Traveling is a tricky business. We are subject to changes, cancellations, and longer-than-expected waiting periods, often at our own expense, due to situations entirely beyond our control. The following story popped up today that clearly illustrates one of those frustrations, in this case, for a more extended period than usual.
Passengers bought berths on a 3-year cruise. Months later, the ship is still stuck in Belfast.
BELFAST, Northern Ireland (AP) — Lanette Canen and Johan Bodin gave up life on land to become seaborne nomads on a years-long cruise.
Months later, the couple has yet to spend a night at sea. Their ship, the Odyssey, is stuck in Belfast undergoing repair work that has postponed its scheduled May departure for a 3½-year round-the-world voyage.
Bodin said Friday that they have enjoyed their pit stop in the Northern Ireland capital, but “when we’d visited every pub and tried and every fish and chips place and listened to all the places that have Irish music, then we were ready to go elsewhere.”
“We’re ready to set sail, for sure,” added Canen.
Villa Vie Residences’ Odyssey is the latest venture in the tempest-tossed world of continuous cruising.
It allows travelers to buy a cabin and live at sea on a ship circumnavigating the globe. On its maiden voyage, it will visit 425 ports in 147 countries on seven continents. Cabins – billed as “villas” — start at $99,999, plus a monthly fee, for the vessel’s operational life, at least 15 years. Passengers can also sign up for voyage segments lasting weeks or months.
Marketing material, aimed at adventurous retirees and restless digital nomads, touts “the incredible opportunity to own a home on a floating paradise,” complete with a gym, spa, putting green, entertainment facilities, a business center, and an “experiential culinary center.”
But first, the Odyssey has to get out of the dock. It’s now at Belfast’s Harland & Wolff shipyard, where the doomed RMS Titanic was built over a century ago.
Villa Vie Residences’ marketing manager, Sebastian Stokkendal, said the company had been “humbled by the scale of what it takes to reactivate a 30-year-old vessel from a four-year layup.”
He said that the ship was almost ready to depart after work on the rudder shafts, steel work, and engine overhauls.”
Calling itself the first perpetual world cruise, Odyssey has a busy 425-port itinerary across 147 countries through 2028. Its cabins, renamed “villas” by Florida-based Villa Vie Residences, start at $99,999 and run to $899,000, with monthly fees that vary according to the cabin type and number of occupants. Non-resident passengers can also sign up for segments that last weeks or months.
As of today, the Odyssey has yet to set sail. We can only imagine the frustration of the waiting passengers who have upended their lives for this extended journey.
Photo from ten years ago today, September 22, 2014:
Hi Jess,
I really do wonder if this ship will ever sail ??
It was previously the Braemar , part of the Fred Olsen fleet. It was laid up in Rosyth in Scotland all during Covid and then sold.
It’s so old that I doubt if it would last long if it does eventually sail.
People have invested a lot of money to have a cabin onboard so fingers crossed for them that it isn’t in vain 🤞
Kim x
Kim, it will be interesting to see how this unfolds! Hope you are well💓💕💘
Warmest regards,
Jess & Tom
Hi Jessica,
How are you doing, I got concerned not to see how things are going.
How is your health doing??
Keep me posted please, sending all my love.
Phyllis
Phyllis, we won’t have a complete diagnosis and plan until my appointment on Friday. I promise to let you know as soon as we do. Hope you are doing well.
Love you,
Jess & Tom