Luxury world-voyage ship halted by fuel costs, passengers stranded in Cambodia

A luxury cruise ship that set out on a years-long voyage around the world has suspended operations because of remarkably high fuel prices. The ship, the MV Odyssey, is now stuck in Cambodia and its passengers are stranded there.

Cambodian officials told the Associated Press that the ship had been carrying 203 passengers, mostly Americans, along with 156 crew members. The ship has a capacity of 650 passengers.

The ship is operated by the Florida-based company Villa Vie Odyssey. The company said it was working with passengers on organising temporary living arrangements.

The MV Odyssey began its journey in Belfast in October 2024. The journey was described as a continuous voyage around the world.

In a statement on its website, the company said extraordinary increases in fuel costs had placed its current operating model under unsustainable financial pressure. It said it was working with residents to coordinate disembarkation and temporary living arrangements, and was supporting residents, crew and employees as it evaluated restructuring and recapitalisation alternatives over the next 60 days.

The ship is now docked at the Cambodian port of Sihanoukville on the Gulf of Thailand. Its departure date is still unclear.

Fuel prices around the world have jumped since the start of the US war on Iran earlier this year. The operator said the monthly fuel cost per cabin in parts of Asia had risen to as much as $8,000 from $1,800.

The Strait of Hormuz, which transports much of the world's oil, has effectively been closed since 28 February, the beginning of the war. Oil prices climbed above $117 per barrel this month.

One resident, Randy Cassingham, wrote in a blog post that he only discovered the voyage's cancellation after a company official posted a note on the ship's message board on Monday morning. He wrote that it did not come out of the blue, describing a cascade of problems from the business model to mistakes by management to the crisis in fuel cost and availability.

Pamela Reckamp, a 59-year-old resident, told NBC News that company officials held a meeting last month where they asked cabin owners to help raise $1 million so the ship could depart Ha Long Bay in Vietnam. Reckamp said the official warned that without the money the ship had about four days of running, after which the lights and air conditioning would go off.

Carol Larson, 69, lived on the ship for 18 months with her sister Crystal Lavering, 72. Larson, who is from California, told the Associated Press she hoped the journey could still be salvaged because living at sea had improved her health.

Larson said she bought her cabin for $120,000, paid in instalments, with additional monthly maintenance fees, under a programme that offered her the option of living aboard for up to 15 years.

Larson blamed Donald Trump for the ship's problems and the suspended journey, as the war on Iran caused fuel costs to rise significantly. Despite the issues, she said she did not regret her investment. She said that because it was a startup company she knew it was a risk, and that from the first day she had told herself that if it lasted a year she could walk away feeling she had got her money's worth, and she still felt that way. She said she felt blessed to have been part of the experiment of residential cruising.