They were due to leave for their dream cruise in May. Three months on they’re still stuck at the departure port
It was the years-long cruise that was supposed to set sail, but saw its departure postponed… postponed… and postponed again.
The Villa Vie Odyssey was set to depart in May for the trip of a lifetime: three and a half years chasing the sun around the globe, allowing its passengers to wallow in an eternal summer.
But more than three months on, the ship has yet to depart. It is holed up in the harbor at Belfast, Northern Ireland, still waiting on certification that it is safe to set sail.
If this sounds familiar, it’s not déjà vu. Another company, Life at Sea Cruises, had scheduled a three year round-the-world cruise – the first of its kind to be relatively affordable - for departure in 2023. That voyage was postponed again and again, before being canceled definitively in November.
However, there’s one crucial difference between Life at Sea and Villa Vie Residences, the company attempting the 3.5-year cruise: Villa Vie has a ship.
The company took possession of the Braemar from Fred. Olsen Cruises in March. The 31-year-old vessel, now renamed and refurbished as the Odyssey, has just completed sea trials – essentially a test drive – in the waters off Belfast.
And while the weeks may be dragging on, many would-be passengers – who have arrived in Belfast in May ready for boarding – are keeping their mood buoyed.
“We’re having a good time,” said Lanette Canen, who is booked to sail with her partner, Johan Bodin. The pair – who were previously living in Hawaii – paid $100,000 for their cabin, which will remain theirs for the ship’s lifetime, estimated to be around 15 years. They then pay a $3,500 monthly fee to be onboard.
Canen and spoke to CNN from Stirling, Scotland, which they were visiting after Edinburgh and Glasgow. The pair have spent the summer traveling northern Europe, taking in nine countries, from Sweden – where is originally from – to Scotland.
“We’re not stuck in Belfast, we’ve been traveling,” she said.
“It’s a start-up and we’ve both run businesses – we know there will be hiccups when starting something so we weren’t that worried,” said
“It’s been three months but they’ve been transparent about what the hiccups are. We’ve learned a lot about ships.”
Starting from scratch
They’re not the only ones. Villa Vie CEO Mike Petterson had told CNN on July 27 that the ship was ready to sail on July 30 – but it did not. He blames a longer than usual certification process for the delay.
The ship finally had sea trials – a kind of monitored test drive for both the vessel and its crew – on Wednesday and Thursday of this week.
said that the company has already been given the results: “Everything was good, we passed everything.”
He said that they were given “a couple of takeaways” of “adjustments” to be made, including regarding staff training, but that these wouldn’t impede the certification and departure of the ship. He said that “any outstanding items will be done over the weekend.”
Sea trials are one of the last stages in getting PSSC (Passenger Ship Survey Certification), which allows the vessel to start its voyage.
The final stage is getting coastguard clearance, which he hopes will happen on Monday or Tuesday, enabling the ship to set sail next week.
Americans Angela and Steve Theriac, who say they’ve taken around 50 cruises together in the past, say that they plan to set sail but then might leave the ship and pick it up again once it reaches the Caribbean, since he gets seasick, and the Odyssey is a relatively small ship.
“It’s definitely not what we were expecting, and it’s been frustrating at times, but we know we’re about to embark on the adventure of a lifetime,” said Angela.
The pair arrived on May 27, and have taken two cruises and traveled around Spain, Denmark and Liverpool in the intervening weeks.
“We’ve done all the touristy things around Belfast,” said Angela. “We’ve been to Bushmills, the Giant’s Causeway, we went to Dublin and did the Guinness tour.”
The pair are now back in Belfast and have been eating their meals on the ship for the past two weeks. Villa Vie is covering their hotel stay.
The couple – she is a retired high school teacher, and he was a sheriff’s deputy – are in an ocean view cabin.
“Some people say, ‘How can you live in such a small space?’,” said Angela. “Firstly, I’d live in a tent if it meant I can travel. Secondly, that’s just my bedroom – the ship is my home and you should see my back yard.”
For Steve Theriac, the ship’s smaller size is a bonus – “its easy to get around,” he said.
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