Few cruises have been subject to both as much interest and controversy as Life at Sea.
When Turkish cruise ship company Miray announced that it was launching a cruise route that would cross 140 countries during three years at sea, many were immediately intrigued — the $29,999 base package being offered to customers was significantly less than the $40,000 a year it would take to rent an apartment in a city like Los Angeles or New York.
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While many jumped to reserve a spot aboard the cruise without a second thought, the troubles began long before the anticipated sail date of Nov. 1, 2023. After one of the engineers working for Miray went public in declaring the MV Gemini ship the company planned to use for the journey "unseaworthy," customers who put down money to reserve a spot started demanding refunds and multiple founding members and the managing director of the cruise walked away from the project.
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While Miray had initially called the engineer's comments "defamatory," it ended up moving the sail date to Nov. 30 and temporarily avoided a burgeoning PR crisis by committing to finding another ship (reported to be a decommissioned 532-cabin AIDA cruise ship that Life at Sea had planned to rename MV Lara.)
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But just days before the ship was supposed to sail from a port in Amsterdam, passengers who were supposed to board the ship reported being told that their cruise was canceled. Many had already arrived to the Netherlands or Turkey, which is where the trip was originally slated to start before another last-minute change.
The cruise line ended up confirming that the journey was canceled on the same day that news broke of MV Lara's purchase by Greek company Celestyal Cruises — sale negotiations with Miray had fallen through but the cruise line had been holding off on announcing the news that it had failed to secure a ship prior to departure.
The cruise that captivated the world is now looking more and more like a scam
"There's a whole lot of people right now with nowhere to go, and some need their refund to even plan a place to go," one of the passengers who was supposed to be on the journey told CNN. "It's not good right now."
The cruise ship company reportedly told passengers that it would refund what they had put down for the journey in monthly installments by February 2024 but many have been thrown into disarray after planning three years of their life around the cruise. Some are also questioning the lack of transparency and whether the refunds will come at all.
Ohio resident Keri Whitman even sold her home in Cincinnati to put down a $32,000 deposit onboard while Kimberly Arizzi also sold a Chicago apartment and all her furniture to finance what was supposed to be her retirement cruise.
"I've not wanted to tell anyone – I'm embarrassed, I'm ashamed that I fell for it," another passenger who gave the company more than $100,000 for a spot on the ship told CNN back in October. "I should have listened to my gut."
