by This week, Keri Witman should be sailing to Brazil. It was supposed to be the first month of a three-year cruise around the world – an epic adventure in which she sold her four-bedroom house, gave away her possessions and paid thousands in deposits. But there is no cruise; in fact, not even a ship.
“It’s a good job, I’m a glass-half-full person,” Witman says with a smile, “but it was definitely a challenging time.” We’re chatting on Zoom, Witman calling from a co-working space in Cincinnati, Ohio – her home office now gone, and the few things she has left in storage.
“But I’m not the only one who sold their house to go on a cruise – many of us did. I mean, why wouldn’t you be if you were going away for three years? Others rented their properties, some took early retirement… Everyone has their own story.”
The £146,000 trip of a lifetime
In April, Witman, who is in her early fifties, saw an announcement that would change her life: a round-the-world cruise with Life At Sea, a three-year trip that would include “all 7 continents, 140 countries, 382 ports,” she promises. the company’s website. “I was fantasizing about a big trip,” recalls Witman, “and this looked really good. The trip was crazy; we were going to start in Istanbul, then go to Spain, across the Atlantic, the Bahamas, down to South America, Antarctica, up the other side to Central America, the USA and Asia. We wouldn’t reach the West Coast until the following fall – it would take almost a year to make our way there.”
The total price of her ticket, says Witman, was $185,000 (£146,553) – which she could pay in instalments.
“I did some quick math, and the price of the cruise was about what I was paying for my mortgage, insurance and health care. And really everything was included: laundry, cleaning, food and drink, everything you have to pay for to survive, even tips.”
For couples sharing a cabin, the trip was priced from $231,000 (£182,990) – or $115,500 (£91,495) per person. And it was three years or nothing: the itinerary “cannot be broken down into individual parts,” advises the website.
“I went into gear and called everyone I knew and trusted, to ask them: ‘Is this crazy?'” says Witman. “I also talked to my finance people, and they were like, ‘It makes sense if it’s something you want to do’. I paid the $3,000 (£2,377) deposit four days later, and then I went straight into planning mode.”
That initial deposit was followed by a first payment of $29,000 (£22,977) in August – both of which she has now been assured will be repaid, although she is still waiting for the money to go into her account .
Life at Sea: what went wrong?
The voyage was scheduled to depart on November 1, 2023 from Istanbul, carrying approximately 1,000 passengers aboard the MV Lara, a 627-cabin ship that Life At Sea was to purchase especially for the sailing. But in September, news came that the sale had not gone through.
“At first, there were no signs that anything was wrong,” Witman says, “but we were wondering, could we really leave on November 1 if the ship wasn’t in possession at the beginning of October?”
The passengers – or “residents” as they call themselves – were using a forum on the Life At Sea app to chat with each other before the trip, but the socializing quickly turned to suspicion.
“The departure date was pushed back to November 11, then December 1. Some people were angry, but I thought it was still going – but then on November 20th we definitely heard it had been cancelled.”
A day later, Vedat Ugurlu, CEO of Miray Cruises – owner of Life At Sea – issued a statement published in Cruise Industry News, citing “challenges due to investor renewal”. However, he promised that this was not the end of the line: “As we face these challenges, we are actively working on creating other plans for the future.”
The company has said it will make repayments in monthly installments, CNN reports, from mid-December to the end of February. Telegraph Travel has contacted Life At Sea and Miray International for comment, but has yet to receive a response.
Starting afresh in a one-room flat
The latest news Witman has heard, she says, is that Life At Sea is still trying to find a ship, with the aim of launching in 2024. Would she still be happy with it? “Sure, I’m packed and ready,” she says – very impressively – as she heads to her temporary office.
And she really is. Witman’s plan was to work throughout the cruise, running her Clever Lucy marketing agency remotely from the ship’s business suite.
“There was super-fast Starlink wifi, so we could stay connected even in Antarctica,” she says, “and I thought it was the perfect balance: the chance to keep working while you travel , to have the freedom to explore and to keep the freedom at the same time. home – my cabin.”
Witman had reached a “hard deadline” as she tried to deal with things that had been bothering her for a long time. “I had my knee replaced, and I sold the house – I’d been thinking about doing that for a while, and it’s a really hot market so I was happy.”
Other potential residents weren’t so lucky: one couple told USA Today they would sell their Florida home at a loss of $40,000 (£31,688).
Witman’s three-story home was “full” of possessions, which she also quickly disposed of – selling, donating, and even giving things to the new owners of her old home. Before the cruise, she moved into a short-term one-room apartment; when we speak she is still there, waiting to move into a bigger apartment, but temporarily.
Is she bitter? “No, I feel light – I had a three-storey house with a basement, and all those rooms were full of stuff, it was just stressing me out. Although I do miss my recipe books, and I just bought a new winter coat because I got rid of them all.
“The aim of this year was to shake things up, and I certainly did that. Yes it didn’t go as planned, but the plan is now to enjoy Christmas and look for other travel opportunities next year. Honestly, this feels like the beginning of my adventure – not the end.”
