Trump-avoiding Odyssey Ties Up in Freo for Easter

What a fascinating concept. Welcome to Freo, Odyssey!

The Villa Vie Residences’ cruise ship Odyssey arrived this morning from Adelaide around 11.30 am beneath a mackerel sky and on a pancake flat ocean.

Odyssey, Fremantle, 4 April 2026. Credit Jean Hudson

She’s a bit of a phantom, Odyssey, as you won’t usually find her on ship tracking apps. Suddenly she appears, as she did this morning between Fremantle’s green South Mole and red North Mole lighthouses.

Having appeared, Odyssey will be in port until Monday, perfectly timed for the Easter long weekend and the Fremantle International Street Arts Festival. This is exactly the sort of event ‘residents’ aboard the Odyssey love.

I say ‘residents’ as one of the most interesting aspects of the Villa Vie Residences’ cruise ship Odyssey is its ‘live aboard’ concept, offering a residential cruising experience for around 650 folk who like the idea of living on the sea, and occasionally having land-based excursions along the way.

Nearly 18 months ago, in November 2024, I wrote an article, Sailing into a Trump-free Sunset…’ explaining how, following the election of President Donald Trump to a second term as President of the USA, a Florida-based company, Villa Vie Residences, had announced multi-year packages enabling folk to join its ship, Odyssey, at any port as it traversed the world for the next four years. It was advertised that Odyssey would travel to 425 ports across 140 countries, eventually docking in the Mediterranean in 2027.

Back then, Tour La Vie included a variety of extended stays aboard the Odyssey, including a one-year ‘Escape from Reality’ cruise, a two-year ‘Mid-Term Selection’ cruise, a three-year ‘Everything but Home’ and a four-year ‘Skip Forward Trip’ for Americans ‘who feel threatened’.

And now here she is in Freo! Odyssey arrives in Fremantle as part of her ‘Australia to Bali’ segment — a 69-day passage across 24 ports in 5 countries, running from 21 February to 30 April 2026. After Fremantle, she’ll continue north along the west coast before crossing to Bali, Indonesia, and then onwards.

Our Editor spotted Odyssey tied up for a few days in Hobart in the middle of March and tells me he wondered what she was all about. Now he knows! Here’s his snap of her in Hobart.

Odyssey, Hobart, 16 March 2026. Credit Michael Barker

At 195 metres in length, the ship is small enough to dock in the heart of destinations that larger vessels can’t access – as in Hobart.

The Odyssey was built in 1993, and currently sails under the flag of the Bahamas.

She was formerly MS Braemar with Fred Olsen Cruise Lines, and before that sailed as Crown Dynasty for Crown Cruise Lines.

Btw, you may be interested to learn that Villa Vie Residences is an independent cruise operation and not part of any of the majors, such as Carnival Corporation, Royal Caribbean Group, Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings, MSC Cruises, Viking, Genting / Resorts World, or Fred Olsen (even though Odyssey was originally Braemar).

Here’s a gallery of more Fremantle arrival pics of Odyssey today.

All that said, we welcome the global travellers/residents on Odyssey to Fremantle as they continue their remarkable journey around the world and wish them a good time while here and a safe, Trump-free onward voyage.

Odyssey departs Freo on Monday at 8am. If you would like to see her up close, South Mole is always a good spot to ship watch.

Her next ports of call are likely to be Geraldton and/or Exmouth, before continuing to Broome and Darwin — though Villa Vie Residences hasn’t published a port-by-port public schedule and, as I say, you can’t follow her on ship tracking apps!

UPDATE – Villa Vie Residences have confirmed that that Odyssey will be departing Fremantle today, April 6 at 8:00 AM, and will be sailing directly to Bali with no additional port calls along the Western Australian coast.

*Story and today’s arrival pic by Jean Hudson

Jean Hudson is our Shipping and Sailing Correspondent and also a regular feature writer, reviewer and photographer here on the Shipping News. You may also like to follow up her informative Places I Love stories, as well as other feature stories and Freo Today photographs, right here.

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