I've been following the escapades of this small, decidedly non-descript and quite dated cruise ship for the two years its been active in its iteration as a "residence" cruise line and it's been popcorn munching drama from the beginning.
Villa Vie Odyssey has been touted as the answer for the "middle class" traveler who'd always desired to go on an endless voyage to exotic destinations around the world, but thought that it would be only obtainable for the very wealthy. This cruise line promised that for (what still amounts to a pretty penny) a range between $100K to $350K you could buy a "lifetime" cabin on board this cruise ship and sail endlessly. Well, of course, you'd still have to kick in about $7K per month for food, fees and such, pay extra for excursions and off-ship stays and personalized furnishings and decorations for your private cabin would need to be purchased and installed by you. But other than that, non-stop (as my grandma Rita would have said...) WHOOPIE!
But the setup was jinxed from the get go. They were delayed for weeks and weeks due to the company's inability to get the ships refurbishment ready in time, then, said repairs and updates to the 30 some odd year old ship didn't meet UK standards (since they were in Belfast at the time) and more delays. When they finally set sail, they had to change itineraries several times due to the problems with them coming up with port fees in destination countries, fuel shortages, poor weather forecasting and even their newly-updated infrastructure onboard like plumbing and air conditioning failing. It was a shitshow on water. And, because of the uniqueness of this endeavor, many "villa owners" as passengers were called, had YouTube vlogs so everything was going out to the world in realtime.
I watched all the popular vlogs, including this couple in the video clip below who had one of the best ones, Living Life on a Cruise. There was also another couple I followed who were originally residents of Polk County who actually sold their cabin a few months back, likely because they could see the writing on the wall.
So now the world news has picked up the story this week that the operation that had, from the start, many financial issues that were sketchy at best, and kept milking more and more from the hapless folks that invested in what seems after all to have been a scheme, has finally come to an end. And they left their "owners" kicked off the ship, with just a few hours notice, in Cambodia.
More and more, I see shit like this and it confirms to me that cruising ain't what I certainly want, and, most likely, ain't a value for anyone with half a brain. I mean, it makes my Cruise Blues rant all that much more pertinent, doesn't it?