From the beginning, this cruise has hit a lot of rough waves. We understood it was a new concept in travel, a start up and there were bound to be challenges. We were 4 months late launching out of Belfast and operating capital has never been plentiful. It was the Founders group, which I (and about 80 other residents, at varying levels) participated in, that supported the initial investment of the company. It was also the Founders, who through a myriad of additional investments, made up the shortfall in expenses time and time again, over the last 2 years. But there came a point, about 4 months ago, where the Founders were all tapped out financially and Management had to appeal to the balance of residents and segment paying guest, for it's cash shortfalls.

The rapid rise in fuel cost due to the War, were a big part of the problem, but not the only one. The company's model for success was based on selling the majority of cabins and having the balance covered by segment residents and renters. They struggled  achieving this, ( the maximum number of residents on board never got over 400 - when it should have been closer to 700) and the challenges brought a ton of bad press, which made things even worse and hence a downward cycle evolved. The Founders group was given some insight to these problems, but there was little they could do. Management was looking for outside investors and communication with the residents became very sparse and at times contentious. A lot lost faith in Management and we had a sense, that the end may be near.

In August, the Residents rallied together and raised $1.8M over a long weekend in Signapore, when one of the fuel vendors had the ship arrested in port, for lack of payment. The money collected got the vendor paid; provided us with more fuel, provisions and paid the Crew, to keep us going. In September, the company asked for a fuel surcharge and unleashed an aggressive sales plan to sell off empty cabins, at 1/2 price, to raise capital. The surcharge was meet with a lot of resistance because it was not part of most residents agreements. They did sell several empty cabins but only to existing owners, due to full disclosure needs so the poll of possible investors was severely limited. But sadly it was too little and too late.

On October 7th, a potential investor pair ( Oniel speaking and Rodger, pictured below) came on Board and spoke to the Residents with their bailout plans for the Ship. They needed another month to complete their due diligence and we were hopeful. Right after this, three Residents committed $5M of their own funds and explored the option of the Residents matching this 5M; buying the ship and taking over the operations.

On October 25th, after 2 weeks of silence from Management, we found out Oniel's partner Rodger had been charged with 5 counts of financial crimes back in March and the bank refused doing business with him, so the deal was off. Management sent a notice that they needed everyone to pay $1800 / resident within 2 days, for a November fuel surcharge, to purchase fuel and keep going. There were roughly 205 residents on board and about 18 said yes. The rest of us said NO MORE!  On October 27th, we awoke to our final notice, to disembark the ship by 2pm, with our belongings, the Ship was ceasing operations in Sihanoukville, Cambodia!