It was promoted as a never-ending voyage around the globe—an opportunity to “explore the world without leaving home.”
Villa Vie Odyssey launched in September 2024, offering residents the chance to spend 15 years at sea in their own cabins for as much as $440,000. The itinerary promised 425 destinations across 147 countries, including Antarctica.
Instead, after only two years at sea, the Odyssey suddenly suspended operations on Monday, leaving passengers stranded in Cambodia.
Our News Outlet can reveal that conditions aboard the ship had, for some time, fallen well short of Villa Vie’s glossy promises.
Florida-based Villa Vie Residences attributed the shutdown to surging fuel costs linked to the Iran War.
Current and former passengers, however, said the venture was “doomed from the start.” They pointed to a four-and-a-half-month delay before the ship finally departed in 2024, a setback they said plunged the company into a financial crisis.
They also described frequent failures involving the air conditioning and internet, while the swimming pool was regularly unavailable.
Meals, they said, became heavy “canteen food” intended to be filling rather than nutritious. Fries, potatoes and macaroni and cheese were sometimes served together.
Villa Vie Residences’ Odyssey was marketed as a permanent life at sea, with cabins priced at up to $440,000 for a 15-year residency
Passengers were photographed leaving the Odyssey after it docked at Sihanoukville port in Cambodia’s Preah Sihanouk province on Wednesday
At least four people have sued Villa Vie Residences, including two plaintiffs in federal court. One woman alleges she was removed from the ship because of her “negativity.”
More lawsuits could follow. About 200 passengers were aboard when the Odyssey made its final stop in Sihanoukville, Cambodia, last Friday.
At around 6.30am on Tuesday, passengers were reportedly told they had seven hours to leave the vessel with all of their possessions.
The evacuation quickly descended into what one guest called “chaos,” as passengers packed their belongings into suitcases in the corridors.
They were then left in Cambodia’s 90F heat, with Villa Vie not covering their accommodation.
Randy Cassingham, who had been traveling with his wife, Kit, said the cruise company agreed to arrange a charter flight to the United States at a cost of $1,100 per passenger.
On his website, Cassingham said passengers were given a stark warning: “No passport returned until your bill is paid.”
Randy Cassingham and his wife, Kit, were aboard the Odyssey when they were abruptly told to leave on Monday morning (Source: Used with permission by Residentialcruising.com / Randy Cassingham)
Passengers sit in an EV vehicle outside a hotel in Sihanoukville after disembarking from the ship
“They want the last penny, even though we all have already paid for November,” he wrote.
Passengers who attempted to return to their cabins found that security had “sealed” them off, according to Cassingham.
The abrupt collapse was a far cry from the experience advertised in the summer of 2024, when the Odyssey was preparing to begin its maiden voyage from Belfast, Northern Ireland.
Villa Vie’s website promised residents they could travel “continuously around the world while enjoying the comfort, stability, and community of home.”
Ocean-view cabins cost up to $440,000 for 15 years, while windowless rooms were available at a lower price.
Cheryl Ethrington, a 68-year-old widow who joined the Odyssey eight months ago, paid $365,000 for a cabin she expected to be her lifelong home.
She used life insurance proceeds from her late husband to make the purchase and spent a further $50,000 on a package that included complimentary manicures, pedicures, massages and medical appointments.
“I bought the Golden Passport package,” she said from an apartment in Sihanoukville that she had been forced to rent at short notice.
The Cassinghams, pictured during another interview at a Sihanoukville hotel, described the Odyssey’s chaotic final hours and said passengers were warned their passports would not be returned until outstanding bills were paid
Randy Cassingham shared this photograph of a building in Sihanoukville, along with a comment from his wife after they were left there: “This is the picture of my new life—a shell that I get to build into something new and exciting. The Odyssey has reached the end of its sailing days—at least for now. It abandoned us in Cambodia.” (Source: Used with permission by Residentialcruising.com / Randy Cassingham)
“I paid in advance for the next 15 or 20 years of my life. It was a boatload of money.”
Shirene Thomas, a 61-year-old actress from Madison, Wisconsin, was another passenger who boarded at the beginning of the voyage.
She told Our News Outlet that she paid a low six-figure sum for what was supposed to be a three-year journey, leaving her without the final year of the trip.
“We did visit six continents, and I adopted the world’s first cruising kittens, which I found on the cruise, so there were positives,” she said.
Still, Thomas said the realities of daily life aboard the Odyssey became increasingly frustrating.
“I don’t believe we ever went more than three days without a problem with the HVAC, no hot water or no internet.
“I was disappointed with the food. At first, we received cruise-ship meals that looked attractive and were supposed to be upscale.
“Then the food became more like cafeteria fare—designed for people on a limited budget and focused on being calorically dense.
Widow Cheryl Ethrington, 68, invested $415,000 in what she hoped would be a permanent home, only to scramble for accommodation in Cambodia after the ship stopped operating
“I kept trying to explain that we wanted healthier food, but healthier ingredients cost more. When I complained, I was told it was my fault.”
Breakfast generally consisted of beige or cream-colored dishes, while dinner was often dominated by starches such as macaroni and cheese, potatoes, French fries and other root vegetables.
Eggplant appeared frequently, while lamb was often overcooked, Thomas said.
Cassingham, a former employee of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said the Odyssey was “hardly a luxury cruise ship.”
“The cabins were small and sparse, but that was acceptable. They were mainly bedrooms and places to shower,” he said.
