Contrary to what these people may have believed, they didn’t actually buy a floating house. They bought a share in a boat which is now permanently docked because there’s no money for fuel. Now they’ll have to buy another house while the value of the current “house” goes to zero. That’ll be a fun retirement.
Its Florida-based operator, Villa Vie Residences, said monthly fuel expenses per cabin that historically averaged $1,800 have reached an estimated $6,000 to $8,000 in parts of Asia due to the war in Iran. The company said it sought to reduce fuel consumption by slowing the itinerary and spending more time in port, but was unable to offset the surging costs.
Batten down the hatches! Why not use a renewable sailing ship for this?
Operators are standing by.
“…operator had offered to “make the Odyssey your permanent home,” with the purchase price of a suite for the lifetime of the vessel starting around $230,000.”
Am I the only one who thinks this is a stupid, unsustainable business plan? Did they totally forget to consider operating costs at all?
Makes no sense there must have been monthly dues. If there was it would make way more sense to just cruise back to back on a real cruise line. Many do that.
It’s $8k a month for a retirement home, but only $4k a month to constantly cruise… I know what I’d pick.
“The ship has been carrying 203 passengers, mostly Americans, along with 156 crew members, according to Cambodian officials. It has a 650-passenger capacity.”
I think I found the problem, were they taking additional passengers to offset some of the cost of operation, since they had less than 1/3rd of capacity? Fuel was probably the smallest of their costs if it was $39.40 per passenger per month (or $8000 per month for operation).