Villa Vie Odyssey Passengers Are Deciding Their Next Moves

Joel Greiff, 57, was new to the Villa Vie Odyssey. He had boarded the residential cruise ship on October 1 and kept his belongings to a minimum.

Traveling light came in handy when all passengers were abruptly told to leave the ship on Tuesday in Sihanoukville, Cambodia, amid what management has described as an oil-price crisis.

“I unpacked in an hour and I packed back up in an hour,” Greiff told Business Insider.

Villa Vie Residences, which operates the cruise, said it had to shut the ship down because of the spiking price of fuel amid the Iran War. On Wednesday, founder Mikael Petterson told Business Insider the prices were part of a “cascading effect” that brought the ship to a standstill.

“I’m the villain in the story, but I’m doing everything I can to support the residents on a solution,” he said.

Greiff is among the many Odyssey passengers who have to figure out what to do next, now that their floating mobile home is suddenly no longer so mobile. In interviews with Business Insider in the days since residents were told to disembark, they shared reactions that range from heartbreak and despondence to gratitude for the good times on board — and a buoyant hopefulness that the ship will sail again.

Villa Vie Residences marketed the Odyssey as a “home at sea.” It offered five-year residency packages starting at $59,999, permanent residency packages starting at $119,999, and a multi-cabin “Home Suite Home” option starting at $229,999.

Passengers were promised a lifestyle of continuous travel around the world, stopping at more than 400 ports in over 140 countries.

Jim and Chris Guld are no strangers to a life in motion. They spent 14 years living in an RV and traveling around the US before settling in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. They run Geeks on Tour, a small company that offers tech training for travelers.

When they sold their townhouse to move aboard the Odyssey in April 2025, they kept a small camper van with a friend near Gainesville.

“It was going to be our lifeboat in case, early on, the Odyssey didn’t pan out,” Jim Guld, 72, told Business Insider.

That “lifeboat” is still waiting in Florida. The couple is in Cambodia.

In a notice on its website, Villa Vie Residences said it was helping coordinate residents’ disembarkation and temporary accommodation. But the Gulds said that was not how their departure unfolded.

“We found our own hotel,” Guld said. The company provided a shuttle, but he said it dropped them at “a park in the middle of town.”

At least the couple had a long-planned trip to Chiang Mai, Thailand, to look forward to. They expect to continue traveling afterward, visiting places that should have been next on the Odyssey’s itinerary, such as South Asia and Africa.

“We don’t plan on going back to the States anytime soon,” he said.

Claude Sadovsky paid about $100,000 in December 2023 for his cabin on the Odyssey. He told Business Insider he had left the ship about three weeks before the shutdown.

The retired doctor, 69, said he had started to feel the cruise was no longer delivering the round-the-world experience he had signed up for.

“It started out great,” Sadovsky said. “Early on, I remember eating dinner with a group, and I looked at them and said, ‘I really think this is worth twice what I’m paying.’ As time went on, that feeling kind of dissipated,” he said.

As more ports were dropped and the ship revisited places he had already seen, Sadovsky left in early October and returned to his apartment in Maui, Hawaii.

“I was amazed we made it as far as we did. And I was always prepared for it to end,” he said. “I’m kind of surprised we made it two years, to be honest.”

For now, he’s happy to spend some time back home, though he said he’ll consider returning if the cruise operators find a way forward, “especially if they could get it back anywhere close to when it first started.”

“I really enjoyed that portion of it,” he said.

The news has left others trying to stitch their dream life back together.

That includes a group of residents trying to raise enough money to buy the ship, said a 68-year-old resident named Paul Montoya: “If there is any option for us to move ahead, we kind of think that would be the only way.”

“It’s a Hail Mary,” he added. For now, he and his wife plan to head to Malaysia for some medical check-ups, and then to Singapore. After that, their plans are vague, but he said they’ll stay in the region “with the hope that things could change with the ship.”

“It breaks my heart to think that this may be over,” said Angela Nuran Gokturk.

She said she, her husband, and other passengers “are willing to do whatever we can that makes financial sense, of course, because we want to make this continue.”

“This was our retirement,” she said. “This is what we wanted to do for the rest of our lives, and it really was a dream lifestyle.”

‘I would do it again’

Dwight and Sheila Greene of Fort Worth, Texas, weren’t on the ship when it halted operations. They spent the past month traveling around Cambodia and Thailand on their own schedule.

The Greenes, who run a Facebook page called “All Over the World with Dwight and Sheila,” said they had made a habit of hopping on and off the ship to spend more time in places they wanted to explore.

“We use it like an aircraft carrier,” said Dwight, 64.

On Wednesday, the couple flew to Singapore, where they’ll be boarding a different, preplanned, 11-day cruise on Friday.

Dwight said their Royal Princess cruise was due to end in Singapore on November 10, around the time when the Villa Vie Odyssey’s original itinerary was expected to return to Singapore.

“I thought, ‘Oh, this is perfect. They’ll arrive, we’ll arrive, and we’ll just change ships,'” Greene said.

That still is the plan, he added. Most of their belongings are still in their cabin. The Odyssey’s recent travails have left them undaunted.

“If you told me this was going to happen, I would do it again,” Greene said. “I would spend the same money. I would do it again in a heartbeat, because that’s how rewarding it has been for Sheila and myself.”

As for Greiff, the Odyssey newcomer, he’s staying in a hotel near the ship while helping other residents collect their belongings. His next step will be to take a train to Kampot, Cambodia. He’s already found a place to rent there and expects to spend a few weeks settling in, checking on the status of his Cambodian visa and getting a local SIM card. Longer term, he’s considering Chiang Mai, Thailand, as a potential base.

One thing is clear: He doesn’t plan to return to Florida. He used to own a condo and a car there, but he’s sold both.

“I can live in Asia for $2,000 a month and live very well,” he said. “It would be very hard in the United States.”