The Villa Vie Odyssey's residents said they were given eight hours to disembark in Cambodia.
TANG CHHIN Sothy / AFP via Getty Images
The founder behind the "never-ending" cruise told Business Insider that problems piled up this year.
The Iran war sent fuel prices soaring. Then Villa Vie spooked passengers by asking them for loans.
Now founder Mikael Petterson says he is considering bankruptcy.
A financial whirlpool sucked the "never-ending" cruise under.
The founder behind the Villa Vie Odyssey told Business Insider that the Iran war fuel-price surge was the beginning of a "cascading effect" that led the cruise to shut down this week. Mikael Petterson, Villa Vie Residences' founder and executive chairman, said he's considering bankruptcy.
Villa Vie sold permanent cabins at prices ranging from $119,999 to $439,999, promising residents an endless cruise with stops at more than 400 ports of call and a global circumnavigation every three-and-a-half years.
Here are five business problems that brought the trip to an abrupt end.
1. Fuel prices soared.
In February, the United States and Israel launched a war in Iran. Fuel prices surged. The Odyssey uses marine gas oil, or MGO.
Villa Vie had typically paid around $600 or $700 per metric ton for the Odyssey's fuel, Petterson said. By March, the price of MGO in Singapore had soared to nearly $2,000 per metric ton, according to data from Ship & Bunker, a trade publication.
2. The company was too small to hedge.
Some publicly traded companies, like Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings, have told shareholders this year that they have taken measures to blunt the impact of fuel-price volatility. Unlike larger cruise lines, Villa Vie didn't have the scale to absorb the higher prices, Petterson said.
"They're able to hedge and take away some of that risk, but we're too small of a company to do that," he said.
The ship changed its itinerary to spend more time docked at ports and conserve fuel, but it wasn't enough, Petterson said.
3. Villa Vie spooked its own passengers.
In April, Villa Vie wanted residents to help shore up its finances. The company asked them to loan Villa Vie money, offering them interest rates of 12% to 24%, according to a letter viewed by Business Insider.
Some residents got "scared," Petterson said. They sold their cabins to other people who wanted to live aboard. That made things more difficult for Villa Vie's sales team, which was still trying to find buyers for the remaining vacancies on the ship, Petterson said.
4. The company's reputation was damaged.
Some of the Odyssey's residents were content creators. In Substack posts and YouTube videos, they posted about their experiences, some positive and some negative, for the roughly two years that it sailed the world.
Some travel bloggers and social media posters blamed Villa Vie's management for the operation's financial troubles. The negative publicity made it harder to bring more people aboard, Petterson said.
5. The company struggled with cash flow.
The ship's original launch in 2024 was delayed for four months while mechanical problems — including issues with the aging ship's rudder — kept the ship stuck in dry dock. Preparing the ship for launch cost $15 million more than what Villa Vie had expected, Petterson said.
He said the operation was on track to get to break-even cash flow by the second quarter of this year — but the Iran war blew up that plan.
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Amid a growing trend of parent-child estrangement, experts say recognizing the early warning signs may help families address problems before they escalate into a no-contact situation.
Nearly four in 10 Americans are currently estranged from at least one close family member, according to a 2025 YouGov poll of 4,395 U.S. adults. That includes 24% who reported estrangement from a sibling, 16% from a parent and 10% from a child.
While estrangement can sometimes seem sudden, experts say subtle changes may signal that a family relationship is beginning to unravel.
Mary McLaughlin, a licensed couples and family therapist in Vienna, Virginia, said early signs may include an adult child becoming less willing to share details of their life directly with a parent.
"You might find out about the trip, the new relationship or a promotion at work at the same time everyone else does," she told Fox News Digital.
The parent may still be in contact with the adult child, McLaughlin said, but the child no longer chooses to share parts of their life directly.
Other potential warning signs may include skipping family holidays, birthdays or weddings; leaving texts and calls unanswered; and reducing communication to brief or sporadic exchanges, according to the expert.
The distance may become so noticeable that siblings, grandparents or other relatives comment that they have not seen or heard from the adult child in a long time.
A child who once readily joined family photos but begins stepping out of them may also be signaling that they are starting to see themselves as separate from the family, McLaughlin said.
Blythe Landry, a Pennsylvania-based therapist and founder of Blythe Landry Coaching, said other early signs may include a child becoming involved with a new social group that encourages estrangement over difficult conversations, or "beginning to rewrite history in a way that seems more damaging than what might have happened."
The adult child may also become less willing to let a parent spend time with their grandchildren.
The most telling sign may be a noticeable shift in the tone of the relationship, Landry said.
"You know your child, and you know when the energy has shifted in a direction that seems dramatically harsher than in previous interactions."
