More than 200 passengers who had paid to live aboard a cruise ship were disembarked and left behind during a port call at Sihanoukville, Cambodia, it emerged on Wednesday from independent sources.
Odyssey, a nearly 200-meter-long liner, had departed Northern Ireland in October 2024 for a voyage during which residents could buy or lease cabins for vacations or for living aboard, some passengers even selling all their possessions to be able to afford it. But during a scheduled call at the Cambodian port of Sihanoukville, passengers were given only seven hours to pack and depart, according to Long Dimanche, vice-governor of Preah Sihanouk Province (south).
A Dream of Life at Sea Comes to a Brutal Halt
In a statement, he indicated that 203 passengers and 156 crew members had boarded the ship flying the Bahamas flag on October 23, coming from Thailand, and were to travel to Vietnam. Some passengers took flights to leave the area while others stayed in the town, he noted, adding that the ship itself was due to refuel and sail again on October 31.
American Randy Cassingham and his wife Kit had been aboard the vessel since its departure from Belfast in October 2024, after paying around $1 million for this all-inclusive voyage they hoped would last at least fifteen years.
“It was great, for a while”, Cassingham told AFP by telephone from his hotel in Sihanoukville. “My wife and I really love traveling. But we hate airports and airlines. It was a way to pack once, (…) and wake up in a new place almost every day.” Disembarked by force in Cambodia, he says he has no regrets, telling AFP that, “regardless of money, it was a fantastic adventure”.
Carol Larson, a 69-year-old Californian, told AFP that she had initially paid $120,000 for her cabin – not counting monthly maintenance fees – for a voyage that was meant to last fifteen years or for the ship’s lifetime. But after only a year and a half, she and a friend are now “stuck” on land in Sihanoukville. “I place the greatest blame on (U.S. President Donald) Trump” for the wars in the Middle East. “But there has probably also been some not-so-sound accounting”, she said. Nevertheless, the voyage “was well worth it”.
According to Randy Cassingham, who runs a cruise-focused blog, the disembarkation order followed a “cascade of problems”. In an article titled “Abandon Ship!”, he recounts that the Belfast launch had been delayed by four months, and that the ship never reached its maximum capacity of 650 residents, the ceiling being around 350.
Rising Fuel Costs Strain the Operator
The American operator of the Odyssey, Villa Vie Residences, said on Tuesday that it had “suspended its activities in Cambodia” as it grapples with “exceptional” increases in fuel costs stemming from the war in Iran. Villa Vie indicated that monthly fuel expenses per cabin had risen from an average of $1,800 to an estimated $6,000–$8,000 in parts of Asia. “The company cannot simply pass on such large increases to residents, and the resulting deficit has placed an unsustainable financial burden on its current operating model”, it stated.
Barbara Figiel, 62, and her husband had been passengers on the Odyssey since late 2024. “I’ve always said, when I retire, I want to live on a cruise ship”, she told AFP. But over the last four months, “we knew something wasn’t right because they kept asking us for money again and again”, lamented this former UN employee. “I don’t think we were victims of a scam. We were offered a wonderful lifestyle, but they underestimated the costs.”
M. Cassingham accuses the company of having “absolutely nothing” done to help the passengers stranded in Sihanoukville, saying they were taken to the town center and left there, without even a hotel list.
Villa Vie did not respond to AFP’s questions, but stated in a press release that it “is working with residents to coordinate disembarkation and identify temporary housing solutions”.
