{"id":644689,"date":"2026-10-29T09:18:18","date_gmt":"2026-10-29T09:18:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/644689\/"},"modified":"2026-10-29T09:18:18","modified_gmt":"2026-10-29T09:18:18","slug":"cruise-for-life-strands-passengers-in-cambodia-as-operator-goes-bust","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/644689\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Cruise for life\u2019 strands passengers in Cambodia as operator goes bust"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cIt was great, for a while,\u201d he said by phone from his Sihanoukville hotel.<\/p>\n

\"VillaVilla Vie Residences\u2019 Odyssey cruise ship passengers sit on an EV vehicle at a hotel in Sihanoukville, Preah Sihanouk province, on October 28, 2026. Photo \/ Tang Chhin, AFP<\/p>\n

\u201cMy wife and I really enjoy travelling. But we really hate airports and airlines. This was a way that you could unpack once, you can sleep in your own bed every night and wake up in a new place every few days.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite being left in Cambodia, Cassingham said he had no regrets and would get back on board if the cruise restarted. She said \u201cmoney aside, it was a fantastic adventure\u201d.<\/p>\n

Operator Villa Vie said that the per-cabin monthly fuel expenses had gone from an average of US$1800 ($3194) to an estimated US$6000 to US$8000 in parts of Asia.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 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,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

Carol Larson, a 69-year-old from California, said that she initially paid US$120,000 for her cabin \u2013 not including monthly maintenance fees \u2013 and a voyage that was meant to last 15 years or the life of the ship.<\/p>\n

But after just a year and a half, she and a friend were now \u201cstranded\u201d in Sihanoukville.<\/p>\n

She faulted the US President and his war in the Middle East, as well as cruise management.<\/p>\n

\u201cI put most of the blame on Trump, but there was some probably not financially good bookkeeping,\u201d Larson said.<\/p>\n

Still, she said, the journey was \u201cwell worth it\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am so blessed to have been part of the experiment of residential cruising.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Something going wrong\u2019 <\/p>\n

The 200m ship arrived from Thailand on Friday carrying 203 guests and 156 crew, according to Long Dimanche, deputy governor of Preah Sihanouk province.<\/p>\n

He said in a statement that some passengers took flights out while others remained in Sihanoukville, adding that the ship was due to refuel and leave on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\"VillaVilla Vie Residences\u2019 Odyssey cruise ship passengers Randy Cassingham and his wife Kit Cassingham (left), and Jeff Wetherell and his wife Barbara Figiel (right) wait at a hotel in Sihanoukville, Preah Sihanouk province. Photo \/ Tang Chhin, AFP<\/p>\n

Barbara Figiel, 62, who says she has been on around 70 cruises, and her husband went aboard the Odyssey in December 2024.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always said, \u2018Oh, when I retire, I want to live on a cruise ship,\u2019\u201d Figiel said.<\/p>\n

The former UN employee said she jumped at the chance to travel at a slow pace and be part of a community at sea.<\/p>\n

But in the last four months, she said \u201cwe knew something was going wrong because they kept on asking us for more and more and more money\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it came to a point that how much money can you give to save a sinking ship?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think we\u2019ve been scammed,\u201d she added. \u201cWe\u2019ve been given a great lifestyle, but they underestimated the costs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cassingham accused the company of doing \u201cabsolutely nothing\u201d to help stranded passengers, saying they were driven into the centre of town and left without even a list of hotels.<\/p>\n

Villa Vie did not respond to an AFP request for comment, but said in its statement it was \u201cworking with residents to coordinate disembarkation and identify temporary living arrangements\u201d.<\/p>\n

– AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cIt was great, for a while,\u201d he said by phone from his Sihanoukville hotel. Villa Vie Residences\u2019 Odyssey…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":644690,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1443,34506,74,806,138,29950,4325,1656,2037,2082,5275,305,78,101,424,4960,300,111,139,69,44355,10142,29459,49211,17093,169143,8229,14344,3608,6123,377],"class_list":["post-644689","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-about","tag-abruptly","tag-after","tag-as","tag-business","tag-bust","tag-cambodia","tag-company","tag-cruise","tag-for","tag-goes","tag-have","tag-in","tag-left","tag-life","tag-live","tag-money","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-operator","tag-paid","tag-passengers","tag-regrets","tag-ship","tag-strands","tag-they","tag-travelling","tag-were","tag-while","tag-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=644689"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644689\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/644690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=644689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=644689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=644689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}