Featured Image Credit: Meredith Shay/Life at Sea Cruises
Topics: Travel, Cruise ship
Callum Jones
A lot of us have dreamed of selling up and starting a new life somewhere else, but the vast majority won't go through with it in the end.
Well, Meredith Shay decided to take the plunge and become one of 1,000 passengers to sail to 135 different countries over three years.
She spent a whopping $562,000 for a cabin with a balcony, and she could only afford all of that after selling her home.
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"I've no children or grandchildren so I am free, happily so at this point. Why not do something like this?" she told the Mirror at the time.
"I like new experiences as it keeps me fresh. I've been looking for about two years [for a cruise]."
Shay also sold a lot of her possessions, as there wouldn't have been enough room for it in her cabin, and even hired out a storage unit to hold some of her more prized assets.
But that proved to be all for nothing in the end, as the cruise's operators ended up cancelling the trip altogether, citing rising costs for its cancellation.
Vedat Ugurlu, the owner of the company that was running the ship, stated 'unrest in the Middle East' as a reason for the ship never setting sail, while he expressed being 'extremely sorry for the inconvenience'.
In a first-person piece for the Guardian, Shay penned: "The company, Life at Sea, couldn’t complete the purchase of a ship, it was reported. We were told its investors had pulled out, citing unrest in the Middle East.
"Later, we learned that Life at Sea was still trying to buy the cruise vessel passengers were supposed to be boarding, days later, as some of them arrived in Istanbul to get on there.
"The company promised to give us our money back, with the first instalment of three refund payments due next week."
While it's a pretty annoying situation, Shay is looking on the bright side, even though the cruise for her was very much seen as a dream.
"My motto in life has always been to experience, learn and then grow," she added. "I’ve tried to take the news on the chin. I’ve suffered a lot of loss in my life, and I have learned that looking for the positive works better than living a sad life."