More than 200 passengers have been left stranded in Cambodia after the operator of the MV Odyssey suspended operations, blaming fuel costs which it says have soared since the war with Iran began.
Villa Vie Residences, the Florida-based company behind the luxury cruise ship, said it had run out of money while seeking a financial partner. Chief executive Mikael Petterson said the company now planned to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Most of those affected are Americans. Some had expected the Odyssey to become their permanent home after buying cabins for several hundred thousand dollars and being promised a minimum of 15 years’ residency aboard the vessel.
The ship began its continuous around-the-world journey in October 2024. Passengers were told on Wednesday that they had only hours to pack up and leave, according to Benjamin Schatz, a retiree who had lived on board for about a year.
“Honestly, right now, I’m in denial and in shock, and I’m heartbroken,” Mr Schatz said.
He added: “There are people now who are homeless and who have very little money and don’t know what they’re going to do.”
Mr Petterson said fuel had cost the company an average of 700 US dollars (£538) a ton before the conflict broke out in late February. Since then, the price had risen to between 2,000 and 3,000 dollars a ton.
The Odyssey uses between 700 and 800 tons of fuel each month. Villa Vie Residences said the average monthly fuel cost per cabin had risen from 1,800 dollars before the war to between 6,000 and 8,000 dollars.
“When you divide it over 300 people on board, it’s just backbreaking,” Mr Petterson said. “And this has been going on for nine months. We’ve tried to do everything we can do.”
The company attempted to reduce its fuel consumption by slowing the ship and staying in ports for five or six days at a time, while hoping the fighting in the Middle East would end. But Mr Petterson said monthly expenses had increased from 400,000 dollars to 2 million dollars.
“For us, when our monthly expenses go up from $400,000 to $2 million, where are we going to get the $1.6 million?” he said.
Mr Petterson said the company had borrowed money and delayed payrolls as it tried to keep operating, but had reached a point where it needed fresh capital.
“We’ve borrowed money, we’ve stretched our payrolls as far as we can, and we’re at a point where it’s just at a breaking point where we need capitalization,” he said.
