Paul and Lynn Montoya had planned to stop in Kuala Lumpur for medical tests.
What the Wyoming couple hadn’t planned on was arriving there with their lives packed into a couple of suitcases each after the cruise ship they were living on abruptly kicked everyone off in Cambodia.
Now a week removed from being stranded halfway around the globe, the couple are navigating flights, luggage, and immigration on their own — and getting their land legs back.
They’re not sure they like it.
“It’s really weird being back on land for as long as we’ll probably be,” Lynn told Cowboy State Daily on Monday evening from a medical facility in Kuala Lumpur.
She said they’ve left many things behind on the Odyssey, the cruise ship they had planned to live on for years in their retirement.
That includes the king-size mattress they bought for their cabin, production equipment for their travel blog and a growing collection of seashells Lynn had gathered as souvenirs.
“When you’re only given seven hours to pack up your stuff and leave — we didn’t have a lot of extra suitcases,” she said. “We just had our suitcase that we came with.”
Clothes, vitamins, toiletries and paperwork took priority. Everything else had to stay.
Their sudden departure has left them figuring out not just where to go next, but what their retirement will look like now without the floating home they paid $179,000 to buy.
The couple also loaned Villa Vie $100,000 during the company’s spring cash crunch — money they don't expect to recover.
Altogether, the Montoyas estimate they’ve spent roughly $450,000 on their retirement adventure gone astray.
But even with many of their belongings stranded aboard the ship and their plans upended, neither is ready to give up traveling yet.
Why Not Buy The Odyssey?
The creditor involved in Villa Vie’s Odyssey has taken control of the ship and is moving it to Singapore for auction, even as the company’s leadership say they are racing to buy the ship back.
“This is a 30-to-90-day process, and during that process we have time to get a restructure done,” founder and CEO Mike Petterson told national news media.
For the Montoyas, the ship's stop in Singapore could offer them a chance to retrieve more of what they had to leave behind if they can meet it there.
“But even if we are able to get things off, I’m not sure what we’re going to do with them anyway,” Paul said. “It’s cost prohibitive from this part of the world to ship a lot of stuff back.”
So, they might send a few more mementos and personal items to family or friends for safekeeping, but computers and monitors left aboard would more likely be donated to a school in Singapore — if they can even be retrieved.
Before pivoting to new travel plans, the Montoyas joined an effort to save the voyage. They became part of Sagar Capital, an investment group formed by residents aboard the cruise ship to explore buying the Odyssey themselves.
Of the 203 residents aboard, 169 made pledges toward a buyout, including the Montoyas.
But Villa Vie’s debts turned out to be much larger than expected at $18 million, and the effort also would have required $3 million for the first 60 days of the bankruptcy process.
Paul said the lender believed it would get more for the ship at auction than the residents could offer, so no money was ultimately collected.
The buyout effort collapsed, leaving residents to scatter and find their own ways forward.
Hitting The Reset Button
The Montoyas already had somewhere else to go. They had planned medical appointments in Kuala Lumpur before the Odyssey’s abrupt halt.
That gave them a ready destination, complete with existing travel arrangements, before everything became so uncertain.
They had to change their departure flight to leave from Cambodia, and they’re hauling far more luggage than expected — reminding them why they chose to travel the world by cruise in the first place.
In Kuala Lumpur, the couple plan to take a break after a weeklong emotional roller coaster. Here, they’ll enjoy the tourism sights they’d planned while getting needed medical tests out of the way in a country known for high-quality medical tourism.
That will give them a little distance between their problems and deciding what comes next.
Resilient Retirement Restructuring
Their biggest hope is that they can keep their dream retirement adventure going without the floating home they’d built it around.
They’ve put hundreds of thousands into Villa Vie so far, but now are no longer paying the company $6,000 in monthly operational fees.
“We have that money to continue traveling with,” Paul said. “We just have to be a little frugal in doing it, because it’s not as inexpensive as living on the Odyssey.”
One possibility they’ve considered is settling in a place where their budget can stretch further.
“Malaysia and Indonesia are very inexpensive,” Lynn said.
“Very inexpensive,” Paul agreed. “You can really, for our budget, you can live quite nicely for a long time.”
But the heat there doesn’t necessarily agree with them. Staying in one place would also mean not seeing the other destinations they’d planned.
“We still haven’t made it to Africa,” Paul said. “We’d like to see Africa.”
“And Seychelles,” Lynn added. “And Mauritius and places like that. So, there’s still a lot of places left. We have a friend in Namibia that we’d love to go see. And a friend in South Africa we’d love to catch up with.”
Still Looking To Sea
That has the Montoyas searching for an alternative ship, preferably one with extended stays in ports like Villa Vie offered.
“With a typical cruise ship, you’re lucky if you stay a day,” Paul said. “Some of them might stay two days at certain ports, but it’s very sparse.
"So, we’re hoping there’s going to be another residential cruise ship, so that would be the ideal way for us to travel.”
One ship they know isn't an option is The World. Cabins on that residential cruise ship start at $7 million.
Still, Paul is optimistic that they’ll find a more realistic option.
“The concept was incredible,” he said. “The concept of residential cruising, I think even from a numbers standpoint, the numbers would work if they were to run it properly.”
Paul blamed Villa Vie’s financial trouble on deals that brought in more cash upfront but promised lower monthly maintenance fees than what it cost to operate the ship.
“That becomes a problem, especially if you’re undercapitalized,” he said. “If you generate cash just by selling cabins, eventually you run out of cabins and then what do you do?”
For Lynn, the frustration goes beyond the financial losses. In her opinion, the company has demonstrated little to no concern for the passengers and crew at all.
“They’ve not communicated at all with the residents,” she said. “They’ve done nothing to try to assist us. Obviously, financially they can’t. They don’t have any money.
"But they’re not even checking in on us … and they left the crew unpaid, which to me is so cold-hearted.”
Regrouping With Friends In Australia
While the Montoyas work out where to go next, friends and even strangers have not been so cold. They’ve offered them places to land while they work out new plans.
“We’ve had people from all over the world — some that we don’t know — who have offered us a place to stay,” Paul said. “It’s been quite amazing that people have reached out to offer that.”
Their next destination after Kuala Lumpur is Australia, where they plan to visit friends and shift into full regroup mode.
“We’ll finish up our stay here in Kuala Lumpur on the eighth,” Lynn said. “We’ll head to Singapore for three days, and then we’re jumping on a Princess cruise ship that’s repositioning to Sydney, Australia.”
They still want to complete at least some of the roughly four-year journey they’d planned aboard the Odyssey. And Wyoming is part of their plans, too.
They just haven’t set a date for a return to Wyoming.
“We want to make it back to the United States at some point,” Paul said. “Check in with friends and family in Wyoming and Colorado, but I don’t know exactly when.”
“We’re just not ready yet,” Lynn added.
