Royal Princess cruises cancelled

After the engine room fire on board the cruise ship Royal Princess, owners Princess Cruises have announced that the ship is being taken out of service for repairs.
Passengers who were half-way through a 12-night voyage to the Holy Land when the fire broke out as the ship was leaving Port Said in Egypt have been taken to hotels in Cairo, and arrangements are being made to fly them home.
The 30,000-ton ship’s current cruise, and the next voyage due to sail on June 25 have been cancelled, but there is no news yet on the cause of the fire, which left 633 passengers in darkness at their muster stations on Thursday night.
With no power, and no air conditioning, some chose to sleep on the open deck instead of in their cabins when the emergency was over.
A spokesman for Princess said: “We have spent the day thoroughly reviewing the condition of the engines and assessing the damage. Unfortunately, the impact is more extensive than originally thought and the ship must be moved to a shipyard to complete the necessary repairs.
“We understand that this is a disappointing development, and we sincerely apologize to our passengers for the disruption.
“We will be providing the affected passengers on both voyages a full refund of their fare, plus a future cruise credit equal to 25% of the cruise fare paid for these sailings. We are currently securing flights home for all passengers currently onboard Royal Princess, and they will be returning home over the weekend.”