Founder of the doomed 'never-ending' cruise speaks out: 'I'm the villain in the story, but I'm doing everything I can' By Jacob Shamsian You're currently following this author! Click to unsubscribe from email alerts. and Jack Newsham You're currently following this author! Click to unsubscribe from email alerts.
Villa Vie Residences Executive Chairman Mikael Petterson (right) posed for a photo with a passenger before the Odyssey cruise ship set sail in 2024. Liam McBurney/PA Images via Getty Images After a stormy two years at sea, the founder behind the doomed "never-ending" cruise had a plan last week to keep the ship's finances afloat. With his company, Villa Vie Residences, Mikael Petterson had promised a new way of life: People could spend six figures to purchase one of 509 cabins on a luxury cruise ship called the Odyssey, and sail around the world for the rest of their lives.
Reality was different. Unexpected mechanical problems delayed the ship's launch for months. Some passengers were unhappy with their cabins.
Then the war in Iran sent fuel prices soaring. Residents began to jump ship. That began a financial whirlpool that sucked the ship under.
The price surge was the beginning of a "cascading effect" that led Villa Vie to shut the Odyssey down on Tuesday , Petterson told Business Insider. The company told passengers living aboard to leave the ship within hours. "Nobody that's tried residential cruising has succeeded, and we've gone further than anyone else," said Petterson, Villa Vie's founder and executive chairman.
"But I think we would have been absolutely fine — and we would have seen this through — if there was no Iran war." Until last week, Petterson said, he was in talks with a potential investor and was expecting a new infusion of cash. When the deal fell apart, he said, the company was out of options. Now he's considering bankruptcy.
He said he understood why residents said they felt shocked and heartbroken . "I feel awful," Petterson said in a phone interview Wednesday. "They're counting on me to make the decisions here, and there's nothing else I'm focused on.
I'm the villain in the story, but I'm doing everything I can to support the residents on a solution." A turbulent launch The Villa Vie Odyssey was supposed to set sail from Belfast in May 2024. But it wasn't yet seaworthy. Villa Vie Residences had retrofitted the three-decade-old ship and sold permanent cabins at prices ranging from $119,999 to $439,999.
The company's pitch to residents was an endless cruise with stops at more than 400 ports of call and a global circumnavigation every three-and-a-half years. Buyers uprooted their landbound lives with plans to live out the rest of their days on a luxury floating hotel with a pool deck and spa. Mechanical problems — including issues with the aging ship's rudder — kept the ship in dry dock, leaving some passengers stuck in Belfast for months .
Preparing the ship for launch cost $15 million more than what Villa Vie had expected, Petterson told Business Insider. Passengers finally boarded the Odyssey four months after its scheduled departure. Liam McBurney/PA Images via Getty Images Once onboard, some passengers were unhappy with their accommodations .
Two passengers sued last year, claiming that the ship's living quarters and amenities weren't as promised. One of them also lamented the noise from a pickleball court installed over his cabin. Villa Vie has disputed the claims and said it honored the terms of its contracts.
Both lawsuits are ongoing. Petterson said the ship's first year-and-a-half at sea was "a ginormous undertaking" beset by financial challenges, but the company had put in place a plan for the operation's cash flow to break even by the second quarter of 2026. Then, in late February, the United States and Israel launched a war in Iran.
Jumping ship Fuel prices surged. The Odyssey uses marine gas oil, or MGO. Villa Vie had typically paid around $600 or $700 per metric ton for the Odyssey's fuel, Petterson said.
By March, the price of MGO in Singapore had soared to nearly $2,000 per metric ton, according to data from Ship & Bunker, a trade publication. Unlike larger cruise lines, Villa Vie didn't have the scale to absorb the higher prices, Petterson said. "They're able to hedge and take away some of that risk, but we're too small of a company to do that," he said.
In April, Villa Vie wanted residents to help shore up its finances. The company asked residents to loan Villa Vie money, offering them interest rates of 12% to 24%, according to a letter viewed by Business Insider. Villa Vie also changed the ship's itinerary, canceling stops at some ports to stretch its fuel supply, Petterson said.
Some residents got "scared," Petterson said. They sold their cabins to other people who wanted to live aboard. That, in turn, made things more difficult for Villa Vie's sales team, which was still trying to find buyers for the remaining vacancies on the ship, he said.
