
If you’re planning a three-year round-the-world cruise, purchasing a boat is probably a good first step.
For months, Cruises about life at sea has been signing up travelers, taking their money and marketing this unusual offer, which it announced in March.
Its website, which promoted the cruise since Monday, described the ship, the MV Lara, and promised visits to the Great Wall of China, the Pyramids of Giza, Machu Picchu and the Taj Mahal.
However, potential passengers might pause before booking when they see that the voyage was already supposed to sail on November 1. And they may be even more alarmed to learn that the ship, under its original name, AIDAaura, was purchased in mid-November by Celestyal Cruises, not Life at Sea.
The day after that sale, Life at Sea announced it was canceling its round-the-world trip.
Miray Cruises, the cruise line’s parent company, said it could not afford the $40 million to $50 million being asked for the ship and said investors had pulled out because of unrest in the Middle East. CNN reported.
Neither Life at Sea nor Miray responded to requests for comment on Monday. The cruise itinerary and links to book tickets remained active.
Phileas Fogg circled the world in 80 days, but this trip was expected to be leisurely: a three-year period, like Magellan’s.
The cruise was originally due to depart from Istanbul and then take an extended tour of the Western Hemisphere before arriving in Asia in August 2024.
The South Pacific and Australia would occupy much of 2025, followed by India. In 2026, the cruise was due to visit Africa and then Europe before ending at the end of 2026, three years after it began.
The cruise charged between $38,513 and $98,226 per person per year for double occupancy, so a couple planning to do the full circumnavigation would pay a minimum of $230,000, a cost per day considerably less than many long-duration cruises.
Holland America, for example, load approx. $180 per person per night for their 128-day cruise, which would be equivalent to almost $400,000 for a three-year trip for a couple.
The MV Lara, as it would be called, had a capacity for 1,266 passengers, of which 80 percent were expected to be reserved, according to the company. As of Monday morning, less than half of the cabins appeared to be reserved.
The cruise was initially delayed to November 11, then to November 30 and its departure city changed to Amsterdam. She was then canceled entirely on November 17.
Passengers were promised payment in monthly installments through February, CNN reported. He quoted several passengers, whom he did not name, as saying they were dismayed by the cancellation after planning their next three years around it.
Miray said he had considered switching the cruise to one of his other ships, but decided the ship was too small.
The slow three-year period for the planned cruise was unusual and attracted enormous media attention. Cunard’s around-the-world cruise, aboard the Queen Mary 2, lasts three months.