‘Betrayed’: Anger as $180k three-year cruise abruptly cancelled

A more than $180,000 three-year cruise due to set sail this month has been abruptly cancelled after a number of delays, leaving passengers stranded.

The world’s first three-year cruise has been abruptly cancelled. Picture: Life at Sea Cruises

The world’s first three-year cruise which was due to begin its around-the-world voyage this month has been abruptly cancelled.

Passengers had packed up their lives and some sold or rented their homes to join Life at Sea Cruises, which eventually had plans to become “the cruise that never ends”.

The cheapest two-person cabin was priced at $60,380 ($US38,513) per person a year and travellers wanting a solo cabin had to pay an additional 85 per cent.

Brisbane woman Rina Cavazza, who was booked to go on the cruise, shared the “sad news” it had been cancelled in a video from Spain on social media.

Instead she said she had quickly got herself on three back-to-back cruises to South America and Antarctica, where she will spend New Year’s Eve.

Others who thought they had locked in the next three years of their lives told CNN they felt “incredibly sad”, “angry” and “betrayed”.

“I had the next three years of my life planned to live an extraordinary life, and now [I have] nothing,” said one cruiser.

“I don’t think they will ever understand how much damage they’ve caused us,” said another.

The world’s first three-year cruise has been abruptly cancelled. Picture: Life at Sea Cruises

The more than $180,000 three-year trip had been celebrated by big cruising fans and called a “nightmare” and “claustrophobic” by critics across social media.

Now it is being compared to Fyre Festival, a famous fraudulent luxury music festival that many celebrities’ names were tied to.

Life at Sea Cruises was scheduled to depart from Istanbul, Turkey on November 1 but departure was relocated and delayed twice to November 30, before passengers were informed on November 17 the cruise was off, according to CNN.

The outlet reported the ship it intended to buy, the AIDAaura to be rechristened as the MV Lara, was bought by another company on November 16, and a day later Life at Sea Cruises’ former CEO Kendra Holmes recorded a video for passengers revealing the cruise would not go ahead, despite having resigned days earlier.

Passengers say they feel betrayed. Picture: Life at Sea Cruises / Facebook

Then 48 hours later, Vedat Ugurlu, the owner of Life at Sea Cruises’ parent company Miray Cruises, confirmed they couldn’t afford the ship because investors had pulled out “due to unrest in the Middle East” – but suggested they were working on getting another ship and a new departure date, CNN reported.

A second message from the company crushed passengers’ hopes there was a chance they could still be sailing soon.

In a message seen by the outlet, chief operating officer Ethem Bayramoglu, gave instructions on a refund process and wrote: “In case we weren’t clear, the Life at Sea cruise trip is cancelled.”

The company’s website is still advertising the cruise as normal, with a countdown stating on Monday it was three hours “until we go for an adventure of a lifetime”.

news.com.au has contacted Life at Sea Cruises for comment.