The shift to independence
Laura Wellington, a Connecticut mother who has been estranged from her adult daughter since 2024, said it can be challenging to distinguish early signs of estrangement from typical moves toward independence.
"It’s confusing to the parent because, a lot of times, they look like the general signs of a teenager moving into the young-adult zone — just pulling away and going off and establishing their lives," she told Fox News Digital.
"That’s what I think confuses many parents, because they want to give them the space to start pulling away and showing signs of their own individuality and carving their path."
"They don’t want to fight every battle, because if they fight every battle, then communication breaks down. So they try to pick and choose."
Loss of respect
One warning sign, according to Wellington, is if the child has an "I know everything, you know nothing" mindset.
"What's happening in our society today is … a lot of ‘I know everything, you know nothing’ toward the parent," she said. "There's no respect for what the parents experience. There's no tolerance for them speaking up and saying, ‘No, this is not what you should be doing.’"
In some cases, the child may begin treating the parent as a subordinate, according to Wellington.
Some parents begin to notice a shift when their adult children start treating them with disrespect, pushing back on their opinions and positioning themselves as the authority in the relationship, she said.
"They become the authority; they flip it. Anytime you say something, you’ll see them bark at the parent and push back on the parent. They really have no respect for the parent."
Different worldviews
Wellington also pointed to major differences in political, religious or lifestyle beliefs as a possible source of growing distance between parents and adult children.
She suggested that some young people who become estranged are "more liberal in thinking," while acknowledging that the dynamic can also work in the opposite direction when a parent holds especially strong ideological views.
"There is extremism sometimes where the parent is extremely something, and then the child … goes the other way," she said.
Richard Blake, Ph.D., a Texas-based psychology researcher who focuses on anxiety and family estrangement, said an adult child’s unwillingness to consider differing views may signal trouble.
He suggested that personality may play a role, with more argumentative adult children who are less willing to consider differing views potentially more prone to family estrangement.
Another possible warning sign, according to Blake, is if the adult child has begun cutting off other people. He said parents should take note if an adult child has repeatedly stopped speaking to relatives or openly boasts about ending relationships.
"Chances are, they're going to cut off someone else, and it may be the parent," he said. "If you haven’t been cut off yet, you may be in the firing line there."
Communication breakdown
Ongoing communication problems may be an early warning sign, Blake said, particularly when an adult child feels that a parent refuses to listen or acknowledge the child’s point of view.
"They may say, 'My parents just don’t listen. I cannot get through to them. It’s like talking to a brick wall.'"
Parents who consistently dismiss their children’s concerns should not be surprised when conflict develops, he said.
"If you don’t listen to your child, then don’t be surprised if you have conflict with them."
Blake recommends listening actively, avoiding interruptions, repeating back what the other person has said and asking a simple follow-up question: "First, you say, 'Is there more?'"
Villa Vie Residences Executive Chairman Mikael Petterson (right) posed for a photo with a passenger before the Odyssey cruise ship set sail in 2024.
Liam McBurney/PA Images via Getty Images
A "never-ending" cruise was halted because of soaring fuel prices. Its founder blames the Iran war.
Mikael Petterson says he's considering bankruptcy for his company, Villa Vie. "I feel awful."
He says residents began to jump ship when the company asked them for emergency loans.
The founder of the "never-ending" cruise that stalled in Cambodia told Business Insider he's doing his best to right the ship.
"I feel awful," Mikael Petterson said when reached by phone Wednesday. The vessel's evicted residents are "counting on me to make the decisions here, and there's nothing else I'm focused on."
After a stormy two years at sea, he had a plan last week to keep the ship's finances afloat, he said.
With his company, Villa Vie Residences, Petterson had promised a new way of life: People could spend six figures to purchase one of 509 cabins on a luxury cruise ship called the Odyssey, and sail around the world for the rest of their lives.
Reality was different. Unexpected mechanical problems delayed the ship's launch for months. Some passengers were unhappy with their cabins. Then the war in Iran sent fuel prices soaring. Residents began to jump ship.
That began a financial whirlpool that sucked the ship under. The price surge was the beginning of a "cascading effect" that led Villa Vie to shut the Odyssey down on Tuesday, Petterson said. The company told passengers living aboard to leave the ship within hours.
"Nobody that's tried residential cruising has succeeded, and we've gone further than anyone else," said Petterson, Villa Vie's founder and executive chairman. "But I think we would have been absolutely fine — and we would have seen this through — if there was no Iran war."
Until last week, Petterson said, he was in talks with a potential investor and was expecting a new infusion of cash. When the deal fell apart, he said, the company was out of options. Now he's considering bankruptcy. He said he understood why residents said they felt shocked and heartbroken.
"I'm the villain in the story, but I'm doing everything I can to support the residents on a solution," he said.
