie’s founder and executive chairman, told BI . “But I think we would have been absolutely fine – and we would have seen this through – if there was no Iran war.”

Lynn Montoya, from Wyoming, who was travelling with her husband Paul, was less sure. She said residents on board the cruise ship were repeatedly asked to contribute additional money for fuel and other expenses, including a call to raise funds for fuel to leave Cambodia. “We were tired of every two to four weeks being asked for money for fuel, money for everything,” she told The Associated Press. “We had hopes, but they just kept sinking further and further into the hole through mismanagement.”

Lanette Canen and Johan Bodin told the BBC they felt “heartbroken” that their “dream had been crushed”. Yet, they said, the experience was “worth it”. “We loved our two years on Odyssey – the adventures, the places we visited and the friends we made along the way.”

Uncertain future

Villa Vie announced that the Odyssey was suspending operations while it was docked this week at the port of Sihanoukville in Cambodia.

The company said it was working with passengers on disembarkation plans and “temporary living arrangements”. Villa Vie will focus on “restructuring and recapitalisation over the next 60 days”, said The New York Times. “No outcome is assured,” it said, and the ship could “eventually be sold” to settle outstanding costs.

One passenger, Holly Hennessey, told the BBC she is prepared to wait. “Until they say we are done – done done – I am not giving up. I could never duplicate this lifestyle. The idea of going home? It would be so trite.”