Approximately 200 people who traded their lives on land for the promise of a permanent home aboard Villa Vie Odyssey, a residential cruise ship, received life-altering news on the morning of Tuesday, October 27.
They were given just eight hours to pack their belongings and disembark in Sihanoukville, Cambodia, as the vessel suspended operations for the foreseeable future due to difficulties securing sufficient fuel amid rising costs.
Highlights
- Villa Vie founder Mikael Petterson pushed back against being portrayed as the “villain,” blaming the US-Iran conflict and soaring fuel prices for the crisis.
- The company suspended operations after a major investment deal collapsed, with bankruptcy and asset liquidation among the possibilities being considered.
- Passengers who sold their homes to live aboard the ship revealed repeated requests for additional money, unpaid loans, and declining onboard services before being asked to leave.
Mikael Petterson, the cruise line’s founder, has since spoken out, claiming he is doing everything possible to make things right.
He also revealed who he believes is actually responsible for the situation, despite him being branded the “villain in the story.”
Villa Vie founder challenged his portrayal as the culprit of the cruise suspending operations
The 200-meter (656-foot) Villa Vie set sail from Northern Ireland in October 2024, embarking on a continuous voyage that allowed people to either rent cabins for a holiday or purchase one for life at a cost of up to $440,000.
In a statement announcing the suspension, the company said the monthly fuel expense per cabin had risen from an average of $1,800 to an estimated 6,000-8,000 in some parts of Asia.
Petterson said the increase had a “cascading effect” on the cruise line’s financial sustainability.
He attributed the crisis to US President Donald Trump’s decision to strike Iran in February, which sent oil prices soaring amid disrupted supply routes, damaged energy infrastructure, and other issues.
“Nobody that’s tried residential cruising has succeeded, and we have gone further than anyone else,” he told Business Insider on Wednesday.
“I think we would have been absolutely fine and we would have seen this through, if there was no Iran war,” he added.
Villa Vie had previously paid around $600 or $700 per metric ton for fuel, Petterson said.
By March, however, the price of marine gas oil (MGO) in Singapore had soared to nearly $2,000 per metric ton, according to data from trade publication Ship & Bunker, and it was even higher in Manila.
Passengers had begun sensing trouble brewing on board long before the sudden eviction.
Villa Vie asked residents to contribute more money while cutting back on services
Lynn Montoya and her husband, Paul, sold their home in Wyoming to secure a cabin aboard the residential cruise.
Speaking to the Daily Mail a day after they were left without a roof over their head, she revealed that the company had repeatedly asked passengers for additional contributions to cover rising fuel costs, including a collective loan request of $2.2 million in April.
The money has not been returned, she told the outlet.
“We have not received any payments,” Montoya said. “On July 31, they told us we would get a payment in the next three days. But two days after, we were told there was no money.”
The company also requested additional funds in September and again during the week before the suspension of operation.
Montoya believes the requests were strategic and often came while the ship was docked at different ports, leaving residents feeling “coerced into helping.”
“We’d arrive at a port and six hours before we were meant to leave they would say, ‘Oh, we can’t leave. We haven’t got the money,” she shared.
Montoya said this was when she and fellow passengers began realizing the company was in “significant debt.”
“And we were losing a lot of our services,” she added.
“Our internet was interrupted several times, so we weren’t able to access our bank accounts or pay bills or call home.”
Television services subsequently went down, food quality deteriorated, and staff members reportedly informed passengers that their payments had been delayed.
Mikael Petterson claimed the decision to suspend operations followed the collapse of a major investment deal
In a Thursday, October 29, conversation with Business Insider, yet again, Petterson said he had been in discussions with a potential investor until the previous week and was expecting a fresh injection of funds.
However, the deal fell through, leaving the company with few remaining options.
Later in the conversation, he revealed that the prospective investor was Oneil Khosa, the former CEO of Margaritaville’s cruise line.
Khosa was expected to join Villa Vie as an operational partner. However, negotiations reportedly turned into “a game of chicken.”
Petterson went on to outline several possibilities now being considered for the future of Villa Vie
Petterson told Business Insider that he was considering bankruptcy, while acknowledging that he understood why residents felt shocked and heartbroken by the sudden turn of events.
“I’m the villain in the story, but I’m doing everything I can to support the residents on a solution,” he said.
Petterson said the company could also undergo a court-supervised restructuring that would allow its management to remain in control, or it might ultimately have to liquidate its assets.
Overall, he said, “we just don’t have the financial ability to sustain normal operations for the time being, so we’re protecting the asset and laying it up until we can find a solution going forward.”
Petterson expressed pride in the community of residents aboard Villa Vie, adding that letting them down felt “incredibly deflating.”
“I’m working day and night to find a way to get through this,” he concluded.
"Assets should be liquidated and paid to the passengers," a netizen suggested
