{"id":229073,"date":"2026-10-29T06:44:01","date_gmt":"2026-10-29T06:44:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/they-bought-cabins-to-live-on-a-luxury-cruise-ship-high-fuel-costs-got-them-kicked-off-in-cambodia-nbc-news\/"},"modified":"2026-10-29T06:44:01","modified_gmt":"2026-10-29T06:44:01","slug":"they-bought-cabins-to-live-on-a-luxury-cruise-ship-high-fuel-costs-got-them-kicked-off-in-cambodia-nbc-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/they-bought-cabins-to-live-on-a-luxury-cruise-ship-high-fuel-costs-got-them-kicked-off-in-cambodia-nbc-news\/","title":{"rendered":"They bought cabins to live on a luxury cruise ship. High fuel costs got them kicked off in Cambodia. – NBC News"},"content":{"rendered":"

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A residential cruise ship halted operations in Cambodia on Tuesday amid soaring fuel costs<\/a>, leaving passengers in limbo after the U.S. company that operates it ordered them to disembark.
Florida-based Villa Vie Residences said in a news release that it was working to identify \u201ctemporary living arrangements\u201d for people aboard The Odyssey, a 642-foot cruise ship that launched from Belfast, Northern Ireland, three years ago and promised passengers<\/a> \u201can unparalleled lifestyle of luxury and exploration\u201d as it toured the planet.
Cabins on The Odyssey were for sale or rent.
According to the company<\/a>, the ship can accommodate 650 residents. A Cambodian official said Wednesday there were 203 passengers and 156 \u200bcrew members on the ship. Some passengers had already departed on \u200bflights, while others were waiting in the port city of Sihanoukville, Long Dimanche, deputy governor of Preah Sihanouk Province, told media.
The ship is scheduled to refuel before leaving \u200cCambodia on \u2060Saturday, he added.
An executive with the company, Mikael Petterson, declined to provide additional details in an email to NBC News. In a release this year announcing the company\u2019s second residential cruise ship, Petterson said The Odyssey was 85% sold.
The company said in Tuesday\u2019s release that it had taken significant measures to reduce fuel consumption but that those steps had failed to offset the spike in costs.
Global oil prices have surged since the war with Iran <\/a>began this year, disrupting the world\u2019s flow of fuel. In recent days, oil prices have climbed <\/a>to their highest levels in months.
\u201cPassing the full increase on to residents is not a realistic solution,\u201d the company said. \u201cOur focus now is on supporting residents, crew, and employees while we work toward restructuring and recapitalization over the next 60 days. That work is ongoing, and no outcome is assured.\u201d
Randy Cassingham, a resident on the vessel, wrote in a blog post<\/a> that he learned his journey was over after a company official posted a note on a message board for the ship shortly after 7 a.m. Monday.
The Odyssey was entering a \u201ctemporary lay up\u201d period \u2014 indicating it would no longer be used \u2014 and everyone had to disembark by 2 p.m., the message said, according to Cassingham, who runs ResidentialCruising.com<\/a> and didn\u2019t immediately reply to an interview request.
Cassingham attributed the development to a \u201ccascade of problems\u201d that he would detail later.
Pamela Reckamp, who rented a cabin with her husband and disembarked this month, said in an interview that she wasn\u2019t surprised that the ship\u2019s journey was over.
Reckamp, 59, recalled having attended a meeting in early September at which a company official asked cabin owners to help them raise $1 million so they could leave Ha Long Bay, Vietnam.
\u201cShe said, \u2018If we don\u2019t get this money, we have about four days of the ship running,\u2019\u201d Reckamp recalled. \u201c\u2018Then the lights will go off and the AC will go off.\u2019\u201d
When the ship\u2019s financial issues were raised during another meeting a few weeks later, Reckamp recalled, a woman stood up and said she\u2019d bought a cabin in August and hadn\u2019t been made aware of the issues.
\u201cI sold my house,\u201d Reckamp recalled the woman saying. \u201cI sold my car. I bought my home on this ship.\u201d
Residential cruise ship halts operations over fuel costs
Reckamp said she felt terrible for the residents and the staff, who she said were lovely.
\u201cWe dodged a bullet,\u201d she added.
Villa Vie Residences didn\u2019t immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday night.
In a lawsuit filed last year, a company that bought a cabin on The Odyssey for $469,000 accused Villa Vie Residences of fraud, alleging it misrepresented its financial stability.
The company\u2019s business model was not financially sound, the suit alleges, \u201cbut rather precarious.\u201d
The plaintiffs are asking for a jury trial and unspecified damages of more than $100,000. Villa Vie Residences denied the allegations in the suit, which is ongoing.
Other cabins on the ship were available for significantly less money. Even though 85% of the ship was sold, the company said in 2024, prospective residents could still \u201csecure their dream home starting at just $119,000.\u201d
\u201cWhen we launched Odyssey, we set out to prove that residential cruising wasn\u2019t just possible \u2014 it was sustainable,\u201d Petterson said in July.
Tim Stelloh is a breaking news reporter for NBC News Digital.
© 2026 NBCUniversal Media, LLC<\/p>\n

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For YouSettings news AlertsThere are no new alerts at this timeA residential cruise ship halted operations in Cambodia on Tuesday amid soaring fuel costs, leaving passengers in limbo after the U.S. company that operates it ordered them to disembark.Florida-based Villa Vie Residences said in a news release that it was working to identify \u201ctemporary living […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":229074,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-229073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=229073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229073\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/229074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}