Former Leland resident life in limbo after canceled 3-year cruise

LELAND, NC (WWAY) — It was supposed to be the trip of a lifetime, a 3-year cruise around the world.

But for former Leland resident Shirene Thomas and hundreds of others, their lives have been turned upside down.

“I always thought living on a cruise ship would be fun, I’m very social, I’ve been to over 70 countries,” Thomas said.

After spending more than 6 figures on a room on the Life at Sea Cruise, and even more spent in preparation for departure, Thomas said she still hasn’t been fully paid back.

“I’m asking for refunds on my credit cards because they keep postponing and missing deadlines of when they have said that they are going to pay us back and they haven’t proven to be able to keep their word on things and just can’t wait any longer.”

Originally purposed as a 3-year residency cruise on a specially designed ship, the cruise was planned to leave Istanbul on November 1st.

But the departure was postponed several times before being outright canceled on November 17th.

The cancellation was because the cruise line never had a ship to begin with.

The company planned to purchase one and retrofit it for the trip, but the deal fell through in September and their investors pulled out shortly thereafter.

Despite what happened, Thomas said the idea of a 3-year cruise continues to intrigue her.

“I think that a lot of people would think “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me,” Thomas said. “But an answer to people who think why would you be trusting enough to do this again. It’s like, I’m all in now. I gave up everything I own. I’m mobile cause I just have what you can carry in a suitcase.”

Thomas said there have been discussions of civil and criminal litigation being filed against Life at Sea Cruises for canceling the cruise, but nothing has been filed as of yet.