Residents onboard a luxury round-the-world cruise that was stranded in Belfast for four months have dubbed the vessel ‘SS Clusterf***’.
The Villa Vie Odyssey had been scheduled to leave Belfast in May for a three year adventure but was delayed due to unexpected repairs.
Residents were finally able to depart earlier this month but were soon facing new problems onboard.
MORE: Cruise ship departs after four months stranded in Belfast
Issues with the plumbing meant there was a smell of sewage “wafting through the corridors” according to one resident while another said they considered leaving the ship for good, describing a “Third-World situation”.
In a post on Substack, resident Joe Rhodes wrote: “Nothing about this trip, except for the fact that I’ve been drunk a great deal of the time, has gone like it was supposed to go.
“And I don’t just mean that we’re four and a half months behind schedule and were stuck in Belfast longer than the lord mayor has been in office.
“It’s that every single thing, from the food to the furnishings, the tv channels to the swimming pools - neither of which are yet operational - have turned out to be something less than advertised. Not on a catastrophic level, there weren’t any corpses in the cabins or anything, at least not on my deck but it’s all been somewhat disappointing, somewhat shoddier and somewhat less functional than the brochures led us to believe.”
Mr Rhodes explained after setting sail from Belfast to its first port at Brest in France Mike Petterson, the CEO, attempted to christen the Odyssey, but the champagne bottle did not shatter until the third attempt.
Residents were then informed that they could not disembark the ship as the dock was not ready for them. This is also the night Mr Rhodes said the hot water stopped working.
“Also — and this is when things got to be really fun — they shut off the water entirely,” he explained.
“Nothing from the taps, nothing from the showers and most importantly no way to flush the toilets. Most Residents didn’t realize this, the shutdown happening in the middle of the night, until after they’d made deposits, so to speak. Yep, we awakened to the faint smell of s**t marinating in a hundred unflushed bowls, wafting through the corridors, gently mixing with the ocean breeze.
“They got the toilets flushing and the cold water running later that afternoon. But the hot water, and my willingness to shower, didn’t return until our second day in Bilbao, the first port since Belfast where we were actually allowed to leave the ship.
“All this plumbing trauma is apparently because our wastewater tanks were improperly installed by the former owners. At least that’s Villa Vie’s explanation.
“They fixed it in Bilbao, apparently and we’ve had plenty of hot water and a minimum of s**t smells as we’ve proceeded to Gijon, Lisbon, Portimao and Cadiz. I can’t tell you anything about any of those ports, though, because I didn’t get off the ship.
“Why is that, you ask? Cause I got Covid, goddammit, probably somewhere between Belfast and Brest. If you need me I’ll be in my room.”
Another resident, Richard Namikas, wrote on his blog of a similar experience saying he and his wife Dusty considered leaving for good.
“With no water and no ability to go ashore, Dusty was being pushed to her limits once again, as was I,” he said.
“I agreed that if we were not able to disembark at the next port, Bilbao, Spain, I would make arrangements to leave the ship once we reached Lisbon and leave for good.
“This was becoming a nightmare. So much sacrifice in time, money, and hope to be stuck in a third-world situation without water or flushing toilets.”
According to the Villa Vie official itinerary, the cruise was supposed to stop at 425 destinations in 147 countries.
Residents have the choice between pay-as-you-go and ownership options.
Under ownership, residents can ‘own a villa’ and ‘customise’ the living space. Owning means residents have a villa guaranteed for 15 years and it starts at $99,000 (£77,696).
Friends and family can join residents on the cruise at a cost of $129 (£102) a day
Those unable or unwilling to make such a commitment could book shorter spells onboard, from 35 to 120 days.
In a statement to The Independent, Villa Vie’s CEO, Mikael Petterson, said that due to being anchored outside in Belfast their “forward water tanks were full”.
“We transferred water to the rear overnight where we had to turn off water temporarily. This affected all water including toilets. This lasted ‘til the morning hours where residents did not have water when they woke up in the morning.
“Water was back on in the morning and has since been operational. Residents have been able to enjoy every port since.”
As for the issue with the swimming pools, Petterson added that they “needed complete replacement and over $700k of work” but will be operational by the time they reach the Caribbean.
