One woman who had planned to set sail on a three-year Life at Sea Cruises trip – which was canceled in November – reportedly sold her home to make the trip.
Meredith Shay, a former flight attendant, said for Sunday Times she paid $562,000 for a seventh-floor balcony cabin on the ship.
The cruise was originally scheduled to depart from Istanbul, Turkey on November 1 and visit seven continents, 135 countries and 375 ports. But after being delayed twice, Life at Sea revealed to passengers on Nov. 17 that the cruise was officially canceled because there was no ready ship to take them on, according to CNN.
“I was desperate to see Namibia for the first time — and the Seychelles,” said Shay, who lives in Florida and planned to board a cruise in the Bahamas on Nov. 15. “And the coast of India.”
Another plus for her is that she didn’t have to cook or drive for three years.
“I had my little pity party,” Shay recalled of learning the news while living with her girlfriend in Fort Lauderdale, after selling many of her belongings. “I walked around broken for about 12 hours.”
Promenade deck on a cruise ship.
Getty
When she went to storage to pick up the things she was going to take on the cruise, she said: “A whole wave of sadness came over me again, looking at everything I’d packed so meticulously – you know, the seasickness pills, the summer T-shirts and all the vitamins for three years. It all brought it back, the preparation.”
Shay said passengers were “in disbelief” when they heard the news.
A three-year round-the-world cruise was suddenly canceled 2 weeks before its scheduled departure
“It was so close to leaving,” she added. “People let go of their homes, put their whole lives on hold.”
Shay was the first passenger to sign up for the voyage, which made headlines when cruise company Miray International, which owns Life at Sea, officially began taking bookings for the first-of-its-kind round-the-world voyage on board the MV Gemini.
The company later decided the ship was too small for cruising and planned to buy a larger vessel, the AIDAaura, which was to be renamed the MV Lara, CNN reported.
After passengers were told the sale was taking longer than expected, news emerged that another company, Celestyal Cruises, had bought the ship on November 16.
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(672x151:674x153)/cruise-passenger-sold-house-120423-1-5fee6e45409e4f5d8efe372d4ac2d015.jpg)
Life belt on the outer deck of the cruiser.
Getty
The next day, former Life at Sea CEO Kendra Holmes — who resigned just days before the sale collapsed — announced the cruise’s cancellation in a 15-minute video given to passengers, one of whom shared it with CNN- om.
Passport delays cause Maryland couple to miss out on once-in-a-lifetime trip: ‘Devastating’ (Exclusive)
On November 19, guests received a message from Vedat Ugurlu, owner of Miray International, who also said the cruise would not depart, CNN writes.
Ugurlu claimed that Miray was not “big enough” to afford the ship, but the cruise company “presented the project to investors and had official approval from some of them to buy the ship”, and after paying for the ship, the investors “refused to support us further due to unrest in the Middle East,” writes CNN.
Miray also promised to refund those who signed up for the cruise.
“There are a lot of people who have nowhere to go right now, and some of them need a refund to even plan to go anywhere — that’s not good,” one guest told CNN anonymously.
“I planned to live an extraordinary life for the next three years of my life, and now [I have] nothing. It’s hard for me to move forward,” another passenger told CNN. “I was proud and felt brave, now I no longer trust anyone or anything. I know it will work out and life will go on, but I’m not sure in which direction.”
Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education