Reality of life on residential cruise ship months before passengers stranded
A retired teacher has detailed the reality of life on board the now stranded residential cruise ship Villa Vie Odyssey, which she disembarked just two months before passengers were told to get off.
Sharon Lane spent over a year living on the cruise ship before she was forced to end her voyage due to medical reasons in August. Then in October, her fellow passengers were ditched in Cambodia in south-east Asia after being told the ship had run out of fuel.
Villa Vie Odyssey told passengers to disembark in Cambodia after it ran out of fuel. Supplied
Sharon, who is now living in Orange Country, US, told local media even before disaster struck there had been limited food, and guests had been asked to contribute money for fuel.
“They went from lunchtime to almost 7 o’clock. They would put cookies out. That’s not enough food,” she told NBC Los Angeles.
“They were mad people were taking food and hoarding it in their food. You don’t feed them. What do you expect?”
When the ship requested more money she said she knew it was having trouble “staying afloat”.
“We were literally floating out in the ocean, not spending gas to propel ourselves in any one direction or the other,” she said.
The Villa Vie Odyssey is a residential vessel where passengers bought cabins and lived on the ship full-time. A five-year cabin ownership starts at around $87K, and full ownership prices start at $145K.
Fuel for ships, just like aircraft has become expensive due to the Middle East war, and the Florida-based company said it was now too pricey to continue.
Sharon Lane has planned to do a three year cruise with life at sea. Supplied
“Fuel costs have risen sharply in the regions where the company has been operating,” they said in a statement.
“The company cannot simply pass increases of that scale on to residents, and the resulting shortfall has placed its current operating model under unsustainable financial pressure.”
Sharon sold her belongings to join the ship and earlier this year had no intention of getting off.
In fact, she said it was “heaven”.
“If the real world is driving a car to the gas station and seeing the prices are huge now, if the real world is going to the supermarket and standing in a long line, if the real world is paying bills, and worrying about what’s happening in places, then no, thank you,” she told CNN back in July.
An Interior cabin on board cruise ship Villa Vie Odyssey Villa Vie
Brisbane passenger Rina Cavazza is one of the 200 passengers now left scrambling to find accommodation and make arrangements to get home.
“It’s been a sad time for many,” she told the ABC.
The Pilates instructor paid $170,000 to live aboard the Odyssey and said she still had 18 months remaining on her voyage.
“Some people paid hundreds of thousands of dollars extra to help out with fuel,” she said.
Blogger Randy Cassingham had been sharing life aboard with his wife Kit on Residential Cruising.com. The couple has since told The Guardian there were ominous signs that the company was running out of money.
Kit and Randy Cassingham say they were told to get off their cruise ship. Randy Cassingham
“I realised as soon as the strait of Hormuz incident came along, the energy of the ship changed,” Kit said.
“I think it was because the ship management realised how much more this was going to cost. And then they were starting to do cutbacks that we weren’t aware of yet.”
The ship first welcomed guests in 2024, but was stuck in Belfast in Northern Ireland for months due to technical issues.
It finally set out on a loop around the world, and planned to visit 425 ports in 147 countries over the next three-and-a-half years, before starting the voyage again.
A second ship Legacy, has been planned for 2029.
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