AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
Some people love cruise vacations. Some love them so much, they signed up for a cruise that - hypothetically, at least - could last the rest of their lives. Randy Cassingham was a passenger on such a cruise for a little over two years, until last week when the cruise company, Villa Vie Residences, told everyone on board the cruise was over. Fuel prices were now too high to continue, the company said. Cassingham joins us now from his hotel room on land, where he and his wife have been stranded since Tuesday. Randy, thanks for joining us.
RANDY CASSINGHAM: Thanks for having me. I'm an old NPR listener.
RASCOE: So where are you? Where did the cruise end?
CASSINGHAM: Cambodia. Cambodia is actually the 65th country, I believe it is, in our journey.
RASCOE: So what did you hear from the company when the cruise was over?
CASSINGHAM: The CEO of the company posted on our internal message board, please be off the ship by 2 o'clock. We're shutting down. We had a little less than seven hours of notice. And then when I woke up, my wife said that we need to get off the ship.
RASCOE: Were there any clues that this might happen, or were you totally shocked?
CASSINGHAM: On August 1, we were in Singapore, and they did not have enough money to buy fuel to get us out of Singapore, and so we actually raised money. You know, the residents on the ship each pitched in several thousand dollars so they could get enough fuel to get out of there. That was kind of the clue, you know? It's not a good sign when the captain's passing the hat.
RASCOE: The company said that the reason why they couldn't continue on was because fuel prices went up three to four times after the war in Iran started. Do you feel like the world events just caught up with you?
CASSINGHAM: So I was obviously aware of the war and the gas prices. But the company says that it was the fuel. It was the fuel. It was the fuel. That's what it is. It's like, no, that's actually not 100% of the truth. They have been in financial trouble since the beginning.
RASCOE: I got to ask you, have you lost a lot of money on this?
CASSINGHAM: Yes. We purchased our cabin. We don't think we're going to get anything back for the cabin. We were supposed to be guaranteed at least 15 years of sailing - $379,000 for the cabin. When you're going to be there for 15 years, that's not too bad. But when you're there for only two years, that's a lot of money per year.
RASCOE: Do you feel like it was worth it, though?
CASSINGHAM: Yes. I wouldn't have paid that much for just two years had I known. But along the way, it was a fantastic way to live. It was an incredible lifestyle. My wife and I weren't actually big cruisers, but we liked to travel. What we didn't like about travel are the airlines and the airports. We could, on a ship, go from country to country, from port to port. The ship leaves in the evening. It's like, OK, let's have dinner and go to bed, and we'll wake up in some other country in the morning.
RASCOE: Now that the trip has ended, what are you going to do next?
CASSINGHAM: Well, we had sold our house and two cars in Colorado. We just don't know yet. There is a coalition of residents that are exploring whether they can take over the operation of the ship. We're not sure what we're going to do, but we're going to hang around here until they figure it out and maybe start again.
RASCOE: That's Randy Cassingham from his hotel room in Cambodia. Randy, thank you. And safe travels wherever you end up next.
CASSINGHAM: All right. We don't know where, we don't know when, but we'll find something else to do and continue the adventure. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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