More than 200 passengers, mostly Americans, are stuck in Cambodia after the operator of a US luxury cruise ship that was on a continuous voyage around the world ran out of money due to skyrocketing fuel prices.
Villa Vie Residences, the Florida-based operator of the MV Odyssey, said the war with Iran had quadrupled fuel costs and forced it to suspend operations on Tuesday.
CEO Mikael Petterson told CBS News in a phone interview Wednesday that Villa Vie Residences paid an average of $700 per ton for fuel previously. war broke out end of February. Since then, the price has fluctuated between $2,000 and $3,000 per ton.
The Odyssey consumes between 700 and 800 tons of fuel per month, Petterson revealed.
“When you split 300-plus people on board, it’s just grueling,” Petterson told CBS News. “And this has been going on for nine months. We’ve tried to do everything we can.”
In a statement, Villa Vie Residences said fuel costs per cabin had fallen from an average of $1,800 per month before the war to between $6,000 and $8,000.
The company was not willing to pass on the increased costs to its passengers, Petterson said.
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The Odyssey was launched in October 2024 for a continuous journey around the world. At the time, passengers could become residents of the ship by purchasing a permanent cabin for several hundred thousand dollars. Some sold their homes for it. At the time, they benefited from a minimum guarantee of 15 years of residence on board the Odyssey.
The Odyssey tried to counter soaring fuel prices by slowing its route and spending five or six days in each port “hoping things would work out in the Middle East,” Petterson said, but that wasn’t enough.
“For us, when our monthly expenses go from $400,000 to $2 million, where are we going to find the $1.6 million?” » asked Petterson.
The CEO of Villa Vie Residences said the ship ran out of cash as it searched for a financial partner and was now expected to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
“We’ve borrowed money, we’ve increased our payroll as much as we can, and we’re at a point where we’ve just reached a breaking point where we need capitalization,” Petterson said.
Passenger Benjamin Schatz thought the MV Odyssey would be his forever home.
“Honestly, right now I’m in denial and in shock, and I’m heartbroken,” Schatz, a retiree, told CBS News.
CBS News sat down with Schatz in April 2025 for an article featuring Villa Vie Residences. At that time, he had been living on the ship for about a year. On Wednesday, he had only a few hours to prepare his life and leave.
Schatz said, “There are people now who are homeless and have very little money and don’t know what they’re going to do.”
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