“It was not on my bingo card of places where I’d be spending a lot of time,” one passenger, Holly Hennessey, told the BBC from Cambodia.
“We’re all in different hotels; there are a number of shipmates in the hotel that I’m in. We’re just waiting.”
The Villa Vie Odyssey is equipped with several bars and restaurants, a pool deck and a pickleball court, according to its website.
Permanent residencies in its cabins range from $120,000 to $440,000. These cabins are also also available for rent from $3,500 a month.
Last year, the company launched a lifetime residence programme for people to spend their retirement years at sea.
In 2024, days after US President Donald Trump won his second term, Villa Vie Residences announced a four-year “Skip Forward” package. Its CEO told Fox Business at the time that it was the “perfect product for those who said they’d leave the country if ‘XYZ’ wins the election”.
Hennessey said the ship’s residents had earlier been asked to consider paying a fuel surcharge as global prices soared, and that their itinerary had been “severely curtailed”. Some people decided to disembark and travel on land, she said.
But some, like Hennessey, have decided to stick around in Cambodia in the hopes that the Villa Vie Odyssey will set sail again soon.
“Until they say we are done – done done – I am not giving up. I could never duplicate this lifestyle. The idea of going home? It would be so trite,” she said.
“Cambodia’s not the worst place to hang out.”
