Third cruise ship is crocked

//Third cruise ship is crocked

They do say these things come in threes, so we should have been expecting the news that a THIRD cruise ship has had to cancel a voyage due to propulsion problems.
Following the Regent Seven Seas Voyager, which developed a faulty pod, and Celebrity Century, which needs repairs to its rudder, P&O Australia’s Pacific Jewel has cancelled an 11-night Pacific Sunsets cruise due to sail from Sydney tomorrow.
The ship is currently returning from the south-west Pacific island of New Caledonia at reduced speed. The company had previously announced that a November voyage was to be cancelled in order to undertake dry-dock repairs to a stabiliser.
The 2,000 affected passengers have been offered a full refund and a 25 per cent discount on any cruise between now and March 31 next year.
Meanwhile, one travel agent struggling to deal with the travel disruption caused by Celebrity Century’s cancelled cruise has described the situation as a “perfect storm” of events. French rail strikes, limited flights from Nice and the fact that the ship concluded its voyage in a tender port all conspired to add chaos to the passengers’ woes.
And another correspondent, commenting on my original story, has described the chaos her parents faced in having to take a 10-hour bus ride back to Barcelona only days after a 14-hour flight to join the ship in the Spanish port.
Let’s hope the unfortunate cycle ends – for now – with the third breakdown.

By | 2017-06-15T16:00:19+00:00 18 October 2010|Cruise News|1 Comment

About the Author:

John Honeywell is a travel writer specialising in cruise ships and cruise travel. Winner of CLIA UK's Contribution to Cruise award 2017.

One Comment

  1. John Campbell 18 October 2010 at 9:42 pm - Reply

    And then there were four. Not propulsion related, at least in a direct sense, we now learn that Costa Classica was in a collision with a cargo ship in the Yangtze River. Costa has cancelled at least the next cruise while a 60 foot area of the hull is repaired.

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