Cruise Home Sails Away Empty

The vessel’s departure followed Villa Vie Residences’ decision to suspend operations and order more than 200 passengers off the ship in the Cambodian port town, according to The Independent. Taing Sochitkrishna, head of the Sihanoukville tourism department, said around 100 passengers were still in Cambodia while most of the others had flown to destinations elsewhere in the region.

That is the blunt fact of it: a ship built around the idea of living at sea has sailed away empty. These were not ordinary cruise guests packing up after a spoiled holiday. They were people who had paid tens of thousands of dollars for years aboard one of the few vessels offering long-term or even permanent residences on board.

Villa Vie Residences, which is based in Florida, said fuel price increases from the Iran war had made operations prohibitively expensive, The Independent reported. The company did not respond to the paper’s emails or phone calls seeking comment.

Passengers spent Tuesday unloading the last of their belongings. Shirine Thomas of Wilmington, North Carolina, told The Independent after collecting some final items: “There are still many things ‌on the ship that I wish I ‌could take with me.”

The silence from the company seems to have been as jarring as the disembarkation itself. Mary Ann Demsar, a 67-year-old retired high school teacher from Ontario, told the paper the owners had given no clear information on whether the voyage would continue. “We don't get ⁠any clear indication from the owners of Villa Vie as to what is ‌happening,” she said. “They've been so quiet, the only ‌information we get is from ​the wonderful government and the representatives here in Cambodia.”

The Independent also reported that Lanette Canen and Johan Bodin, both 56, were among the passengers who had reshaped their lives around the ship, selling a business to fund a $100,000 cabin along with monthly maintenance fees of $3,500.

Some passengers and maritime tracking websites indicated the ship was bound for Singapore. The company did not confirm that. What is confirmed is narrower, and bleak enough: the Villa Vie Odyssey has left Cambodia, and the residents who expected to be aboard were left onshore.