The illusion of hundreds of people who had signed up for an unusual trip around the world that would last several years has been broken, after the company that organized it officially reported that the project has been canceled and has no time to resume.
It turns out that a while ago, the company Life at Sea Cruises launched a call for people to sign up for its inaugural cruise trip, through which you would go around the world and not get off of it for the next 3 years.
The nightmare for passengers who reserved 111 cabins for this cruise trip began before November 1, the date the ship was scheduled to depart from Istanbul; However, Life at Sea Cruises informed them that there had been a modification and that they would depart on November 11 from Amsterdam.
But days before, the date was changed again to November 30 until finally, last week, they were informed that the cruise trip had been cancelled.
The problem, literally, is that there is no boat to do it.
Originally, the company that organized this trip had planned to buy the AIDAaura in September, a ship retired this summer by AIDA Cruises, a German subsidiary of Carnival Corp. However, the ship was purchased by another company.
Days later, the affected passengers received a message from Vedat Ugurlu, owner of Miray Cruises, the company to which Life at Sea belongs. He declared himself “extremely sorry for the inconvenience,” indicating that they could not pay for the ship.
Although they did not have all the money to be able to afford it, theoretically they had partnered with others to be able to do it. But the conflicts in the Middle East caused the business to collapse.
“If we cannot sail on December 1, we will offer to sail on another departure date or we will refund all payments within a short period of time. We have tried everything to make his dreams come true and we will continue to do so,” is the promise that Ugurlu has made in this situation.
According to CNN, there are several passengers stranded in Istanbul, who are desperate to recover their belongings and, above all, for the company to reimburse them for the trip, since they are out of money. As if that were not enough, many claimed to have sold their houses and other properties to be able to do it and now they have nowhere to go.
According to the company’s website, a cabin on deck 6 of this cruise cost, per person per year, $81,639, with a reservation deposit of $124,908.
The company stated that it will make repayments in monthly installments, beginning in mid-December and completing payments by the end of February. It has also offered to pay for accommodation until December 1 and flights home for everyone stranded in Istanbul.
They promise a similar cruise trip
Former Life at Sea CEO Kendra Holmes, who resigned last week, says she is planning to offer a new long-term cruise with another company.
In a 15-minute video addressed to Life at Sea passengers on Friday, Holmes pointed toward a long-duration around-the-world cruise offered by a new company he will be working with, which he called HLC Cruises.
“We have nothing to do with Life at Sea, we don’t want our name to be associated with them, but we are working on something and we are trying to help people who are left homeless, if we can,” this company stated.
Additionally, Holmes told Life at Sea’s stranded passengers that if 60 or 70 of them “transferred” to the new company, they could “get something going” by the first week of December, and they already had board approval of HLC administration to do so.
The company would get a temporary boat to sail for 3 or 4 months, while they acquire a boat to make a longer trip that would begin next year. If Life at Sea passengers do not accept the offer, they would also consider launching a long-duration cruise in October 2024.
Likewise, other former Life at Sea employees, who have set up their own businesses, promise to reward these travelers with a similar cruise, only they do not yet have dates for when they will be able to take it.
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