They bought cabins to live on a luxury cruise ship. High fuel costs got them kicked off in Cambodia.

A residential cruise ship halted operations in Cambodia on Tuesday amid soaring fuel costs, leaving passengers in limbo after the U.S. company that operates it ordered them to disembark.

Florida-based Villa Vie Residences said in a news release that it was working to identify “temporary living arrangements” for people aboard The Odyssey, a 642-foot cruise ship that launched from Belfast, Northern Ireland, three years ago and promised passengers “an unparalleled lifestyle of luxury and exploration” as it toured the planet.

Cabins on The Odyssey were for sale or rent.

According to the company, the ship can accommodate 650 residents; it isn’t clear how many were on board Tuesday or where in Cambodia they disembarked.

An executive with the company, Mikael Petterson, declined to provide additional details in an email to NBC News. In a release this year announcing the company’s second residential cruise ship, Petterson said The Odyssey was 85% sold.

The company said in Tuesday’s release that it had taken significant measures to reduce fuel consumption but that those steps had failed to offset the spike in costs.

Global oil prices have surged since the war with Iran began this year, disrupting the world’s flow of fuel. Oil prices climbed to their highest levels since this spring this month.

The Odyssey in Belfast Harbour in 2024. Peter Morrison / AP

“Passing the full increase on to residents is not a realistic solution,” the company said. “Our focus now is on supporting residents, crew, and employees while we work toward restructuring and recapitalization over the next 60 days. That work is ongoing, and no outcome is assured.”

Randy Cassingham, a resident on the boat, wrote in a blog post that he learned his journey was over after a company official posted a note on a message board for the ship shortly after 7 a.m. Monday.

The Odyssey was entering a “temporary lay up” period — indicating it would no longer be used — and everyone had to disembark by 2 p.m., the message said, according to Cassingham, who runs ResidentialCruising.com and didn’t immediately reply to an interview request.

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Cassingham attributed the development to a “cascade of problems” that he would detail later.

Pamela Reckamp, who rented a cabin with her husband and disembarked this month, said in an interview that she wasn’t surprised that the ship’s journey was over.

Reckamp, 59, recalled having attended a meeting in early September at which a company official asked cabin owners to help them raise $1 million so they could leave Ha Long Bay, Vietnam.

“She said, ‘If we don’t get this money, we have about four days of the ship running,’” Reckamp recalled. “‘Then the lights will go off and the AC will go off.’”

When the ship’s financial issues were raised during another meeting a few weeks later, Reckamp recalled, a woman stood up and said she’d bought a cabin in August and hadn’t been made aware of the issues.

“I sold my house,” Reckamp recalled the woman saying. “I sold my car. I bought my home on this ship.”

Reckamp said she felt terrible for the residents and the staff, who she said were lovely.

“We dodged a bullet,” she added.

Villa Vie Residences didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday night.

In a lawsuit filed last year, a company that bought a cabin on The Odyssey for $469,000 accused Villa Vie Residences of fraud, alleging it misrepresented its financial stability.

The company’s business model was not financially sound, the suit alleges, “but rather precarious.”

The plaintiffs are asking for a jury trial and unspecified damages of more than $100,000. Villa Vie Residences denied the allegations in the suit, which is ongoing.

Other cabins on the ship were available for significantly less money. Even though 85% of the ship was sold, the company said in 2024, prospective residents could still “secure their dream home starting at just $119,000.”

“When we launched Odyssey, we set out to prove that residential cruising wasn’t just possible — it was sustainable,” Petterson said in July.