Royal Princess cruise is cancelled

Royal Princess finally reached the Italian port of Naples this evening, more than 12 hours behind schedule as its current voyage was cut short for emergency repairs to be carried out.
The ship, launched in June by Kate Middleton, suffered a major power failure on Sunday. An emergency generator kept essential services such as toilets operating for three-and-a-half hours.
Royal Princess was seven days into a 12-day cruise which started in Venice on September 15 and had been at the Greek island of Mykonos on Saturday. There are 3,594 passengers and 1,336 crew members on board.
Calls at Rome, Livorno and Toulon have been abandoned, and arrangements are being made to fly passengers home from Naples instead of Barcelona on Friday.
A statement from Princess Cruises HQ in California said: “After yesterday’s power outage on Royal Princess the ship’s technical team continued to evaluate the problem overnight and, upon further assessment, it became apparent that repairs need to be made to fully resolve the situation. 


“We sincerely regret this means the remainder of the current cruise will be cancelled, and passengers will disembark the ship in Naples.
“Passengers will be provided a full refund of their cruise fare, along with a 25 per cent future cruise credit. 

Princess is making homeward air arrangements for passengers, and we anticipate that passengers will spend Tuesday night onboard and depart the ship on Wednesday.
“Subject to approval, Royal Princess will then depart for Barcelona with crew only.The impact of the repairs on the next Royal Princess cruise, scheduled to depart from Barcelona on September 27, is not yet known and we will keep passengers fully advised as details become known.”