Villa Vie owed its residents more than a seven-hour exit

Some Villa Vie Odyssey residents say they paid more than $300,000 for suites they expected to occupy for the ship’s remaining life. Then, according to passengers, they were given seven hours to leave in Cambodia. That is an unacceptable exit plan for a business selling long-term housing.

Florida-based Villa Vie Residences suspended its planned three-year residential world cruise over rising fuel costs, ordering 203 passengers to disembark on Oct. 28. The ship left Sihanoukville late Tuesday with crew and other personnel but no passengers, according to Tang Sochetkresna, director of Preah Sihanouk province’s Tourism Department.

I expect a company selling a home at sea to take responsibility for more than getting people off the vessel when the money runs short. Residents’ accounts raise serious questions about whether Villa Vie provided even basic practical help.

The company’s suspension statement said it was helping coordinate departures and find temporary accommodation. Resident and blogger Randy Cassingham disputed that account.

“They didn’t even give us a list of hotels, let alone help us get there or pay for them,” Cassingham wrote on his website.

He later said Villa Vie offered a charter flight to the United States for $1,100 per person. Most passengers had been Americans, but a paid flight home is a very different proposition from continued accommodation aboard a ship.

Nearly 100 passengers remained in Sihanoukville on Wednesday, Sochetkresna said. Others were elsewhere in Cambodia or had travelled to other countries. Passengers collected their remaining belongings from the vessel on Tuesday.

Mary Ann Demsar, a retired teacher from Ontario, said residents had not received clear information from the owners about whether the voyage would resume. Villa Vie did not respond to requests for comment by email or telephone.

The financial pressure went beyond the final fuel bill

Villa Vie estimated that monthly fuel expenditure per cabin in parts of Asia had reached $6,000 to $8,000, compared with a historical average of $1,800. The company attributed the increase to the war in Iran and said slower sailing and longer port stays had failed to reduce consumption enough to cover the additional expense.

Restrictions on traffic through the Strait of Hormuz since the war began have constrained petroleum supplies and raised prices, particularly in Southeast Asia. Around 80% of the oil and petroleum products passing through the strait are destined for Asia.

Villa Vie said it could no longer absorb operating losses and considered passing the entire increase to residents unworkable. Its figures describe a severe operating problem. But the financial strain was already evident before the shutdown in Cambodia.

Internal communications reviewed by CBS News showed difficulties extending back at least three months. An early-August presentation urged the company to distinguish residents who could not contribute additional funds from those unwilling to do so.

Lynn Montoya, a resident from Wyoming, said requests for money to cover fuel and other expenses had arrived every two to four weeks. Founders Club members had also contributed more than $16 million toward buying the vessel as part of its initial financing.

That history makes the abrupt departure harder to accept. Residents who had been asked again and again for money were then left, by passengers’ accounts, to arrange accommodation ashore with only hours to spare.

The ship has left, but a restart remains uncertain

A message to residents obtained by CBS News said Odyssey was under its lender’s control. CBS News, citing people familiar with the matter, reported that the ship would be transferred to Singapore and could eventually be auctioned. Its next destination has not been officially confirmed. Sochetkresna said Wednesday that he did not know where it was going.

The ship entered service in 1993 and previously sailed for Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines as Braemar. Villa Vie purchased it in 2023, refitted it in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and began the residential voyage in October 2024.

Odyssey has a stated residential capacity of 650 passengers. It had carried 156 crew members before the suspension, although the number who departed Cambodia was not established.

Before the shutdown, the ship had a confirmed itinerary extending into November 2027. Villa Vie also planned to introduce a second residential cruise ship in early 2029. The suspension statement did not address that project.

Founder and executive chairman Mike Petterson told CBS News that Villa Vie hoped to regain the ship if it could secure an operational partner.

“This is a 30- to 90-day process, and, during that process, we have time to get a restructure done,” he said.

The company is talking in months. Its residents had to find somewhere to sleep that night. A business that sells long-term housing should have had a better answer for them.