The Odyssey's passengers were mostly Americans; some of them were content creators. In Substack posts and YouTube videos, they posted about their experiences , some positive and some negative , for the roughly two years that it sailed the world. Some travel bloggers and social media posters blamed Villa Vie's management for the operation's financial troubles.
The negative publicity made it harder to bring more people aboard, Petterson said. By the start of June, fuel prices were falling and things were looking up for Villa Vie, Petterson said. The Odyssey had sold 85% of its units, he said.
Villa Vie announced plans to launch another residential cruise ship that would be bigger and better than the Odyssey. Then in July, fighting between the US and Iran expanded. Fuel prices jumped, and the company's prospects plunged again, he said.
As fuel prices remained high, Villa Vie entered into talks with Oneil Khosa, the former CEO of Margaritaville's cruise line, to inject cash and join as an operational partner, Petterson said. Last week, the negotiations turned into "a game of chicken that just blew up in everyone's face," he said. Talks fell apart.
Khosa didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. Villa Vie Tuesday gave passengers eight hours to leave the ship, passengers told Business Insider. AFP via Getty Images Villa Vie announced that the Odyssey was suspending operations while it was docked this week at the port of Sihanoukville in Cambodia.
The price of MGO in Cambodia is now $2,200 per ton, Petterson said, and in Manila, it is even higher. Passengers told Business Insider they were given only eight hours to disembark. Barbara Fiegel, 62, who had lived with her partner aboard the Odyssey since December 2024, returned to the ship with her partner later that evening and the following day to pack their belongings.
"I couldn't stop crying," she said. Petterson said the company could undergo a court-supervised restructuring that would allow management to remain in control, or it could have to liquidate. "We just don't have the financial ability to sustain normal operations for the time being," he said.
"So we're protecting the asset and laying it up until we can find a solution going forward." Petterson expressed pride in the "community of almost 400 residents" that sailed around six continents. He said letting them down felt "incredibly deflating." "I'm working day and night to find a way to get through this," he said. Joshua Nelken Zitser contributed reporting.
Have you spent time on the Villa Vie Odyssey as a cabin owner, renter, or staff member? If you have a story to share, get in touch with us at jzitser@businessinsider.com . Read next Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know Jacob Shamsian You're currently following this author!
Click to unsubscribe from email alerts. Jacob Shamsian is a correspondent on Business Insider's Enterprise news desk. He is also a Global Reporter for Axel Springer.
He was previously on BI's Legal Affairs desk, covering major litigation, courtroom trials, and the legal industry. Jacob has reported on the criminal trials of Donald Trump , Ghislaine Maxwell , Sam Bankman-Fried , Sean "Diddy" Combs , R. Kelly , and Anna Sorokin (AKA Anna Delvey) , He's also covered blockbuster civil trials, including both E.
Jean Carroll v. Trump trials, the New York Attorney General's fraud trial against Trump , Sarah Palin v. The New York Times , and Johnny Depp v.
Amber Heard . His stories have been cited in judicial rulings, lawsuits, letters from congressional committees, and in numerous media publications. He was a pool reporter in Donald Trump's Manhattan criminal trial.
Jacob has been interviewed on CNN, the docuseries "Surviving R. Kelly," ABC's "Good Morning America," and BBC News, among other programs. His work has been cited by media outlets, including The New York Times, Bloomberg News, The Washington Post, Vanity Fair, and New York magazine.
He's also written for GQ, The Awl, The New Republic, Entertainment Weekly, Time, and Modern Farmer. You can reach Jacob on Signal at JacobShamsian.07 . Jack Newsham You're currently following this author!
Click to unsubscribe from email alerts. Jack is a correspondent on Business Insider's enterprise desk. He focuses on money, power, and big names in business, politics and entertainment.
In his decade-plus in journalism, he has written about prediction markets including Kalshi and Polymarket, tech companies like Google, entertainers and musicians like Lil Wayne and Marshmello, and various nonprofits and healthcare companies. He has extensive experience writing about law firms, litigation, and regulation. Contact information is included below.
Please only send Jack pitches by email. If you have sensitive information to share, please connect on Signal using the information below. Use a personal phone and a personal data or WiFi connection.
He is originally from St. Louis, and graduated from Yale with a bachelor's degree in economics. Travel Bankruptcy
Source: Business Insider
