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Stranded cruise residents weigh Thailand stay and return to US

Passenger interviews in Cambodia reveal different responses to the sudden suspension of Villa Vie Odyssey's residential voyage.

Channel: RTÉ News ·

IrelandStory of October 29, 2026Trari Newsroom

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Cruise ship passengers left stranded after company goes bust | #rtenews

One passenger still hopes to continue around the world aboard Villa Vie Odyssey. If that cannot happen, she plans to spend a month in Thailand and perhaps return to the United States. Others, a fellow resident says, no longer have homes to return to.

Ireland's RTÉ News, the news service of Raidió Teilifís Éireann, interviews passengers stranded in the Cambodian port city of Sihanoukville after the ship's operator announced it had run out of money. Around 200 people were affected, according to the report.

"We got thrown off the ship yesterday," one passenger says. He says the company could no longer afford fuel and told everyone to disembark.

Villa Vie Residences said it was suspending operations and working to find temporary accommodation for its residents. The vessel had departed Belfast two years earlier, offering something different from an ordinary cruise: passengers could rent or buy long-term, even permanent, residences aboard.

That distinction explains the uncertainty described by another passenger. He says many residents sold their homes in countries including the US and Australia to finance life at sea. "The challenge is a lot of people now have no place to go."

A third passenger describes disappointment rather than surprise, pointing to global fuel costs as his explanation for the disruption. The woman considering Thailand still holds out hope of returning aboard: "I'm hoping to continue on the ship around the world."

Published on Trari