Finally they put their feet back on the ground. Passengers on a luxury New Year’s Eve cruise to New Zealand and Australia have been stranded for a week at sea due to ‘marine growth’ clinging to the hull, which could have damaged the ecosystem if it had arrived at the pier uncleaned.
According to the Australian government, divers had to remove an accumulation of microorganisms, plants, algae or small animals from the Viking Orion, a 930-seater ship, while it was anchored in international waters.
The cleanup was necessary to protect Australian waters from “potentially harmful marine organisms,” the Fisheries Department explained in a statement sent to AFP.
The Viking Orion, a 2018-built nine-deck building with a spa, theater, large sports area and swimming pool, left Auckland, New Zealand on December 23. She made no further stops after leaving Wellington, the New Zealand capital, on December 26, according to a ship tracking website.
several missed stops
Meanwhile, the Viking Orion has anchored and been cleaned in international waters off the Australian city of Adelaide.
However, stops were planned in Christchurch and Dunedin, New Zealand, as well as Hobart, the capital of the Australian state of Tasmania, before Melbourne, Australia, where the ship docked Monday night.
The Viking company confirmed that it had to remove “a limited amount of ordinary marine growth” from the hull. “Although the ship had to miss several stops on this route for the necessary cleaning to be done, she should resume the current route,” Viking was quoted as saying by AFP.
“Viking is working directly with guests to compensate for the impact on their trip,” the company added, declining to provide further details.
On Twitter, several passengers expressed their dissatisfaction with this change of plans. “Shame on Viking for his negligence,” denounced one of them.
“I’m stuck in the same boat as you. I have cried many times both because of the major financial hit after saving for 2 years and because of the loss of memories and experiences with my dad,” replied one of the passengers.
Source: BFM TV
