CNN
—
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 Bodin 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 Bodin 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 Bodin.
“It’s been three months but they’ve been transparent about what the hiccups are. We’ve learned a lot about ships.”
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.
Petterson 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.
Petterson said that the delay has been down to the ship – constructed in 1993 – being held to the standards of a new vessel.
Fred. Olsen had taken the Braemar out of service during the pandemic, and retired it when its operations started up again after the lockdowns. This meant the certifications had expired – and instead of simply renewing them, Villa Vie was obliged to start from scratch.
Petterson said that issues have arisen where DNV – the company conducting the certification, which he says has always certified the Braemar – has asked for documentation of past repairs to the vessel, which Fred. Olsen has not supplied.
Other work was recommended in the past but not done, he says – adding that one bearing was recommended to be replaced in 2003, and that DNV will not let Villa Vie set sail without replacing it, although the ship had previously been recertified multiple times. He said that because Villa Vie doesn’t have the documentation of a 2007 repair to an engine, a new repair must be undertaken – and documented thoroughly.
“There is an evident double standard between what’s acceptable for us now and what was acceptable in 2017 and 2019 [when the ship was last inspected],” he said. “Fred. Olsen has been around a long time – it’s a relatively low risk company. I expected continuity, but I got zero credit. Boy have I learned a lot.”
He said that when despite vowing in July that the ship would leave in days, “Every time I’ve given a date I’ve been wrong.”
He said that DNV has launched an investigation into how the ship previously had its certifications renewed in the circumstances.
A spokesperson for DNV said that it does not comment on individual clients’ cases. Samantha Stimpson, CEO of Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines, told CNN:
“We enjoyed many happy years of sailing with this ship, and completed thorough and regular maintenance throughout her operational time. She was in lay up during the pandemic.
“Prior to the sale, the ship was subject to a full and independent survey and technical inspections by the team at Villa Vie.
“We wish Villa Vie every success in their upcoming venture with this wonderful ship.”
There’s a lot riding on the Odyssey’s departure for those who have bought places. Some have sold their homes to go on the trip of a lifetime. Others lost money to Life at Sea but have thrown the dice one more time.
Fran Paroissien, a retired teacher from Melbourne, Australia, paid $57,000 for a cabin on Life at Sea, and has yet to receive a penny back.
Having paid her deposit for Villa Vie once it had confirmed a ship, she’s been waiting in Belfast since May 25.
Paroissien isn’t as mobile as some of the other passengers – she has osteoarthritis and uses a walker to get around. So while others have spent the summer traveling Europe, she’s stayed close to Belfast.
“I was sick of sitting in my apartment in Melbourne – I’ve been sitting there for 10 years since I was widowed – and I really hate airports,” she said.
“The company has offered opportunities to the Canary Islands and the Seychelles but I really hate flights. So I’ve been on two ferries: to Liverpool and Glasgow, and the train to Edinburgh, but only for a few days at a time.”
For the rest of the time she has been at Belfast. “Everyone has been great,” she said. “Last Monday the lord mayor of Belfast had us over for morning tea. There were about 60 or 70 of us there. He said we’d been in Belfast longer than he’d been lord mayor.” Micky Murray, the lord mayor, has been in position since June 3.
The company is pledging to pay stranded passengers a per diem, which they can claim back in onboard credit for their monthly fees, she said.
“I’m confident about Villa Vie,” she said. “Life at Sea didn’t even buy a ship. This is a ship. It has new rudders, engines. They have employed staff, repaired kitchens and rooms. They have funding – it’s going to happen. It’s just that the powers that be are treating it as a new ship so everything has to be 100%.”
Not everyone is so relaxed.
“Some people need the details – where did you get that from, why did it take so long?” said Paroissien. “They’re interested in the details of why we are still here. I’m interested in the fact that it’s a beautiful day, what shall we do today?”
And anyone voicing doubts might have concerns about repercussions. Petterson says that as well as seven people canceling their trips, two have been booted off the cruise for making “negative statements” about Villa Vie to their fellow residents. The two passengers involved dispute this. One, Bonny Kelter, told CNN: “We had long-standing contracts and they were unilaterally canceled by Villa Vie Residences without warning.” Kelter, 66 – who says she was hoping to live on the ship “for the rest of my life” – has not yet been refunded, Petterson admitted.
If the cruise does depart as planned in the coming days, things will have changed. “We’ll have missed all of segment one and most of two,” said Paroissien. Since the plan was to chase the sun, they will skip ahead, and possibly loop back to the original destinations at the end. “It depends on what the people who are on it by then want,” said Paroissien, who plans to stay onboard for as long as she can. “I hope I’ll outlive the ship,” she said, saying she doesn’t want to end up in an old people’s home in Australia.
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.
The pair moved to Nicaragua after retiring, which they think has helped them deal with the delay better.
“We’re used to the ‘hurry up and wait’ mentality,” said Angela. “If we didn’t have Nicaragua so ingrained in us we probably wouldn’t be able to handle it, but we’ve turned it into adventures.”
The couple have also been upgraded from an interior room to an ocean view, which has likely helped their mood. They’ve started a YouTube page to document their journey, as have Canen and Bodin.
For the Theriacs, the delay has just brought the passengers closer together. “Our big bond is that we’re all in this together, all waiting, all getting impatient – we are coming from all over the world but we are all travelers at heart,” said Angela.
In the meantime, they wait and hope that their dream to chase the sun lives on.
