In March 2023 I heard about the Life at Sea three year around the world cruise. The plan had been created over a five year period by Mikael Petterson and his crew of experienced cruise industry specialists. To have a home at sea with extended stops in some of the most exotic places on earth brought my travel itch to a fever pitch. I have travelled a lot in my life. Safaris. Machu Picchu. The pyramids. Lots of places with lots of time in the air. I have spent three weeks on a trip around the world, but three years is a whole different concept. In fact this kind of thing has never been done before.
In March I was just about to retire and wanted to do what almost everyone says they want to do when they retire. If they can. I want to travel the world and was planning to do just that. I was going to fly somewhere three or four times a year and spend a week or two or three there and then come home and do it all over again. I knew that it would cost much of my budget going to and from these really cool places, but that is just the price you have to pay. Isn’t it?
When I first saw the itinerary I was hooked. The names of the ports sucked me in. If it was a destination city with a port at or near it we were going to stop there. Not just stop, but stay at the really cool ones for multiple days. With a short background check on the company complete I threw caution to the wind and gave Irina a call and got signed up for it. I picked my cabin and made my downpayment for departure from Istanbul on November 1st 2023.
What followed were some video chats with the planners and chatting with fellow residents online. Then there were questions and whispers of problems. Before I knew it the group that had planned the whole thing were dropping out of the program and the ship owners, who were basically renting their ship to our dream voyage, said they would carry on without the planners. There were disagreements about holding the payments in escrow and a number of other red flags that Mike and his crew found unacceptable. I agreed and asked for my deposit back and had it returned to my credit card by Mike and his crew within hours.
I thought the dream had died until I learned that the whole crew, less one of the members, were revising the plan. They took what they had learned about development of the project and started from scratch to not only resurrect the dream, but to improve it. They established a corporation and were going to raise capital to not rent, but buy a ship. They would put all deposits into an escrow account to protect the residence in case of misfortune. They broke the now 3 1/2 year journey into segments with payment for each segment due 90-days before each started, so that you were not committed to the full voyage and had the option to leave if you found it was not for you. They were listening to the residents interests and adjusting to them. The ship was already planned to be a “work from home” location as we traveled the world. They added a culinary classroom to a space because so much of the experience was the cuisine of the world and many of us, me included, were foodies or cooks to some degree.
They had my attention, but I was once bitten twice shy. Pretty soon bad news started to come out about the Life at Sea cruise that I had backed out of. They were having trouble getting a ship that would accommodate their promises. They had to delay the launch date. They changed the departure port. Then it too was cancelled altogether. It became such a joke that their failure ended up spoofed on Saturday Night Live.
Meanwhile the new company, Villa Vie, was quietly raising capital in a few different ways and inspecting ships that would fit our needs. They said that whatever we learned had to be kept quiet due to the nature of large businesses and the very public flogging that the residential cruise concept had suffered at the hands of the few that had tried before.
I was able to figure out which ship they were planning to buy and went online to survey her for myself. She was the MS Braemar. Launched in 1993 as “Crown Dynasty” she was chartered by Cunard. The ones with the Queen Mary and such. Later purchased by another British cruise line, Fred Olsen, she was extended and upgraded to what one critic described as a British Manor at Sea. Reviews and videos on Youtube showed she was well laid out and in nice condition. I went so far as to identify the cabin that I wanted and pulled the trigger with a commitment to the full 3 1/2 years and a 10% downpayment.
I have been chatting with other residents that have committed to the trip and found them to be the exceptional people you would expect to make this kind of commitment. They come from all walks of life and have varied backgrounds with the common thread of having travel in their blood and willing to dream big. There are even some people from the Life at Sea group that I hope to see come over now that we have a ship and are really going to do this May 15, 2024.
The dream that was dashed has been reborn. And her name is Villa Vie Odyssey.
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