Monthly fuel expenses per cabin increased 4-fold in just a few months: Cruise ship abandons more than 200 passengers during stopover in Cambodia
Villa Vie Residences, the American operator of the liner, announced on Tuesday the suspension of its activities in Cambodia, which led to the abandonment of around 200 passengers in this country during a stopover.
About 200 passengers who had paid to live aboard a cruise ship were disembarked and then abandoned during a stopover at the port of Sihanoukville, Cambodia, a local politician said Wednesday. The Odyssey, a nearly 200 meter liner, left Northern Ireland in October 2024 on a non-stop voyage during which residents could buy or rent cabins for vacation or for life, with some passengers even selling all their belongings to be able to afford it. But during a planned stopover in the Cambodian port of Sihanoukville, passengers had only seven hours to pack their bags and leave, according to Long Dimanche, vice-governor of the southern province of Preah Sihanouk.
'Cascade of problems' In a statement, it said 203 passengers and 156 crew members had arrived aboard the Bahamas-flagged ship on October 23 from Thailand, and were expected to travel to Vietnam. Some passengers took flights out of the area while others remained in the city, he said, adding that the ship itself was scheduled to refuel and depart on October 31. Randy Cassingham, an Odyssey passenger who runs a cruise blog, wrote that the disembarkation order followed a "cascade of problems."
In an article titled "Abandon Ship!", it said the launch in Belfast was delayed by four months, and the ship never reached its maximum capacity of 650 residents, with the maximum number being around 350. The liner's US operator, Villa Vie Residences, announced on Tuesday that it had "suspended operations in Cambodia" as it struggles to cope with "exceptional increases" in fuel costs following the war in Iran.
Villa Vie said monthly fuel expenses per cabin had increased from an average of $1,800 to an estimated $6,000 to $8.
000 dollars in parts of Asia. “The company cannot simply pass on increases of this magnitude to residents, and the resulting deficit has put its current operating model under unsustainable financial pressure,” she said. The group assured that it was working “with residents to coordinate the disembarkation and find temporary housing solutions”.
Machine-translated from French
Not cross-checked yet
Only BFM Business reports this story so far. We show it as a single source until another newsroom confirms it.
- BFM Business28 Oct, 10:32
| Publisher BFM Business (established tier) | +76 |
| Detailed summary | +2 |
| Total | 78 |
Method: reports are grouped by the words of their headline and summary; each newsroom counts once; figures are read from the reports as published. Nothing here is written by an AI.