He bought a cruise ship on Craigslist and spent over $1 million restoring it. Then his dream sank | CNN

CNN — Buying a historic cruise ship he found on Craigslist back in 2008 was undoubtedly a life-altering decision for Chris Willson. The technology entrepreneur from Utah spent around 15 years painstakingly restoring the 293-foot vessel, which contains 85 cabins, a swimming pool and a theater, and even moved on board with his long-term partner Jin Li. Willson says he poured his life savings into the passion project, and his extraordinary story was picked up by CNN and subsequently many other international publications. Ship of dreams Willson and Li moved on board the ship and focused their energies on painstakingly restoring it. His ultimate goal was to transform the neglected ship into a museum, but things didn’t quite go to plan. In October 2023, Willson made the painful decision to sell the vessel, which began sinking around seven months later. Now its future looks bleak. “We absolutely loved our time with that ship,” Willson tells CNN Travel. “It (selling) was probably the hardest t...