Stranded at Sea: The Saga of the Villa V Odyssey

This morning, a globe trotting three and a half year Dream Cruise still stuck in the harbor. The Villa V Odyssey, now three months past its original launch date, undergoing maintenance in Northern Ireland and stranding some passengers there too. It’s cold, it’s windy, it’s damp, it usually rains. The cruise is advertised to visit 475 destinations in 147 countries. The price to purchase an all inclusive cabin begins at around $100,000 or more, plus a monthly fee for at least 15 years. We intend to stay on for a long haul, but who knows how we feel after a year? Some passengers sold their homes to live on board, and many of them have been in Belfast since may, waiting to finally set sail. They are allowed on the ship during the day, but they can’t stay overnight. The company helping plan trips for those who want to travel, even booking hotel rooms for others who have to stay in Belfast. Holly Hennessy, who can’t fly around easily because her cat is with her. I’ve moved five times, different accommodations. The CEO says the ship is 30 years old and it had been out of commission. It made the trip to Belfast on its own power, but they then found a slew of issues. The rudder stocks took, uh, six weeks to. To get done, and, um, now we’re dealing with a couple other things. But overall, I think three months is actually not that bad given the circumstances. Lanette’s very happy we’re on the ship. Lynette Canin and Johan Bodin have been documenting the experience online. Hopefully by next weekend. Yeah, we hope so. We’ll be floating away and saying goodbye to Belfast.