Abstract:
They were promised a voyage of a lifetime. Passengers can purchase cabins on the 642-foot-long Odyssey for as little as $100,000 and embark on what is expected to be a multi-year journey around the world. Now, many passengers are stranded in a Cambodian port town after cruise operators abruptly halted sailings, blaming the problem on soaring fuel prices.
The "Odyssey" originally promised passengers several years of global travel, but the war in Iran pushed up fuel prices and the cruise operator ran out of funds
Odyssey docked in Sihanoukville, Cambodia.
The "Odyssey" is owned by Villa Vie Residences in Florida. It will make its maiden voyage from Belfast, Northern Ireland in October 2024 and has visited more than 60 countries. There are a large number of American retirees and telecommuters among the passengers; the ship is equipped with a swimming pool, pickleball court, theater, several bars and a gym offering yoga and other classes. The 150-person crew includes a doctor and two nurses.
But in a German documentary aired in August, the captain of the Odyssey said that the war in Iran has caused the price of marine fuel to soar, making it difficult for the cruise ship to pay for fuel and sometimes not even able to buy enough fuel.
Then, early Monday morning, passengers received a message from Velavi CEO Casey Villalba.
Randy Cassingham, a passenger who blogged about life on board the Odyssey, paraphrased the notice in a blog post: "Unfortunately, we are unable to obtain the fuel required to continue operations. Therefore, the Odyssey will enter a temporary suspension this afternoon."
After the voyage was terminated early, passengers on the Odyssey checked into a local hotel in Sihanoukville.
The notice requires passengers to leave the cruise ship, which is docked in Sihanoukville, Cambodia, by 2 p.m. The port city is known for its gambling and online fraud industries.
Long Dushan, the deputy governor of the province where Sihanoukville is located, issued a statement: "Being so hastily asked to disembark, many retirees and office workers have effectively become homeless, thousands of kilometers away from home." He added that some of the 203 passengers have taken flights back home, but some are still stranded locally.
Neither Villawi nor Passenger Cassingham responded to requests for comment on Wednesday; the company's CEO, Bialba, and founder and executive chairman, Micael Peterson, could not be reached.
Swedish carpenter John Bodine and his American girlfriend Lanette Kanen once lived together on the Odyssey. They regularly updated videos on YouTube of their two years on the ship.
The couple, both in their mid-50s, said in the video that they sold their rental car company in Maui, Hawaii, and bought a 144-square-foot cabin on the Odyssey for $100,000. Villawi initially promoted the cabin as a “permanent residence”, but the price subsequently increased.
Bodine and Canen said that the monthly property fee of US$3,500 includes full services on board: three meals a day, laundry service twice a week, wireless Internet, room cleaning, and two alcoholic drinks for lunch and dinner.
In a video released in February, with the cruise ship bar in the background, Kannen laughed and said: "Our expenses are much lower than when we lived in Maui."
Passengers disembarking the Odyssey cruise ship in Cambodia.
Bodine said Villawi had assured long-term passengers that the Odyssey would sail for at least 15-20 years; some passengers had also purchased short-term accommodation.
But life on board is not all plain sailing. The cruise ship's initial departure from Belfast was delayed by several months due to hull repairs. Although Velavi claimed in 2024 that space on the Odyssey was "85% sold," multiple passengers posted on social media that the cruise ship was actually far from its maximum capacity of 650 people.
After the war pushed up marine fuel prices. The German documentary mentioned that the operator asked passengers to pay a one-time payment of US$6,000 to maintain the voyage. The company's official website shows that the monthly service fee for new passengers has increased to $8,999 for double occupancy.
Cruise passengers stranded at a hotel in Sihanoukville.
Bodine released a video on Tuesday saying that the past two months have been mentally and physically exhausting, the future of the cruise line is uncertain and divisions have emerged within the passenger community. Cassingham wrote in his blog, Cruise Sojourn, that passenger numbers dropped from a peak of 350 to about 200.
Welawe issued a statement on Tuesday: Monthly fuel costs per cabin have soared from about $1,800 to $6,000‑8,000.
"The company cannot pass on all such a significant cost increase to residential passengers, and the resulting funding gap has put the existing operating model under unsustainable financial pressure." The company also said that it is working with passengers to find "temporary accommodation solutions."
The company stated that it will make every effort to resolve the financial crisis in the next 60 days, but "the results cannot be guaranteed."
Cassingham said in a blog post on Wednesday that he and other passengers did not receive any assistance from Velavi, neither to find a hotel nor to subsidize their accommodation expenses.
"Some people have suffered a huge mental shock. They have invested most of their life savings in this trip, and now they don't know where to go or how to live." He wrote.
The U.S. Embassy in Phnom Penh stated that issues related to providing assistance to American passengers should be referred to the U.S. State Department for response. The State Department has not yet responded to a request for comment.
Cassingham aboard the Odyssey with his wife Keith. He said that although the situation was full of uncertainties and their hearts were full of frustration, the two did not regret their experience at sea.
"We have made great friends, made precious memories, and seen things we would never have seen if we had not come here," he wrote in a blog post on Wednesday.
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