From ever-changing departure dates to strange social media posts, the cruise hasn’t inspired much confidence.
People use the verbalism " the Fyre Fest of _ _ _ " moderately free - handedly . A messy time at an airport ? Well that airport is now the Fyre Fest of airports . Got sucked into an underwhelmingtourist trap ? That ’s a Fyre Fest too . But very few things amount up to the original trial by ordeal , in which Ja Rule and several of his stage business partnersbecame a menace to Bahamaiansand trapped one thousand of the great unwashed on Great Exuma with cheese sandwich .
Life at Seas ' promise of anonstop three - year - recollective cruiseis getting middling close to legitimate Fyre Fest level . Some topline similarities between the two : Both seemed like they were legitimately going to happen , right up until they did n’t ; they supply to consumers with heightened disposable income ; and in retrospect both had some moderately significant red flags ahead of time .
One of the biggest warnings : There was no ship . As draft in new coverage fromCNN , a deal to purchase a ship for the cruise fell through about a calendar month before the scheduled November 1 going away . So the going date was first push to November 11 , and the loss location was transfer from Istanbul to Amsterdam . Then , the departure was push again to November 30 . Then , it was canceled .
Sven Hansche
In a series of confusing announcement from Miray Cruises ( which owns aliveness at Seas ) and Life at Seas executives , it was disclose that Miray could not start the ship it planned to purchase — hence the November 16 cancellation announcement .
When talk with an employee of Miray Cruises who is involve with the Life at Seas sailing but wished to persist anon. , they told Thrillist that there were still programme to sweep in the future . " We think in our ware and we will launch again , " the employee said . This is confirm by statements from Miray COO Ethem Bayramoglu about examine to project a next cruise .
But the ship play aside ( and there is so much more outlined in the CNN report linked above , include mass quitting the Life at Seas labor , causa , and a ship allegedly not being primed to sweep ) , some of the ruby-red flag from the whole drama were more public - face , much sooner .
On theLife at Seas Facebookpage , things were wait suspicious early on in 2023 . Social media posts share legion stock photos of beautiful destination that were purportedly on the itinerary , mix with motivational content that felt like corporate - wellness - LinkedIn - hustle broetry .
In one post , one of the suppose finish is misidentified — the caption details a stop at Red Beach in Santorini , Greece , and the pic instead features Red Beach in Liaoning , China . The former is a beautiful shoreline with red sand and swimming , the latter is an equally stunning but entirely un - swimmable expanse of wetland .
" There is no carmine sand , and no lapping turquoise waters at this Red Beach , " one comment on the post read . " in spades sensational , but do n’t make for your washup suit . "
This red-faced flag , while perhaps insidious , was screaming an important message : If the company responsible for for design this trip ca n’t tell the conflict between a Greek beach and a Chinese wetland , how were they going to manage getting masses to either destination ? And how were they go to do that for three years straight ?
Even more fishy is that these public - facing social medium pages give-up the ghost mum at the end of April ; we know now that several major staff departures guide place by May . Others post that they were have a heavy time getting in touch with people from the company regarding basic selective information about the sail .
But still , it ’s not as if Life at Seas had n’t also brandished a mediocre amount of seeming legitimacy — ABC Newsdid a full video characteristic on the sail in March . CNN — who has just published an in - depth report on the cancellation — was one of the many outlet to coverthe announcementof the cruise back in January . Thrillist also did . Miray Cruises , the manipulator of Life at Seas , has been in business for 27 years , and theLife at Seas internet site , on its surface , seemed to admit everything you ’d expect . Upon closer review , a mountain of key entropy was miss , and some images on the site were extremely pixelated .
But in all of this there were some obtrusive gaps , namely that there were n’t any pictures of a real ship . Now , as people wait refund and updates on a promised hereafter sailing , that ’s a glaring mishap . But it was a warning that snuff it under the radiolocation for many until it was fourth dimension to set sail .
