A Laramie couple who sold their home and belongings to live on a cruise ship during their retirement years are among those left stranded in Cambodia when the operator of their cruise ship abruptly suspended all company operations.
The excellent adventure has become a nightmare just 17 months at sea.
Paul and Lynn Montoya are two of the 200 passengers left high and dry Tuesday by Villa Vie Residences, which pulled the plug on their cruise ship, the Odyssey.
The company blamed soaring fuel prices for the suspension and told passengers they’d have to disembark the Odyssey in the Sihanoukville province of Cambodia, along with pets and any personal items they could carry from their homes at sea.
“It’s a little tough for us, because if we don’t come back to the ship, you’ve seen from previous videos all the remodeling we’ve done here,” Paul, 68, said in their video blog "Lynn and Paul's Excellent Adventure" detailing the couple’s predicament.
“It’s been great, and we’re going to miss that. So, we hope we can make it back,” he added.
Lynn, 64, said she hasn’t allowed herself to cry about the situation. She’s focused on hugging her friends and finalizing a plan to get through Nov. 9.
She told the Daily Mail that they have already spent $450,000 for their retirement home on the seas.
“I’m running all the emotions,” she said in the blog. “I was angry. I’m still angry. I’m sad, because I’m not doing my day-to-day stuff and I’m not seeing my friends.
“I’m not seeing all the wonderful places we were supposed to go see.”
The video shows them disembarking from the Odyssey at a shipping port.
15-Year Dream Cruise
The Montoyas talked to Cowboy State Daily last year at the beginning of their voyage. They described the 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 a month for ship operations — a $72,000 annual cost of living.
That 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 chance to circumnavigate the globe in roughly four years, putting in at ports for days at a time for once-in-a-lifetime adventures.
They originally planned to do a four-year cruise, but hoped to make it 15 years if they enjoyed 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 much time to do much travel,” Paul Montoya told Cowboy State Daily at the time. “We’re in our 60s now, so we’d really like to explore the world.”
Now, though, the couple is in limbo. They don’t have a home to go back to, and they’re waiting to hear whether the company can reorganize to resume the tour or at least buy enough fuel to get its passengers to an easier city for Americans to exit, such as Bangkok.
“It’s crazy,” Paul said. “But we made it here. We’re at the Independence Hotel.”
Paul estimated half the people on the cruise ship chose that hotel.
“It’s absolutely a beautiful hotel, but it’s very inexpensive,” he said, estimating its nightly cost at $60.
“I think most people are staying here because it’s on the beach and they have two swimming pools,” Lynn said.
“Yeah, and one’s the infinity pool, so we’ll go look at that now that the sun’s setting,” Paul said.
Many of the passengers are upset about being abandoned in Cambodia, he added.
“It’s a very difficult place,” he said. “And if you remember, the ship does allow cats. We’ve got maybe half-a-dozen cats. And (their owners) are concerned about transporting the cats out of the country and things like that.”
Stuck In SE Asia 'Since Forever'
Although the company only gave its passengers seven hours to pack, Lynn and Paul said red flags were accumulating.
“The first chink in the armor we began to see was when they offered a couple programs — and I can’t remember the sequence they came in,” Paul said. “But the Golden Passport program and Endless Horizon program are basically programs where you pay a whole bunch of money up front and never have to pay a maintenance fee for the rest of your life, supposedly.”
That had the couple questioning, based on the number of residents, whether the operation would run out of money.
Lynn discovered that some people were paying as little as $500 in ongoing maintenance fees, which deepened their concerns.
“To sustain the operation of a ship, or any kind of business for that matter, if you don’t have the revenue coming in to sustain it, that’s going to be a real problem situation,” Paul said.
“And they were on a slow decline in the amount of monthly revenue they had versus expenses. At some point, it would have collided where it eventually did,” he added.
Selling more cabins wasn’t enough to rescue the company if those new occupants weren’t sharing in maintenance fees, Paul said.
“On top of everything else, fuel prices went up because of the war going on,” he said. “Fuel for ships is measured in metric tons. Whereas, they were paying about $700 or $800 per metric ton, all of a sudden, because of the shortage, they were paying $2,000 a metric ton.”
Eventually, that spiked to $2,200 in Australia and New Zealand, Lynn added.
“So, they were paying three times as much for fuel on top of that,” she said. “So that began port changes, canceled ports, rerouting the itinerary, trying to go to different things.
“Hence why we got stuck in Southeast Asia since forever.”
Unsustainable Business Model
Cowboy State Daily reached out to Villa Vie by phone and email, but did not receive a reply.
Paul said he saw a report that the company’s expenses were around $3.2 million a month, while its revenue, due to lack of maintenance fees, was only around $700,000.
“It’s not sustainable,” Paul said. “So at that point, they began asking residents to help loan money or give money to the ship. We got involved in April in what was called the residential fuel-loan program.”
Lynn Montoya told the Daily Mail that the company asked 22 residents for a collective loan of $2.2 million in April, to be paid back with interest by April 2027.
The couple was told they’d be paid interest on the loan every month for a year at an aggressive rate.
So far, none of those promised payments have been made, Paul said.
A few months later, Lynn said, the company had its hand 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 we were at the time still really trusting the company. We were hoping that we were going to get them out of a tough situation.”
Everyone wanted to continue, Lynn added.
“When somebody comes to you and they say, ‘Look, we need this much extra money to move on to make your dreams continue,’ and we’re all there because we want to continue ... a large percentage of us said, ‘Yes. We want to continue on,’” she said.
Optimistic About Future
The couple remains optimistic they can resume their cruise-ship retirement. They are making new plans.
In fact, they had a head start. They’d been arranging to leave the ship to spend a couple of weeks in Malaysia, so they’ll continue with at least some already planned adventures.
That came about because the ship had been headed to Thailand and then Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, but wasn’t spending enough time at those places to suit the couple.
“The stay in Kuala Lumpur was only going to be three days,” Lynn said.
She started watching YouTube videos and talked to other people about things to do a couple months ago. She also used ChatGPT to develop their own itinerary, with plans to also take care of some medical appointments while there.
As a result, they already have a new itinerary largely laid out, including hotel stays and excursions, through Nov. 9.
“We’re going to be here in Cambodia for another two nights,” Paul said. “And then we’re going to Phnom Penh, which is the capital, a big city.
“We hope to show you some of that because it’s supposed to be a beautiful city.”
They’ll stay there one night before boarding a plane to Kuala Lumpur, where they plan to spend roughly 10 days — or maybe longer, if it suits them.
“During the course of all this, we’ll be able to figure something out,” Paul said. “Maybe with the ship.”
The journey so far has been wonderful, the couple added, and their fingers are crossed that after reorganizing, there'll be options to continue their tour.
“We’ll see if the Odyssey continues to sail,” Paul said. “We really hope it does.”
Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.
