Why This Luxe Cruise Ship’s 3-Year World Tour Got Stuck in Belfast Before It Started

About 200 of Odyssey's villa owners have been waiting four months in Northern Ireland for repairs to finish, so their 147-country world tour can start. "We're ready to set sail, for sure," says one owner.

A residential cruise ship, promising three and a half years of nonstop global voyaging, has been stuck in a Northern Ireland facility for repairs. The 642-foot Odyssey has been undergoing repair work at the Harland & Wolfe shipyard in Belfast since May. About 200 owners of its residences are stuck with it and have yet to spend a night aboard the vessel.

Calling itself the first perpetual world cruise, Odyssey has a busy 425-port itinerary across 147 countries through 2028. Its cabins, renamed “villas” by Florida-based Villa Vie Residences, start at $99,999 and run to $899,000, with monthly fees that vary according to the type of cabin and number of occupants. Non-resident passengers can also sign up for segments that last weeks or months.

The cruise ship, built in 1993, lengthened in 2009 and refurbished in 2019, has had multiple owners during its 31-year history. Odyssey was purchased by Villa Vie Residences last year with a business model that favored residences and global circumnavigation over the weekly itineraries and repeat routes of other cruise ships.

Villa Vie Residences’s marketing manager Sebastian Stokkendal told the Associated Press that the company had been “humbled by the scale of what it takes to reactivate a 30-year-old vessel from a four-year layup.” Harland & Wolff, which built the HMS Titanic over a century ago, has been working on Odyssey’s rudder shafts, steel hull, and engines. “We expect a very anticipated successful launch next week where we will head to Bremerhaven, Amsterdam, Lisbon, then across the Atlantic for our Caribbean segment,” Stokkendal said.

That is welcome news for about 200 residents who have been staying in Belfast for months. “We’re ready to set sail, for sure,” Lanette Canen, who has been waiting with her partner Johan Bodin, told the Associated Press. “When we’d visited every pub and tried and every fish and chips place and listened to all the places that have Irish music, then we were ready to go elsewhere,” she said.

The passengers can access the ship by day to use the vessel’s three restaurants and enjoy entertainment, but they aren’t allowed to stay overnight. Villa Vie has been paying for hotels in Belfast and other European cities for those who want to see more of Europe while the ship is being repaired. Bodin and Canen have traveled to Italy, Croatia, and Sweden. They will be working remotely once the voyage gets under way.

The passengers seem to have adopted a positive attitude, even as more delays were announced. Dr. David Austin, from Georgia, told the BBC that he has “stopped counting down” the days until the ship launches. “The payoff of seeing the world in this fashion is too great to feel too disappointed with each delay announcement,” he said. “I was committed, having sold my house right before my arrival, and I’ve stayed committed to this adventure with every delay.”

The business model for residential cruising has had at least one success, MS The World, which launched in 2002, but other ventures such as Life at Sea canceled its three-year voyage last year because it was unable to find a vessel. Another, called Victoria Adventures, also stalled. What promises to be the most exclusive residential ship, Njord, is scheduled to launch next year. The 948-foot vessel has suites that start at $8 million.

High-end hotel chains such as the Four Seasons and the Ritz-Carlton also have large, purpose-designed vessels they call “superyachts” for members to circumnavigate the world. The Aman hotel chain is also building a specialized luxury vessel called Aman at Sea.

Villa Vie CEO Mike Petterson said Odyssey should launch by the end of this week. “We’re not focused on the next days or weeks, we are focused on the rest of our lives and what this company will do for the residents and the industry,” he told the BBC, adding that Odyssey is the first “affordable” residential cruise ship. “When you’re the first at doing something, you will run into hiccups, but we’re definitely getting there, and although we are late, we will launch,” he said.