If you want to organize a three-year cruise around the world, purchasing a ship is probably a good first step.
For months, Life at Sea Cruises has been recruiting travelers, taking their money and marketing this unusual offering, which was announced in March.
Its website, which has been promoting 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 if they see that the trip was set to set sail as early as November 1st. And perhaps they’ll be even more disturbed when they learn that the ship, under its original name, AIDAaura, was acquired in the mid-20th century by Celestyal Cruises, not Life at Sea.
The day after that sale, Life at Sea announced that the around-the-world voyage would be canceled.
Miray Cruises, the cruise line’s parent company, said it could not afford the $40 million to $50 million asking price for the ship and said investors were pulling 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 the book passage remained.
Phileas Fogg traveled around the world in 80 days, but this journey was intended to be leisurely – a Magellan-like time frame of three years.
The cruise was originally scheduled to depart from Istanbul, then undertake an extensive tour of the Western Hemisphere and arrive in Asia in August 2024.
The South Pacific and Australia would take up much of 2025, followed by India. In 2026, the cruise was scheduled to visit Africa and then Europe, ending at the end of 2026, three years after it began.
The cruise cost between $38,513 and $98,226 per person per year based on double occupancy, so a couple wanting to complete the entire circumnavigation would have to pay at least $230,000, a significantly lower cost per day than many long-term cruises.
Holland America, for example, charges about $180 per person per night for its 128-day cruise, which would be nearly $400,000 for a couple over a three-year trip.
The MV Lara, as it was to be called, should have a capacity of 1,266 passengers, 80 percent of which should be fully booked, the company said. On Monday morning, less than half of the cabins appeared to be fully booked.
The cruise was first postponed to November 11th, then to November 30th and the departure point was changed to Amsterdam. Then on November 17th it was canceled completely.
Passengers were promised repayment in monthly installments through February, CNN reported. It quoted several passengers, whom it did not name, as saying they were dismayed by the cancellation after having planned their next three years for it.
Miray said it considered moving the cruise to one of its other ships but concluded the ship was too small.
The relaxed three-year time frame for the planned cruise was unusual and attracted significant media attention. Cunard’s round-the-world trip aboard the Queen Mary 2 takes three months.