But the cruise ship has not called at any port since leaving New Zealand on December 30. (Representative)
Sydney:
Passengers on a luxury New Year’s cruise around New Zealand and Australia are said to have been stranded on board for a week because of “sea creatures” on the hull.
The Australian government said divers had to remove “biological debris” – an accumulation of microorganisms, plants, algae or small animals – from the 930-berthed Viking Orion while it was moored in the waters. international.
The fisheries department said in a statement to AFP that the cleanup was needed to protect Australian waters from “potentially harmful marine life”.
The nine-deck Viking Orion, built in 2018 with a spa, theatre, sports deck and swimming pool, left Auckland on December 23, according to tracking website shipfinder.com.
But the cruise ship has not called at any port since leaving the New Zealand capital Wellington on December 26, the watcher said, appearing to have missed scheduled stops in Christchurch, Dunedin and the capital Hobart. of the state of Tasmania.
After being cleaned up in international waters off the South Australian state capital, the Viking Orion finally docked in Melbourne on Monday night, the tracking website said.
Viking confirmed that they had to remove “a limited amount of standard marine life” from the hull.
“Although the ship would need to miss several stops on this voyage to conduct the required cleaning, it is expected to continue on its current voyage,” Viking said in a statement sent to AFP.
“Viking is working directly with customers on compensation for their trip,” the company said, declining to provide further details.
(Except for the title, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from an aggregated feed.)
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