By Miguel Mike Medina
Photo Credit: Heng Sinith/Associated Press
A U.S. cruise ship on a residential world voyage suspended operations in Cambodia because of fuel costs, forcing hundreds of passengers to abandon their floating homes.
Florida-based Villa Vie Residence operates The Odyssey, which was on a three-year world tour, but suspended operations when fuel expenses surged from around 1,800 to about 8,000 per cabin each month. It’s unfortunate because there are passengers who are stranded. Frustration is at an all-time high. There are about 200 passengers who are stranded. In addition, the cruise holds 156 crew members. There was a lot of money put into this journey.
One of the cruise residents, Randy Cassingham, spoke with Times Radio Breakfast about his experience with the Villa Vie Odyssey cruise and possible causes of what went wrong. At the same time, he seems calm and positive.
Cassingham and his wife sold almost all their belongings to live out the rest of their days on the Villa Vie Odyssey cruise, which promised a never-ending voyage around the world. Those plans went down the drain when residents on the ship were forced to disembark in Cambodia. There’s still no solution.
“Cambodia’s our 65th country,” Cassingham said. “In 25 months that we were on board, we were planning on being on forever. They were guaranteeing that this ship would last 15 years, and I think it was in good enough shape that it could have. That was our plan. We were going to stay there until we decided that we weren’t going to do it anymore or until we died.”
Many things probably went wrong. Perhaps the company was going through a lot of problems that are discussed behind closed doors. When something like this happens, there are many different stories and theories that come along with it. One of the many problems involves the Iraq War. It’s impacting many things around the country. Fuel prices are skyrocketing because of the war.
“A cruise ship sips gas by the metric ton,” Cassingham said. “It literally doubled in price, and that was causing significant problems for the company.”
The prices tripled in Cambodia. It’s a huge amount of money. Hopefully residents and everyone else can get out of Cambodia from this cruise ship as soon as possible. We can’t imagine how uncomfortable this experience has been for everyone on board. Cassingham and his wife don’t have a home to go to at the moment. They are waiting patiently to see if it will restart soon.
Miguel Mike Medina is the publisher of The MMM Journal. He can be reached at medinamiguelmike@gmail.com and themmmjournal@gmail.com
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