Floating With Disaster: Woman Banned From Three-Year Cruise For Complaining
It’s not all smooth sailing for a woman who sold everything for a three-year $350k cruise, this after excessive complaining on a WhatsApp chat group leaked and it resulted in her being banned from the much-delayed cruise that hasn’t even started yet.
By Bram Teitelman · September 19, 2024
Who among us hasn’t dreamed of running away from it all and going on a semi-permanent vacation, riding the rails all around this great country of ours with other hobos, and making soup from a tin can, an old boot, and a few ketchup packets? Just me then? Hmm, ok. At least I’m not the only person to dream big with travel plans, however. Take, for example, Jenny Phenix, a retired Florida woman.
Phenix had her eye set on the Villa Vie Odyssey, a cruise ship whose inaugural trip runs three-and-a-half years and costs up to $350,000, apparently a reasonable enough price for that long of a cruise that sails around the world. Phenix liquidated her businesses and sold her possessions, living out of a suitcase in anticipation of the trip scheduled to start in May. Unfortunately, the company couldn’t get their ship together. The 31-year-old ship had been taken out of operation during the pandemic by its former owner and needed to get recertified to 2024 standards.
Phenix showed up in Southampton, England, in May, only to find out that the ship had to go to Belfast, Ireland, to get brought up to code. Four months later, it’s still there. Some travelers who bought spaces on the ship have been hanging out in Ireland, patiently awaiting the inaugural cruise while disposing of more of their seemingly endless disposable income. Come on, people - money doesn’t grow on seas! Phenix, on the other hand, whiled her time away by complaining about the delay in a WhatsApp chat group with other cabin owners - so much so that the owners of the ship permanently canceled her reservation, citing “behavior impacting community morale.”
Phenix actually had reason to complain. One of her gripes, besides the obvious four-month wait, was that she found out that the ship wouldn’t be traveling to Miami, which is where she had some of her remaining possessions, due to the delay. Also, the cabin she’d bought was being used by crew members, and she would’ve been relocated to a temporary cabin. And while she thought that the WhatsApp group was a safe space, enough other owners took issue with her taking issue. The owners also said that she’d signed a non-disclosure agreement, although Phenix said she’d only shared within that group, not on any social media.
Perhaps the worst part of the whole situation is that this isn’t the first time Phenix hasn’t been able to get her sea legs. She’d booked a similar residential cruise called Life At Sea, but in November of last year, just days before their inaugural cruise was poised to set sail, the company canceled it since they hadn’t been able to buy a ship, which is apparently needed for cruises. Phenix’s short-term plans probably don’t involve any floating.