A group of vacationers experienced their worst fear after a three-year cruise excursion was canceled at the last minute due to weeks of delays. As a result, one woman in particular has lost a significant percentage of her life savings, having sold her flat, furniture, clothes, and television. Life at Sea Cruises was set to depart from Istanbul, Turkey, on November 1st, visiting all seven continents as well as 135 nations and 375 ports over three years.

According to CNN, eager travelers who signed up for the trip were initially advised of a departure delay, which had been moved back to November 11th. According to the publication, some passengers felt ‘very sad and incredibly betrayed’ as a result of this. The departure city has also changed from Istanbul to Amsterdam, Netherlands, forcing passengers to rebook their flights.

The trip was then postponed a second time, to November 17, before being postponed a THIRD time, to November 30. However, only 13 days before the big departure day, after weeks of rescheduling, distraught passengers were eventually notified that the once-in-a-lifetime cruise had been canceled entirely. Passenger Kimberly Arizzi, who sold a large chunk of her goods to join the cruise as part of her retirement, told Insider, “I thought I had my life set up for the next few years.”

She went on to say: “It’s not only the furniture I lost, it was the boat-topia — the idea of being in a like-minded community, all doing something together for the first time.” But why was it canceled? And why was there such a little notice? Those working on the ship, however, were in desperate need of an exceedingly important component… the ship itself.
Miray International, the owner of Life at Sea, had planned to transport passengers on their massive MV Gemini ship.

However, after taking bookings, they quickly realized they’d need a much larger vessel, eventually settling on purchasing the AIDAaura, which was planned to be renamed the MV Lara, according to CNN. The cruise line first guaranteed clients that the ship’s sale would take longer than expected, but on November 16, it was disclosed that another cruise line, Celestyal Cruises, had purchased the ship.