Luxury Never-Ending Cruise Ship Halts Voyage, CEO Says Bankruptcy Filing Planned

More than 200 passengers, mostly Americans, have been left stranded after the operator of a luxury cruise ship on a continuous around-the-world voyage ran out of money. The company blames a sharp rise in fuel costs linked to the war with Iran.

Villa Vie Residences, based in Florida, runs the MV Odyssey. The company said it suspended operations on Tuesday after fuel expenses roughly quadrupled. CEO Mikael Petterson told CBS News in a phone interview on Wednesday that the firm now plans to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Petterson said the company had been paying an average of $700 a ton for fuel before the conflict began in late February. Since then, the price has ranged from $2,000 to $3,000 per ton. The ship burns between 700 and 800 tons each month. "When you divide it over 300 people on board, it's just backbreaking," Petterson said, adding that the pressure had built for nine months.

In a statement, the company said fuel costs per cabin climbed from an average of $1,800 a month before the war to between $6,000 and $8,000. Petterson said the company did not want to pass those increases on to passengers. He also said monthly expenses jumped from $400,000 to $2 million, and asked where the missing $1.6 million would come from.

The Odyssey set out in October 2024 on a continuous voyage around the world. Passengers at the time could become residents by buying a permanent cabin for several hundred thousand dollars, and some sold their homes to do so. Buyers were given a minimum guarantee of 15 years of residency aboard the ship.

To limit costs, the vessel slowed its itinerary and spent five or six days in each port, "hoping that things would come to a close in the Middle East," Petterson said. That was not enough. He said the company borrowed money and stretched its payrolls as far as it could while it searched for a financial partner. "We're at a point where it's just at a breaking point where we need capitalization," he said.

The effects have fallen hard on residents. Benjamin Schatz, a retiree, had expected the Odyssey to be his permanent home. "Honestly, right now, I'm in denial and in shock, and I'm heartbroken," he told CBS News.

CBS News first met Schatz in April 2025 for a story on Villa Vie Residences, when he had lived aboard for about a year. On Wednesday, he was given only hours to pack up and leave. He said some fellow residents now face homelessness with little money and no clear plan: "There are people now who are homeless and who have very little money and don't know what they're going to do."