Three-year cruise people paid £90,000 to go on cancelled – because there’s no ship

A three-year world cruise which passengers paid up to £90,000 to go on has been cancelled weeks before setting sail – because there’s no ship.

Life at Sea Cruises announced the voyage, designed to house remote workers and retirees, in March and took on extra passengers in June after saying it had acquired a larger ship.

The cruise promised to visit 145 countries, allowing passengers to visit 13 of the 14 ‘wonders of the world’ and offering activities like scuba diving.

But after delaying the initial departure date of November 1, the cruise was cancelled altogether on November 17.

Many passengers, some of whom didn’t renew rental leases or sold their homes, have been left without a home after the cruise fell through.

Others have reportedly been stuck in Istanbul, Turkey, where the cruise was set to depart from.

The Life at Sea ship was supposed to set sail from Istanbul earlier this month (Picture: Life At Sea Cruises)

The voyage was first announced in March, with prices set at $30,000 USD (£23,700) per year. After announcing they’d acquired a larger vessel with 200 more cabins, they increased the price of the trip to $38,513 (£30,400) per year.

But in a message to passengers Vedat Ugurlu, owner of Life at Sea’s parent firm Miray, said the purchase of the larger ship had fallen through.

He said: ‘Miray is not such a big company to afford to pay 40-50 million for a ship.’

The company, he said, had ‘presented the project to investors, and had official approval from some of them to buy the vessel,’ but after making the down payment those investors ‘declined to support us further due to unrest in the Middle East’.

More: Trending

Life at Sea says it will refund passengers, who put down deposits of tens of thousands of dollars – but repayment won’t start until next month, and it will be made in monthly instalments.

The company is also promising to pay for hotel rooms and return plane tickets for passengers in Turkey.

Metro.co.uk checked the Life at Sea website and it’s currently still possible to book cabins on the cancelled cruise.

Life at Sea has been contacted for comment.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.