A high-end experiment in perpetual cruising is collapsing under the weight of its fuel bill, the CEO behind it now admits. Mikael Petterson of Florida-based Villa Vie Residences tells CBS News that the company plans to seek Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after fuel prices for its MV Odyssey "quadrupled" amid the war with Iran, sending monthly operating costs from about $400,000 to $2 million. Fuel that once cost $700 a ton now runs as high as $3,000, Petterson says, with the ship burning up to 800 tons a month. The ship has since docked in Cambodia, where passengers are now trying to figure out what to do next. "The company is working with residents to coordinate disembarkation and identify temporary living arrangements," Villa Vie Residences said in a statement, per the AP.
Petterson said the company refused to pass the fuel cost spike on to passengers, many of whom sold homes for long-term cabins, and "stretched our payrolls as far as we can" before operations halted in Southeast Asia, leaving more than 200 passengers, most of whom are Americans, in limbo. "I feel awful," Petterson tells Business Insider. "I'm the villain in the story, but I'm doing everything I can to support the residents on a solution." People and Reuters talk to passengers who were on the ship, including one couple who tell the latter that they sold their home and assets in Wyoming to fund a nearly $180,000 cabin on the ship so they could spend their retirement sailing the world.
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