Miscellaneous

Forever cruise strands more than 200 passengers in Cambodia

Villa Vie runs out of money as fuel bills rise to 8000 dollars per cabin monthly, buyers paid 320000 dollars per couple to sit out the Trump term at sea

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The company pulled the plug on the cruise after it said monthly fuel costs per cabin had gone from $1,800 to as much as $8,000. Illustration: Guardian Design The company pulled the plug on the cruise after it said monthly fuel costs per cabin had gone from $1,800 to as much as $8,000. Illustration: Guardian Design theguardian.com
Passengers disembark from the Odyssey at Sihanoukville port in Cambodia. Photograph: Kith Serey/EPA Passengers disembark from the Odyssey at Sihanoukville port in Cambodia. Photograph: Kith Serey/EPA theguardian.com
Passengers onboard the then-MS Braemar wait to disembark in Mariel, Cuba, in March 2020. Photograph: Adalberto Roque/AFP/Getty Images Passengers onboard the then-MS Braemar wait to disembark in Mariel, Cuba, in March 2020. Photograph: Adalberto Roque/AFP/Getty Images theguardian.com
The Villa Vie Odyssey cruise ship leaves Belfast. Photograph: Liam McBurney/PA The Villa Vie Odyssey cruise ship leaves Belfast. Photograph: Liam McBurney/PA theguardian.com
Holly Hennessy with her Siamese cat, Captain, in Belfast. Photograph: Liam McBurney/PA Holly Hennessy with her Siamese cat, Captain, in Belfast. Photograph: Liam McBurney/PA theguardian.com

The MV Odyssey, a residential cruise ship marketed as a way to live at sea permanently, has left more than 200 passengers stranded in Sihanoukville, Cambodia, after its owner, Florida-based Villa Vie Residences, announced it had run out of money. Passengers were given seven hours to disembark.

The Odyssey first sailed from Belfast in October 2024, and its pitch was pointedly political: a way for people ill-disposed to Donald Trump to "skip forward" through his four-year presidential term after his re-election. A couple could buy the four-year package for 319,998 dollars, with a permanent-residency option for a few hundred thousand dollars more, plus monthly fees covering food, drinks, wifi, wellness programmes and room cleaning. The ship offered a pool, a pickleball court, a theatre, several bars and a gym.

The company's statement on Tuesday blamed soaring oil prices. Monthly fuel costs per cabin in parts of Asia had risen to as much as 8,000 dollars, up from 1,800, creating what the company called "unsustainable financial pressure". Since a conflict began in late February, it had slowed the itinerary and spent more time in port, but said those measures had not offset the increase.

The Guardian reports the vessel is three decades old and previously served as the traditional cruise liner MS Braemar. During the pandemic, that ship was turned away from several Caribbean ports when passengers fell ill; Cuba eventually let it dock, and it never returned to service under Fred Olsen Cruise Lines. The restructured liner was then rebranded as "an intimate residential cruise ship offering a new way to live".

The residential-cruise pioneer is MS The World, where apartments have typically ranged from two million to fifteen million dollars, with a waiting list. The Odyssey was priced as the accessible version of the same dream: escape society, neighbours and, this time around, a presidency. The buyers have now learned in port in Cambodia that contracts and creditors follow you aboard — and that the fine print ends wherever the fuel money does.