The former teacher said she feared she would never see her money again after paying for a voyage she hoped would transform her retirement.<\/p>\n
“This was going to be my trip of a lifetime,” McKay said.<\/p>\n
“I don’t have that money to waste and lose. It’s just been devastating, absolutely devastating.”<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, more than 200 passengers were told to pack their bags during a scheduled stop in the Cambodian port of Sihanoukville, with the company no longer able to cover the costs of operating the cruise.<\/p>\n
The US ship set sail from Belfast in 2024 on a three-and-a-half year round-the-world voyage, promising residents visits to 425 destinations across 147 countries.<\/p>\n
“Extraordinary increases in fuel costs have placed our current operating model under unsustainable financial pressure,” Villa Vie Residences said in a statement.<\/p>\n
Brisbane passenger Rina Cavazza is among those left scrambling to find accommodation and make arrangements to leave Cambodia after being forced off the ship.<\/p>\n
![\"Brisbane](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/4JFXQ70_dbd5e9b686ed7e718c726f14920e08ef_avif.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Passenger Rina Cavazza says it’s been a sad time for many on board the ship.<\/p>\n
Supplied<\/p>\n
Cavazza, who paid A$170,000 to live aboard the Odyssey, still had 18 months remaining on her voyage when passengers were told to disembark.<\/p>\n
She is now staying in a local hotel and is making arrangements to return to Brisbane.<\/p>\n
“It’s been a sad time for many,” Cavazza said.<\/p>\n
“We have had no word and no idea what is happening. I just know that this is our last day of access to the ship and I’ll have one opportunity to go back and collect my belongings.”<\/p>\n
Questions about finances<\/p>\n
The bulk of passengers onboard the Florida-based ship were from the US and Canada, according to the Cambodian government.<\/p>\n
Some had sold their homes to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for the years-long cruise, marketed as an alternative to retirement options.<\/p>\n
Cavazza said passengers were asked for funds to help pay for fuel, as far back as February and again just before docking in Cambodia.<\/p>\n
“Some people paid hundreds of thousands of dollars extra to help out with fuel,” Cavazza said.<\/p>\n
![\"Lisa](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/4JFXQ6B_3bb9c452815a3b40a1c48e8b71451da4_avif.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Lisa McKay paid more than AU$63,000 for a dream cruise for her retirement.<\/p>\n
Supplied<\/p>\n
McKay, a former Brisbane school teacher, said she used her superannuation to pay for the trip via a direct bank transfer, and was due to board in Kuala Lumpur on 15 November.<\/p>\n
She said she had concerns about the company’s finances after reading negative comments online and raised them with a booking agent before paying.<\/p>\n
In messages seen by the ABC, the booking agent said she “wouldn’t be working for them if [she] thought they were in trouble” and that if the ship could no longer operate, the “company would arrange another ship”.<\/p>\n
“My chances of getting my money back [are] very, very slim,” McKay said.<\/p>\n
“Travel insurance doesn’t cover boutique ships.”<\/p>\n
Sign of things to come<\/p>\n
In a statement, Villa Vie Residences said monthly fuel costs per cabin had averaged about US$1800 ($3200) but were now US$6000 to US$8000 in parts of Asia, due to the ongoing war in Iran.<\/p>\n
“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,” it said.<\/p>\n
![\"Brisbane](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/4JFXQ6L_8ca20a276f90e810d5b458f33c932367_avif.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Brisbane passenger Rina Cavazza’s cabin. She now has to pack her things and leave the ship.<\/p>\n
Supplied<\/p>\n
It is not the only cruise company feeling the fuel crunch.<\/p>\n
The world’s largest cruise operator, Carnival Corporation, said higher fuel prices had added about US$150 million to its 2026 outlook.<\/p>\n
The company recently announced it was halving its fleet in Australia next year.<\/p>\n
Other major cruise operators such as Disney and Royal Caribbean no longer operate full-time in Australia.<\/p>\n
Royal Caribbean said its fuel costs rose 27 percent year-on-year in the second quarter of 2026, from US$279 million to US$355 million.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Queensland woman has handed over A$63,500 ($79,000) from her superannuation for a dream retirement at sea –…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":645814,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[138,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-645813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645813","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=645813"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645813\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/645814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=645813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=645813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=645813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}