Jobs were laid off and homes were sold. Now they were about to embark on the journey of a lifetime.
This was not the case for passengers who purchased tickets for Life at Sea’s new cruise.
They have been tempted by sea life and experiences in 382 ports in 140 countries, but they will have to come up with something else over the next three years.
Several weeks after the ship was scheduled to dock, the company admitted that a major problem had arisen: they had lost the ship itself.
According to passengers, after several weeks of uncertainty CNN We have now been informed that the entire trip has been cancelled.
– I feel very sad and misled, someone tells the channel.
-Sad, angry and “lost”
The original departure date for eager cruise participants was November 1, when the ship was scheduled to dock in Istanbul. It didn’t happen. A new date and port have been set: November 11 in Amsterdam. That didn’t happen either, and the trip was postponed again, this time to November 30.
Now that doesn’t happen at all.
– There are many people who have nowhere to go, and some depend on getting their money back so they can afford to go somewhere, says another passenger, who does not want to reveal his name until he gets his money back, because CNN.
-I’m so sad, angry, and “lost.” For the next three years, I planned to live an extraordinary life and now I had nothing. “It’s hard to get going,” says another passenger.
Many of them say they sold or rented out their homes before the big trip.
“We both wanted to see the world, and this seemed like a cheap way to do it,” says another passenger USA Today.
He says he and his wife sold their house in Florida, US, and spent $85,000 to be part of the fun. This corresponds to about 920,000 Norwegian kroner.
Three years at sea for 1.2 million DKK.
according to Interested in trade The entire three-year trip costs US$115,500 per person, or about 1.2 million Norwegian kroner.
The cruise line’s vision was to have 800 to 900 passengers — most of them Americans — join the entire three-year voyage.
In August of this year, about 40 percent of the cabins were reserved, Business Insider wrote.
The three-year dream voyage was planned on board the ship AIDAaura, which Life at Sea was to buy from German cruise company AIDA Cruises.
The sale was scheduled to take place in September, and the ship was to be refitted before being reborn as MV Lara.
On November 16, just after the entire journey was scheduled to begin, Celestyal suddenly announced that it had purchased AIDAura.
The next day, former president of Life at Sea, Kendra Holmes, sent a video message to passengers.
Here you say that the trip will not take place.
Company: Investors pulled out
Life at Sea is a subsidiary of Miray Cruises. In a statement to USA Today The company’s president, Vedat Ugurlu, says they do not have the money to buy the ship they had planned because of “challenges as a result of investors withdrawing.”
In a letter to customers dated November 19, Ugurlu said it was still working to find a suitable vessel.
-We have done everything we can to make their dreams come true, and we will continue to do so.
However, a short time later, customers received this message from Ethem Bayramoglu, who is in charge of the company’s daily operations, as USA Today wrote:
– In case we weren’t clear: The Life at Sea cruise has been cancelled.
The company says that all passengers will receive their money back during the period from December to February.
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