Passengers bought berths for 3-year cruise. Months later, ship still stuck in Belfast

BELFAST, Northern Ireland — Lanette Canen and Johan Bodin left life on land to become maritime nomads on a multi-year cruise.

Months later, the couple have still not spent a night at sea. Their ship, the Odyssey, is stuck in Belfast undergoing repairs that have postponed its planned departure in May on a three-and-a-half-year round-the-world voyage.

Bodin said Friday they enjoyed their stopover in the Northern Ireland capital, but “after visiting all the pubs, trying all the fish and chips and listening to all the places that have Irish music, we were ready to go somewhere else.”

“We’re ready to go, that’s for sure,” Canen added.

Villa Vie Residences Odyssey is the latest adventure in the hectic world of continuous cruising.

The ship offers travelers the chance to purchase a cabin and live at sea on a ship that sails around the world. On its maiden voyage, the ship is scheduled to call at 425 ports in 147 countries on seven continents. Cabins, called “villas,” start at $99,999, plus a monthly fee, for the ship’s operational life of at least 15 years. Passengers can also sign up for segments of the voyage lasting several weeks or months.

The marketing material, aimed at adventurous retirees and restless digital nomads, touts “the incredible opportunity to own a home on a floating paradise,” complete with a gym, spa, putting green, entertainment facilities, business center and “experiential culinary center.”

But first, the Odyssey must leave the dock.

It’s now in Harland in Belfast & The Wolff shipyard, where the doomed RMS Titanic was built more than a century ago.

Villa Vie Residences marketing director Sebastian Stokkendal said the company was “honoured by the magnitude of what it takes to reactivate a 30-year-old vessel after four years of being laid up”.

He said that after work on the rudder shafts, steel work and engine overhauls, the ship is almost ready to sail.

“We are looking forward to a highly anticipated and successful launch next week, where we will head to Bremerhaven, Amsterdam, Lisbon and then across the Atlantic for our Caribbean segment,” he said in an email to The Associated Press.

In the meantime, the company has funded the accommodation costs of nearly 200 passengers. They are allowed to board the ship during the day and are provided with meals and entertainment, but cannot stay overnight. The cruise line has funded hotels in Belfast and other European cities for those who want to explore more of Europe in the meantime.

Passenger Holly Hennessey, from Florida, told the BBC she could not leave Northern Ireland because of her shipmate, her cat, the captain.

She said that at first, “I thought I was going home or that the boat was taking people to the Canary Islands. And then I found out that because I had my cat with me, I couldn’t even leave.”

“I want to thank Belfast for such a warm welcome to all of us,” she said.

Bodin and Canen – a Swede and an American who met while both living in Hawaii – have used the time to travel to Italy, Croatia and Bodin’s hometown in Sweden, where they await news of the Odyssey.

Canen plans to run his Arizona-based auto glass business from the ship. Bodin, a carpenter, runs a YouTube channel that documents the couple’s temporarily interrupted voyage.

Built in 1993 and operated under different names by several cruise lines over the years before being grounded by the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, the Odyssey was purchased by Villa Vie Residences in 2023.

The residential cruise sector has proven to be a struggling one. The MS The World, launched in 2002, is currently the only ship of its type operating. Another company, Life at Sea, cancelled its planned three-year voyage late last year after failing to find a ship.

Canen and Bodin put a deposit down on Life at Sea — they got their money back — and also bet on Victoria Cruises, another failed company from which they are still seeking reimbursement.

But they are not discouraged.

“We can be crazy, stupid, naive or resilient,” Bodin said. “I don’t know, you can put whatever label you want on it.”

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Lawless reported from London.