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They had been looking forward to the adventure of a lifetime and now have nothing left: passengers on the planned, but now canceled Life at Sea Cruises cruise. Many of them had paid hundreds of thousands of dollars and sold or rented their apartments and houses – and now they have to look where they can find a roof over their heads.

The trip was actually supposed to start in Istanbul on November 1. But then it was postponed to November 11 and to Amsterdam. Ultimately, November 30 was set as the start date, but on November 17 – Less than two weeks before the scheduled departure, the company informed passengers that the trip had been canceled. However, the money already paid will be refunded.

The missing ship

After weeks of silence, they could no longer hide it: They didn’t even have a ship. Initially the trip was planned with the cruise ship MV Gemini, but this was not seaworthy. They then wanted to acquire the MV Lara, which previously offered cruises under the name AIDAaura, but the deal did not materialize.

The promise was great: the passengers would have lived on the ship for 1095 days 382 ports and 140 countries visited. Many of them therefore traveled to Istanbul early. The company had already rented out a total of 111 cabins, with the cheapest costing the equivalent of about R2,250 per month. The passengers are angry. They expressed their frustration to CNN:

But it remains to be seen whether everyone will actually get their money back. One person expresses his skepticism:

(rbu)