A Laramie couple who sold their home and possessions to live on a cruise ship during their retirement years were among those stranded in Cambodia when their cruise ship operator abruptly suspended all company operations.
The excellent adventure became a nightmare in just 17 months at sea.
Paul and Lynn Montoya are two of 200 passengers left high and dry Tuesday by Villa Vie Residences, which pulled the plug on its cruise ship, the Odyssey.
The company blamed the suspension on rising fuel prices and told passengers they would have to disembark the Odyssey in Cambodia’s Sihanoukville province, with their pets and any personal items they might take from their homes at sea.
“It’s a little difficult for us, because if we don’t come back to the ship, you’ve seen in the previous videos all the remodeling we’ve done here,” Paul, 68, said. their video blog “Lynn and Paul’s Excellent Adventure” detailing the couple’s plight.
“It’s been great and we’re going to miss it, so we hope we can come back,” he added.
Lynn, 64, said she didn’t allow herself to cry over the situation. She focuses on hugging her friends and finalizing a plan to get through November 9th.
She told the Daily Mail that they had already spent $450,000 on their offshore retirement home.
“I deal with all the emotions,” she said on the blog. “I was angry. I’m still angry. I’m sad, because I don’t do my daily business and I don’t see my friends.
“I don’t see all the wonderful places we were supposed to go.”
The video shows them disembarking from the Odyssey at a shipping port.
15 year dream cruise
The Montoyas spoke to Cowboy State Daily last year at start of their journey. They described adventure as a way to see the world on a middle-class budget.
After spending $179,000 for lifetime rights to a cabin on the cruise ship, their remaining costs were $6,000 per month to operate the ship, or an annual cost of living of $72,000.
This included housekeeping and laundry, three meals a day, up to two glasses of wine or beer, and all the amenities: a spa, swimming pool, pickleball, library, gymnasium, lounges, theaters, and game rooms.
Plus, the ability to circumnavigate the world in about four years, stopping at ports several days at a time for once-in-a-lifetime adventures.
They had originally planned to take a four-year cruise, but hoped to make it last 15 years if they liked it, they said.
They compared that to their expected living expenses in Laramie and decided the costs were comparable, if not cheaper, for what seemed like an extraordinary opportunity to see the world.
“We never had a lot of time to travel a lot,” Paul Montoya told Cowboy State Daily at the time. “We’re in our 60s now, so we’d really like to explore the world.”
But today, the couple is in limbo. They have no home to return to and are waiting to hear if the company can reorganize to resume travel or at least buy enough fuel to get its passengers to a city easier for Americans to leave, like Bangkok.
“It’s crazy,” Paul said. “But we arrived here. We are at the Independence Hotel.”
Paul estimated that half of the cruise ship passengers chose this hotel.
“It’s absolutely a beautiful hotel, but it’s very cheap,” he said, estimating the nightly price at $60.
“I think most people stay here because it’s on the beach and they have two pools,” Lynn said.
“Yeah, and one is the infinity pool, so we’re going to take a look at that now that the sun is going down,” Paul said.
Many passengers are unhappy about being abandoned in Cambodia, he added.
“It’s a very difficult place,” he said. “And if you remember, the ship allows cats. We have maybe half a dozen cats. And (their owners) are concerned about transporting the cats out of the country and things like that.”
Stuck in Southeast Asia “forever”
Although the company only gave its passengers seven hours to pack, Lynn and Paul said the warning signs were mounting.
“The first chink in the armor that we started to see was when they came up with a few programs — and I don’t remember the order they came in,” Paul said. “But the Golden Passport and Endless Horizon programs are basically programs where you pay a lot of money up front and never have to pay any maintenance fees for the rest of your life, supposedly.”
That made the couple wonder, based on the number of residents, whether the operation would run out of money.
Lynn discovered that some people were only paying $500 in ongoing maintenance fees, which increased their concerns.
“To keep a ship operating, or any other type of business, if you don’t have the revenue to support it, it’s going to be a really problematic situation,” Paul said.
“And they were experiencing a slow decline in the amount of their monthly income relative to their expenses. At some point, they would have run into where they ultimately did,” he added.
Selling more cabins wasn’t enough to save the business if those new occupants didn’t share in the maintenance costs, Paul said.
“On top of everything else, fuel prices have gone up because of the war,” he said. “Fuel for ships is measured in metric tons. While they were paying about $700 or $800 a ton, all of a sudden, because of the shortage, they were paying $2,000 a ton.”
Eventually, that amount reached $2,200 in Australia and New Zealand, Lynn added.
“Plus, they were paying three times as much for fuel,” she said. “So it started changing ports, canceling ports, rerouting the route, trying to go to different things.
“That’s why we’ve been stuck in Southeast Asia forever.”
Unsustainable business model
Cowboy State Daily reached out to Villa Vie by phone and email, but did not receive a response.
Paul said he saw a report that the company’s expenses were about $3.2 million a month, while its revenue, due to no maintenance fees, was only about $700,000.
“It’s not sustainable,” Paul said. “So at that point, they started asking residents to help loan them money or donate money to the ship. We got involved in April in what was called the residential fuel loan program.”
Lynn Montoya told the Daily Mail the company asked 22 residents for a $2.2 million collective loan in April, to be repaid with interest by April 2027.
The couple was told they would receive interest on the loan every month for a year at an aggressive rate.
So far, none of the promised payments have been made, Paul said.
A few months later, Lynn said, the company reached out again, first asking for $1.5 million and then another $360,000 since they arrived in Cambodia.
“So it was our big mistake to get involved,” he said. “But at the time, we still really trusted the company. We were hopeful that we were going to get them out of a difficult situation.”
Everyone wanted to continue, Lynn added.
“When someone comes to you and says, ‘Look, we need a lot of extra money to move forward and make your dreams come true,’ and we’re all here because we want to continue…a large percentage of us said, ‘Yes. We want to continue,'” she said.
Optimistic about the future
The couple remains optimistic about returning to retirement on cruise ships. They are making new projects.
In fact, they had a head start. They had planned to jump ship to spend a few weeks in Malaysia, so they will continue with at least a few adventures already planned.
This is because the ship was heading to Thailand, then Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, but did not spend enough time in these locations to suit the couple.
“The stay in Kuala Lumpur was only supposed to last three days,” Lynn said.
A few months ago, she started watching YouTube videos and talking to other people about things to do. She also used ChatGPT to develop her own itinerary, with the intention of also covering some medical appointments during her stay.
As a result, they already have a new itinerary largely mapped out, including hotel stays and excursions, until November 9.
“We’re going to stay here in Cambodia for two more nights,” Paul said. “And then we go to Phnom Penh, which is the capital, a big city.
“We hope to show you some of it because it’s supposed to be a beautiful city.”
They will stay there one night before boarding a plane to Kuala Lumpur, where they plan to spend about 10 days, or more, if that suits them.
“Throughout all of this, we will be able to find a solution,” Paul said. “Maybe with the ship.”
The journey so far has been wonderful, the couple added, and they are keeping their fingers crossed that after the reorganization there will be options to continue their tour.
“We’ll see if the Odyssey continues to sail,” Paul said. “We really hope that’s the case.”
Renee Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.
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