“World’s First Three-Year Cruise in Crisis: Customers Request Refunds Amid Ship Unseaworthy Allegations”

Dubai, United Arab Emirates (CNN) — When cruise company Life at Sea Cruises announced the launch of its next 130,000-mile cruise, it was touted as “the world’s first three-year cruise — and the only one.”

Demand for the cabins was said to be “unprecedented”, with some travel enthusiasts apparently selling their homes in preparation for the trip of a lifetime.

But a few months after Miray Cruises subsidiary Life at Sea Cruises opened bookings for the MV Gemini, the voyage set to sail from Istanbul, Turkey, on November 1 appears to be in crisis. Customers request a refund.

The Life at Sea Cruises team parted company with Miray Cruises, after an apparent deterioration in communication regarding the ship’s suitability for the trip.

Mike Peterson, former managing director of Life at Sea Cruises, confirmed to CNN that he and the rest of the founding team have “walked away” from the project.

While there was speculation that the cruise would be cancelled, Miray International’s director of business development and commercial operations, Kendra Holmes, explained that the cruise is continuing during a webinar held by Miray’s executive team on Wednesday evening.

“This cruise is not going to be cancelled,” Holmes said. “We’re going to go ahead and she’s leaving on November 1 as planned. So I just want to make sure that’s clear now…”.

However, it remains unclear if the voyage will go ahead on MV Gemini or on another ship.

“The ship’s name is currently Gemini,” Holmes added, before explaining that she was unable to discuss a new ship at this time.

Speaking to CNN, Holmes confirmed that they are unable to reveal any details of the potential new ship due to the confidentiality of the contract, “which is standard in the cruise industry.”

“We expect to share more information with customers over the coming weeks, but when we release the information, we will not be able to determine the current name of the vessel or the company from which it was purchased,” she said.

But she added that customers will be informed of the ship’s total tonnage and the number of cabins available.

In a previous press release in March, the project again announced that the MV Gemini would undergo a “refurbishment” to suitability for a cruise.

But according to Irina Strembitsky, former director of sales and marketing for Life at Sea Cruises, the ship, which can seat 1,074 passengers, was deemed “unseaworthy” by an engineer, who also expressed doubts it would be able to complete a three-day voyage. Years.

Speaking to CNN, Holmes disputed the allegations.

She explained that the term “unseaworthy” is very specific to the safety of the ship (that the ship has a sufficient number of lifeboats, anti-skid decks, among other requirements to ensure its safety).

And she continued: “With this, every cruise ship must have a ship safety certificate issued by the classification society to which the ship belongs, which proves that the ship complies with the requirements of the SOLAS 1974 Convention in order to be able to sail with passengers. The Gemini ship has this certificate, and it will be renewed once Another at the end of July 2023.

Holmes added that without this certificate, in addition to the other required regulatory certificates, a passenger ship cannot obtain permission to leave any port in the world.

“This certificate was last renewed in November of 2022, and the Gemini ship has been sailing with passengers since March 2023 in the Aegean Sea,” she said.

This week, marine tracking website Marine Traffic showed that the Gemini sailed through the waters of the Mediterranean, stopping in the port of the Greek island of Rhodes before continuing to Cesme in Turkey.

After discussing the possibility of taking the trip on a separate vessel at the original price offered to customers, Strembitsky said relations between the Life at Sea Cruises team and Miray Cruises eventually broke down, and things came to a head shortly after further payments were due.

The news of the uncertainty surrounding the cruise unnerved people who had already made down payments on some of the 400 cabins advertised.

“I know many of you have concerns. So we are trying our best to help alleviate those concerns,” Holmes said during the webinar.

Holmes told CNN that they have run two webinars a day at different times to accommodate current and potential guests.

“We want them to understand that Life at Sea has been, is and will be Miray Cruises, and we have a whole team working behind the scenes to make this cruise a reality for everyone who wants to go,” she said.

And she continued, “We are now the front-line team, and we are grateful that current and potential guests have given us the opportunity to learn more about us, our passion for this project, and most importantly, our sincerity.”

Holmes said the flight is currently just over 50% booked, and they’ve refunded booking fees for less than 10 customers so far.

During a webinar Wednesday, she said she and her team at Miray Cruises are currently working on a model specifically for the “numerous” customers who have requested refunds.

“I know that recent events have caused a lot of hesitation, and I understand that,” she said, stressing that refunds could potentially take between five and seven days to process.