Cruise Passengers Left Stranded in Cambodia as Soaring Fuel Costs Halt Round-the-World Voyage

A luxury cruise ship that set out on a years-long trip around the world has suspended operations and left its passengers stranded in Cambodia, with the operator pointing to sharply higher fuel prices.

Cambodian officials told the Associated Press that the vessel, known as the MV Odyssey, was carrying 203 passengers, mostly Americans, along with 156 crew members. The ship can hold 650 passengers. It is now docked at the port of Sihanoukville on the Gulf of Thailand, and it is unclear when it might leave.

The ship is run by Villa Vie Odyssey, a Florida-based company, and began its voyage in Belfast in October 2024. The trip was billed as a "continuous voyage around the world." The company said it is working with passengers to arrange "temporary living arrangements."

"Extraordinary increases in fuel costs have placed our current operating model under unsustainable financial pressure," a statement on the company's website said. It added that the company is coordinating disembarkation with residents and supporting residents, crew and employees while it evaluates restructuring and recapitalization alternatives over the next 60 days.

Fuel prices worldwide have jumped since the US war on Iran began earlier this year. The operator said the monthly fuel cost per cabin in parts of Asia has climbed to as much as $8,000, up from $1,800. The strait of Hormuz, which carries much of the world's oil, has effectively been closed since 28 February, the first day of the war, and oil prices rose above $117 a barrel this month.

Resident Randy Cassingham wrote in a blogpost that he learned of the cancelled route only after a company official posted a note on the ship's message board on Monday morning. He said the news was not a surprise. "It was a cascade of problems piling up on one another, from the business model to mistakes by management to the mentioned crisis in fuel cost and availability, and more," he wrote.

Pamela Reckamp, a 59-year-old resident, told NBC News that company officials held a meeting last month and asked cabin owners to help raise $1m so the ship could leave Ha Long Bay, Vietnam. She said an official warned that without the money the ship had about four days of operation left. "Then the lights will go off and the AC will go off," Reckamp recalled being told.

Carol Larson, 69, from California, lived on the ship for 18 months with her sister, Crystal Lavering, 72. She told the Associated Press she bought her cabin for $120,000, paid in installments, plus monthly maintenance fees, under a program that let her live aboard for up to 15 years. Larson said living at sea had improved her health and that she hoped the journey could still be saved.

Larson blamed Donald Trump for the ship's troubles, saying the war on Iran drove fuel costs up. She said she has no regrets, noting the company was a startup and the investment was a risk. "I feel blessed to have been part of the experiment of residential cruising," she said.