Viking Orion: Hundreds of passengers are stuck at sea for days on a ‘voyage to hell’.

due to algae growth

Hundreds of passengers are stuck at sea for days on a “voyage to hell”.

Tue, 01/03/2023 | 12:50 p.m

Algae growth on the hull of their ship delayed passengers on a luxury cruise around Australia and New Zealand for several days at the turn of the year. Australia’s Ministry of Fisheries said on Monday that divers first had to remove algae growth, microorganisms and plants known as biofoul, from the hull of the Viking Orion. This was necessary to protect Australian waters from “potentially harmful marine organisms”.

Cruise ship passenger talks about ‘voyage to hell’

Discontent spreads among the passengers. “Passenger frustration and anger are building,” said one passenger. Someone writes: “I just want to go home.” Another annoyed by unusual trips.

Another woman described the holiday on Twitter as “a hell of a trip”. She wrote, according to the BBC, “I cried over and over again, whether over the great financial loss after saving for two years, or over the loss of memories and experiences.”

Viking Orion: Several stations cancelled

The cruise ship left Auckland, New Zealand, the day before Christmas Eve and stopped in Wellington on Boxing Day. However, planned stops in Christchurch, Dunedin and Hobart have already been cancelled, as indicated by data posted on shipping website Vesselfinder.com. After cleaning up in international waters, the Viking Orion finally docked in Melbourne port in southeastern Australia on Monday evening (local time).

Unfortunately, the ship had to skip several stops in order to remove “a limited amount of normal growth,” shipping company Viking said. It will now continue its journey as planned. Passengers must be compensated for canceled stops.