Sihanoukville, Cambodia — A U.S. cruise ship on a round-the-world voyage presenting its cabins as floating homes has suspended its three-year voyage to Cambodia due to fuel costs, forcing hundreds of passengers to disembark.
The MV Odyssey set sail two years ago on a voyage to all seven continents marketed as combining long-term living at sea and global travel. Its operator had offered to “make the Odyssey your permanent home,” with the price of purchasing a suite for the life of the ship starting at around $230,000.
For the moment, it is moored at the Cambodian port of Sihanoukville, in the Gulf of Thailand, without a precise departure date.
AP Photo / Heng Sinith 
The ship was carrying 203 passengers, most of them Americans, as well as 156 crew members, according to Cambodian authorities. It has a capacity of 650 passengers.
Its Florida-based operator, Villa Vie Residences, said monthly fuel expenses per cabin, historically averaging $1,800, have reached between $6,000 and $8,000 in parts of Asia. because of the war in Iran. The company said it was seeking to reduce fuel consumption by slowing the route and spending more time in port, but was unable to offset the rising costs.
Traffic has been reduced through the Strait of Hormuz since the start of the war in Iran, which has reduced the supply of fuels of all kinds, especially in Southeast Asia, and led to a sharp rise in prices.
The average price of a gallon of diesel fuel the day before the war began, Feb. 27, 2026, was $3.76, according to AAA, and was $6.52 at the end of last month, an increase of $2.76.
“We have been unable to continue to sustain the resulting operating losses,” Villa Vie Residences said in a statement released Tuesday. “Passing the entire increase onto residents is not a realistic solution. Our focus now is on supporting residents, crew and employees” during the restructuring.
“The company is working with residents to coordinate disembarkation and identify temporary living conditions,” she said.
However, a blogger who took the cruise, Randy Cassingham, wrote online that “the company did absolutely nothing to help us: we couldn’t even walk out of the port, so shuttles dropped us off in the middle of town in Sihanoukville, Cambodia.”
“They didn’t even give us a list of hotels, let alone help us get there or pay for them,” Cassingham said on his website. The company could not immediately be reached for comment.
The ship arrived in Sihanoukville last Friday and was due to leave on Wednesday, according to a statement from Long Dimanche, deputy governor of Preah Sihanouk province. He said it was now scheduled to refuel and leave Cambodia on Saturday, but the ship’s operator has not yet publicly confirmed a date.
Built in 1993 and operated under different names by several cruise lines over the years before being shelved by the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, the Odyssey was bought by Villa Vie Résidences in 2023.
Its current cruise, initially planned to last 3 and a half years, began in October 2024 in Belfast, Northern Ireland, where the ship had been refitted. A second cruise was tentatively scheduled to end in August 2030.
The Odyssey is not the first cruise ship that Sihanoukville has welcomed in crisis.
In February 2020, the MS Westerdam was allowed to dock in Cambodia after being turned away at five ports in other countries due to fears over COVID-19, which had begun spreading from China a month earlier. It carried 1,455 passengers, including more than 600 American citizens.
After being stuck at sea for two weeks, Hun Sen, then Cambodian Prime Minister, allowed it to dock for what he said were humanitarian reasons. Cambodia was praised as the passengers were welcomed ashore and arrangements were made for them to return home.
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