Villa Vie Residences plans to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after suspending operations of the Villa Vie Odyssey and sending its remaining residents ashore in Sihanoukville, Cambodia, CEO Mikael Petterson told CBS News.
More than 200 residents, most of them Americans, were disembarked earlier this week in Cambodia when the Florida-based company halted operations on Tuesday.
Petterson blamed fuel costs that spiked after the war with Iran began in late February.
According to CBS News, Petterson said the company had paid an average of $700 per ton for fuel before the war and has since paid between $2,000 and $3,000 per ton.
“When you divide it over 300 people on board, it’s just backbreaking,” Petterson told CBS News. “And this has been going on for nine months.”
Petterson said Villa Vie was unwilling to pass the increase on to residents and instead slowed the ship’s itinerary, spending five or six days in each port in hopes the conflict would end.
The company ran out of money while searching for a financial partner, he explained.
“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,” Petterson said.
The Odyssey launched its continuous world voyage in October 2024, selling cabins for several hundred thousand dollars.
Randy Cassingham, who lived onboard with his wife, Kit, and has written about the Odyssey at ResidentialCruising.com, disputed the company’s claim that it was covering residents’ lodging.
“They have absolutely not offered to pay for that lodging, full stop,” Cassingham said, adding that residents were shuttled into town without even a list of hotels.
Cassingham said residents were also upset that the ship had moved from Thailand to Cambodia without warning. He said Petterson had assured them the ship would remain in Thailand until the situation was resolved.
“If we had a few of days of warning, we would have packed up and gone ashore in Thailand,” he said.
Cassingham said residents learned the company was behind on crew pay, and that crew wages had since been brought current through September. Residents also collected cash so every crewmember at or below one stripe received $100, he explained.
He estimated the ship peaked at around 350 residents against a capacity of about 650, with roughly 200 active at the end. While he understood about 85 percent of cabins had been sold, many were unoccupied, meaning monthly fees never started, Cassingham said.
Despite the abrupt ending, Cassingham said he and his wife saw 65 countries in two years.
“It was a fantastic adventure and it was great while it lasted,” he said.
