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<\/p>\nA three-year world cruise costing over \u00a370,000 ($89,997) was cancelled just days before it was due to set sail.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Life at Sea Cruises’\u00a0first three-year sailing, which was announced in March, promised passengers a unique voyage covering 130,000 miles, 375 ports, and 135 countries.<\/p>\n
One passenger, Kimberly Arizzi, even sold her flat, furniture, clothes, and TV to pay for her retirement cruise.<\/p>\n
However, passengers were informed on\u00a0November 17\u00a0that the cruise was cancelled, with it originally set to leave from Amsterdam on\u00a0November 30.<\/p>\n
While some passengers are still in Istanbul, where the ship was initially supposed to depart, the company has said it will issue refunds in monthly installments starting in mid-December.<\/p>\n
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Life at Sea Cruises also offered to cover flights and accommodation until\u00a0December 1\u00a0for those stranded in Istanbul.<\/p>\n
However, some passengers have nowhere to go as they had planned to be on the cruise for three years. “There’s a whole lot of people right now with nowhere to go, and some need their refund to even plan a place to go it’s not good right now,” one passenger told CNN.<\/p>\n
The company had plans to purchase the AIDAaura ship, which was retired by AIDA Cruises, a part of Carnival Corp but Celestyal Cruises ended up buying the ship as the sale took longer than expected.<\/p>\n
On November 16, Kendra Holmes, the former CEO of Life at Sea Cruises, sent passengers a 15-minute video explaining that the journey was cancelled. She clarified that she wasn’t speaking on behalf of Miray Cruises.<\/p>\n
Don’t miss… <\/strong> Just two days\u00a0after the video was sent, Vedat Ugurlu, the owner of Miray Cruises, confessed that the company couldn’t afford the ship.<\/p>\n “Miray is not such a big company to afford to pay 40-50 million [dollars] for a ship,” he said. He added that while they made a down payment, investors “declined to support us further due to unrest in the Middle East.”<\/p>\n Passengers were left disappointed and upset by the decision and lack of notice from the cruise line.<\/p>\n “I’m very sad, angry and lost,” one person said. “I had the next three years of my life planned to live an extraordinary life, and now [I have] nothing. I’m having a hard time moving forward.”<\/p>\n “I never imagined I’d be in this position as a senior citizen,” another said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Follow our social media accounts here on\u00a0facebook.com\/ExpressUSNews\u00a0
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Life at Sea Cruises cancels $40K\/year trip less than a week before departure[COMMENT] <\/strong><\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/cdn.images.express.co.uk\/img\/dynamic\/78\/590x\/secondary\/5085782.jpg?r=1700993312569\")
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