Villa Vie Residences halted operations of The Odyssey in Cambodia on Tuesday after soaring fuel costs made the residential cruise ship too expensive to keep running. Passengers were ordered to disembark, turning a voyage sold as a home at sea into an abrupt layup for people who had expected to stay aboard much longer.
That stop matters now because the company said it is trying to find temporary living arrangements for the people on board, while the ship was scheduled to refuel before leaving Cambodia on Saturday. A Cambodian official said Wednesday that 203 passengers and 156 crew members were still tied to the vessel, even as some had already left on flights and others waited in Sihanoukville for word on what came next.
For Pamela Reckamp, the change landed as more than an itinerary shift. She and her husband rented a cabin and disembarked this month after joining a group that bought into the promise of a 642-foot ship with room for up to 650 residents, one promoted as offering an unparalleled lifestyle of luxury and exploration as it toured the planet. The vessel launched from Belfast, Northern Ireland, three years ago, and residents were told it would keep moving as long as the business model held.
It did not hold under the cost spike. Villa Vie Residences said it had already taken significant measures to reduce fuel consumption, but those steps still failed to offset the increase in fuel costs. The company also said passing the full increase on to residents was not a realistic solution, which left it trying to bridge the gap another way while operations were frozen.
Reckamp had already heard how fragile that promise could be. She said a company official asked cabin owners in early September to help raise $1 million so the ship could leave Ha Long Bay, Vietnam, and recalled being told, “If we don’t get this money, we have about four days of the ship running.” Another woman on the ship, she said, summed up the risk bluntly: “I sold my house,” “I sold my car. I bought my home on this ship.”
Randy Cassingham said he learned the journey was over after a company official posted a note on a message board shortly after 7 a.m. Monday saying the ship was entering a temporary layup period and everyone had to disembark by 2 p.m. Mikael Petterson declined to provide additional details in an email, even as the company said it was working toward restructuring and recapitalization over the next 60 days and that no outcome was assured. For residents who bought into life aboard The Odyssey, the next step is not another port of call but a decision about where to live until the ship can move again.
