The first-ever three-year sea cruise was canceled just one week before departure. According to CNN, after several weeks of silence, the organizing company admitted that it did not have a ship and promised to refund those who had already registered for the flight.
The cruise ship was scheduled to depart from Istanbul on November 1, but shortly before that date the departure was postponed to November 11, and the departure point became Amsterdam in the Netherlands. Then there was a second postponement of the start – already on November 30, again from Amsterdam. But on November 17 – less than two weeks before departure – passengers were told that the cruise had been canceled.
This news upset the passengers quite a bit. It is known that at least 111 cabins were booked before the start of the trip. Some of these people are still in Istanbul, where they arrived long before the expected start of the cruise. Many now simply have nowhere to return, because after booking a place on a liner that was supposed to sail across seven continents for three years, they sold or leased their housing and got rid of the rest of their property.
Now the company promises to return the money paid to them in several stages in the coming months. The company is also ready to pay for the flight home from Istanbul for those who do not have free money for this. But some have nowhere to go back.
Why was the cruise canceled?
The organizing company Life at Sea Cruises planned to purchase the AIDAaura liner for this cruise, which was decommissioned by another operator this summer. It had to be renamed and given a little tidying up before being sent on a three-year voyage.
Initially, the company planned to conclude a purchase agreement by the end of September. But after six weeks of uncertainty, during which Life at Sea repeatedly told guests the sale was taking longer than planned, another company, Celestyal Cruises, announced the purchase of AIDAaura on Nov. 16.
Expressing “sincere apologies for the inconvenience”, the organizing company said that the three-year cruise would not take place, because they “could not afford the ship”. As it turned out, the company itself did not have the funds to independently purchase a cruise liner.
made the initial payment, and the rest was to be paid by investors with whom there were previous agreements. But they refused to do so allegedly because of the events in the Middle East. Although Hamas attacked Israel on October 7 – a week after the date when the purchase agreement was supposed to be concluded.
The company did not respond to journalists’ inquiries about all these inaccuracies and gaps in explanations. However, in its messages, the company claims that it plans to implement its plan later with another liner.
How the first three-year cruise was conceived
As DIP wrote, the cruise company Life at Sea Cruises planned a tour that would cover 375 ports in 135 countries on seven continents. Also, tourists will be able to visit 13 of the 14 “wonders of the world”, so that does not mean. Passengers had to spend approximately one-third of the nights in hotels on land during stops for 2-3 days.
Organizers of the cruise assured that the tour will be ideal for digital nomads, who will be able to travel the world and work at the same time, paying for “rent” about 80 dollars a day, “which is cheaper than renting on land.”
The price of the tour included access to all restaurants and alcohol during dinner, a state-of-the-art health center, sun deck and pool, high-speed Internet, entertainment, “enrichment workshops” and cleaning. The ship should also have a 24-hour hospital with free doctor visits.