Something went wrong: New York Times journalist shares details of a 3-year cruise that ended before it even began

The cruise of the Turkish company Miray Cruises called Life at Sea was supposed to depart from the port of Istanbul on November 1 last year. It was planned that this longest cruise would last 3 years and make 382 calls to ports around the world, but this did not happen.

The New York Times reporter Ceylan Yeğinsu investigated the fate of this cruise. According to her, she knew that organizing such an ambitious journey could be a challenge, requiring reliable funding and a ship equipped for residential cruising.

It is noted that Miray Cruises is a medium-sized company that specializes in short cruises of up to 4 days to the Greek islands. Therefore, it is quite expected that, having no experience in such large-scale projects, the cruise company failed to ensure the departure.

It is known that on the eve of the cruise, the company had problems with management and planning, which was due to the resignation of the marketing and sales department, and later the resignation of Life at Sea's managing director, Michael Petterson. Ceylan Yeğinsu managed to contact the passengers of this cruise. She learned that the sailing date was postponed twice with a change of departure to the port of Amsterdam on November 20, and then cancelled.

Miray Cruises assured people who purchased cruise packages that they would refund the money in three payments. Thus, customers' opinions were divided: some believed that they had been unintentionally misled, while others believed that they had been victims of fraud.

In emails from March 2023 between Miray Cruises executives, the reporter learned that management failed to set up secure payment methods to collect deposits from passengers and that the company ignored concerns about the ship's suitability. In an interview with Vedat Ugurlu, the owner of Miray Cruises, he said that he did not intend to mislead passengers, blaming the insufficient number of cabins sold.

However, a couple, Kara and Joe Youssef, who sold two apartments and withdrew all their savings to pay for the cruise, said the company had deceived them. According to them, the company assured them that the cruise would go ahead as planned even if there were only two passengers on board. They were afraid that their money would be used to buy the ship, and therefore the company would not have the money to refund them.

So far, the company has partially refunded a small number of customers. However, the couple continues to wait for the $80,000 refund, risking being left homeless.