“The shared living areas were spacious, with lounges and restaurants where people could meet and talk. But it wasn’t ‘luxury.’ It was marketed as ‘affordable,’ and it was—until the company began asking passengers for more money.”
One former resident said problems with the 30-year-old vessel, previously known as the MS Braemar, were evident even before it left Belfast.
MUST READ: Daniel Hannan: When Will Voters Accept There’s No Magic Money Tree?
Joe Rhodes spent slightly more than a year aboard the Odyssey before leaving last November, when the ship was docked in Australia. He told Our News Outlet there were “a lot of signs early on that it was poorly run.”
Shirene Thomas, 61, paid a six-figure sum for a three-year voyage but says she was threatened twice with removal after voicing concerns about conditions aboard the Odyssey
He recalled that the ship spent four and a half months in Belfast undergoing repairs, while passengers were housed in a local hotel.
“The reason some of us stayed the whole time [was that staff] kept telling us we would only be there for a few days,” he said. “They kept stringing us along and making promises they didn’t keep.”
Villa Vie did not reimburse Rhodes for the hotel costs. Instead, it provided credits valued at $8,000.
Rhodes left once he had exhausted the credit, saying he would not spend more of his own money on Villa Vie.
“They were in a deep hole from day one,” he said. “They were never able to climb out of it.”
His frustration grew as the ship began skipping destinations, including Antarctica—one of the main reasons he had signed up.
“The other great deception was the promise that Antarctica was part of the itinerary. The ship was never equipped to go there, and they must have known that,” he said.
Rhodes also described life aboard the Odyssey as intensely insular, with gossip spreading quickly and little privacy among passengers. He compared it to “a combination of being in a small town and junior high.”
Passengers from the Odyssey enter a hotel in Sihanoukville on Wednesday
“It was a world of gossip and consequences. I can’t prove it went as far as people being swingers, but there were suspicions,” Rhodes said.
“When you live in close quarters with that many people, you learn more about their lives than you want to know.
“We knew who had become involved and who had separated. There were several marriages aboard and three or four deaths.
“There was one divorce. One of the marriages involved a former couple who had both been on the ship—the man’s wife no longer loved him and married someone else aboard,” Rhodes recalled.
Although he said he “liked most of the people on board,” Rhodes said passengers quickly formed rival groups.
“One group was known as ‘the cheerleaders.’ They became angry if you complained about anything.
“Some of us were willing to speak up. I was one of the loudest, so people soon divided into pro-Villa Vie and anti-Villa Vie camps.”
The hostility toward outspoken passengers intensified, Rhodes said, until he felt treated like a “traitor.”
Thomas offered a similar account and said management threatened to remove her from the ship on two occasions.
“When management is mishandling funds and people who can see the writing on the wall try to speak up, they were bullied and silenced by the cheerleaders,” she told Our News Outlet.
“That atmosphere came from the top down. One time, they threatened to remove me because my negative attitude supposedly stopped someone from purchasing a cabin.
“When staff know you have cats, have given up everything you own and then threaten to throw you off the ship, that is emotionally abusive.”
Jenny Phenix, a 70-year-old divorced mother of two, was among those who were ultimately removed from the vessel. She had sold all of her possessions before boarding.
The ship’s owners, pictured docked in Cambodia, blamed soaring fuel costs associated with the Iran war for suspending operations and said they would spend 60 days restructuring and seeking new financing
The dispute began after messages she posted on WhatsApp criticizing Villa Vie reached company executives.
In a lawsuit, Phenix claims she was expelled from the ship because of what the company described as her “negativity.”
Villa Vie said in statements that Phenix had violated multiple terms and conditions, as well as a non-disclosure agreement.
In a separate lawsuit filed in Broward County, Florida, former resident Robert Moses alleged that Villa Vie placed his cabin on the market after he complained about noise from the pickleball court and the absence of a golf simulator, among other advertised features.
Court documents say Moses paid $469,000 for the cabin, which entitled him to live aboard the ship for 15 years.
Villa Vie denies Moses’ breach-of-contract claims. The company said it had the right to install the pickleball court and was “not obliged” to provide amenities including pools, hot tubs or a golf simulator.
Concern about the Odyssey’s future had been building for months.
Ethrington said passengers realized the ship was in serious difficulty during its penultimate stop in Thailand.
After the ship reached Cambodia, Villa Vie asked each passenger for an additional $1,800 to pay for fuel—approximately $360,000 in total, she said.
“This was three or four days before they evicted us,” she said. “They told us, ‘We’re in a critical state and cannot leave the port.’”
The Odyssey’s future remains uncertain. Its parent company says it will spend the next 60 days attempting to “restructure and recapitalize” the business.
Some passengers have discussed forming a group to take control of the company, although that proposal remains highly uncertain.
Before the shutdown, Thomas said, Villa Vie had repeatedly sought additional funds by offering discounted cabins as investment opportunities and promising to return “the interest on them when they’re sold.”
“They had been asking people for more money for a very long time,” she said.
Ethrington said she entered the voyage with her “eyes open” and was not angry, despite accepting that she would probably never recover her investment.
“The money is gone,” she said. “They are broke. I’m personally OK, but I’m angry that many people entered this without thinking it through.
“I knew it was a startup and that it could fail. I can’t get a refund, but I still have a house to return to. Some people sold their homes, cars and everything they owned to buy a cabin aboard the ship.
“Now they have to go home with nothing but their Social Security check.”
Our News Outlet has contacted Villa Vie for comment.