A turbulent launch
The Villa Vie Odyssey was supposed to set sail from Belfast in May 2024. But it wasn't yet seaworthy.
Villa Vie Residences had retrofitted the three-decade-old ship and sold permanent cabins at prices ranging from $119,999 to $439,999. The company's pitch to residents was an endless cruise with stops at more than 400 ports of call and a global circumnavigation every three-and-a-half years. Buyers uprooted their landbound lives with plans to live out the rest of their days on a luxury floating hotel with a pool deck and spa.
Mechanical problems — including issues with the aging ship's rudder — kept the ship in dry dock, leaving some passengers stuck in Belfast for months. Preparing the ship for launch cost $15 million more than what Villa Vie had expected, Petterson told Business Insider.
Passengers finally boarded the Odyssey four months after its scheduled departure.
Liam McBurney/PA Images via Getty Images
Once onboard, some passengers were unhappy with their accommodations. Two passengers sued last year, claiming that the ship's living quarters and amenities weren't as promised. One of them also lamented the noise from a pickleball court installed over his cabin. Villa Vie has disputed the claims and said it honored the terms of its contracts. Both lawsuits are ongoing.
Petterson said the ship's first year-and-a-half at sea was "a ginormous undertaking" beset by financial challenges, but the company had put in place a plan for the operation's cash flow to break even by the second quarter of 2026.
Then, in late February, the United States and Israel launched a war in Iran.
Jumping ship
Fuel prices surged. The Odyssey uses marine gas oil, or MGO.
Villa Vie had typically paid around $600 or $700 per metric ton for the Odyssey's fuel, Petterson said. By March, the price of MGO in Singapore had soared to nearly $2,000 per metric ton, according to data from Ship & Bunker, a trade publication.
Unlike larger cruise lines, Villa Vie didn't have the scale to absorb the higher prices, Petterson said.
"They're able to hedge and take away some of that risk, but we're too small of a company to do that," he said.
In April, Villa Vie wanted residents to help shore up its finances. The company asked residents to loan Villa Vie money, offering them interest rates of 12% to 24%, according to a letter viewed by Business Insider. Villa Vie also changed the ship's itinerary, canceling stops at some ports to stretch its fuel supply, Petterson said.
Some residents got "scared," Petterson said. They sold their cabins to other people who wanted to live aboard. That, in turn, made things more difficult for Villa Vie's sales team, which was still trying to find buyers for the remaining vacancies on the ship, he said.
The Odyssey's passengers were mostly Americans; some of them were content creators. In Substack posts and YouTube videos, they posted about their experiences, some positive and some negative, for the roughly two years that it sailed the world.
Some travel bloggers and social media posters blamed Villa Vie's management for the operation's financial troubles. The negative publicity made it harder to bring more people aboard, Petterson said.
By the start of June, fuel prices were falling and things were looking up for Villa Vie, Petterson said. The Odyssey had sold 85% of its units, he said. Villa Vie announced plans to launch another residential cruise ship that would be bigger and better than the Odyssey.
Then in July, fighting between the US and Iran expanded. Fuel prices jumped, and the company's prospects plunged again, he said.
As fuel prices remained high, Villa Vie entered into talks with Oneil Khosa, the former CEO of Margaritaville's cruise line, to inject cash and join as an operational partner, Petterson said. Last week, the negotiations turned into "a game of chicken that just blew up in everyone's face," he said. Talks fell apart.
Khosa didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
Villa Vie Tuesday gave passengers eight hours to leave the ship, passengers told Business Insider.
AFP via Getty Images
Villa Vie announced that the Odyssey was suspending operations while it was docked this week at the port of Sihanoukville in Cambodia. The price of MGO in Cambodia is now $2,200 per ton, Petterson said, and in Manila, it is even higher.
Barbara Fiegel, 62, who had lived with her partner aboard the Odyssey since December 2024, returned to the ship with her partner later that evening and the following day to pack their belongings.
"I couldn't stop crying," she said.
Petterson said the company could undergo a court-supervised restructuring that would allow management to remain in control, or it could have to liquidate.
"We just don't have the financial ability to sustain normal operations for the time being," he said. "So we're protecting the asset and laying it up until we can find a solution going forward."
Petterson expressed pride in the "community of almost 400 residents" that sailed around six continents. He said letting them down felt "incredibly deflating."
"I'm working day and night to find a way to get through this," he said.
Joshua Nelken Zitser contributed reporting.
Have you spent time on the Villa Vie Odyssey as a cabin owner, renter, or staff member? If you have a story to share, get in touch with us at jzitser@businessinsider.com.
Kyiv's military campaign resulted in over 100 Russian vessels being hit in the Azov sea during the summer — negatively impacting Russia's economy and contributing to an increase in global grain prices.
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