The luxury cruise liner stranded in Belfast for four months remains anchored off the coast of Northern Ireland after two failed attempts to finally set sail on a round-the-world voyage.
The Villa Vie Odyssey was originally due to embark on a “perpetual” three-and-a-half-year trip on 30 May but was marooned after requiring repairs, leaving passengers stranded in Belfast over summer.
The 125 passengers were finally allowed onboard on Monday night with the expectation they were finally off on their voyage but the ship soon anchored a few miles away in the mouth of Belfast Lough where it has remained since.
The ship’s operator, Villa Vie Residences, confirmed on Tuesday there was still “some administrative paperwork to be finished before leaving the Belfast area” with a new departure scheduled for Tuesday night at 11pm. The ship was still there at 5pm on Wednesday .
Passenger Angie Harsanyi from Colorado said they were told they would get an update on Wednesday evening but they were confident they would set off on Wednesday night or Thursday.
She said the mood onboard was positive although there were always some “moaning minnies”.
“We are loving it here. We are so stinking happy to be onboard. The food is phenomenal. We had our first full sit-down dinner last night. It was five star, they served steak tenderloins, soups; they put on entertainment,” she said.
She said “huge kudos” should go to the chief executive, Mike Peterson, and chief operating officer, Kathy Villalba, for getting through all the “frustrating” demands thrown at it since Monday.
The vessel first took to the seas before midnight on Monday but it only travelled for one hour, anchoring north of Bangor a few miles away in the mouth of Belfast Lough.
Harsanyi said the latest delays had been to do with “some back and forth about whether they had to go back to Belfast docks for more water and fuel” but “everyone was pretty positive”, whatever the decision.
The liner, which is 31 years old, had been idle for four years before being taken over by the cruise company.
Passengers who opted to stay in Northern Ireland while repairs were undertaken grew to love the city and its people.
Harsanyi also fell in love. She and her fiance, fellow passenger Gian Perroni, got engaged and hope to have a big wedding when the vessel docks in the Caribbean next spring.
One man, who carried a model of the Titanic onboard on Monday, said he enjoyed Belfast but was ready for the rest of the cruise.
A woman from Georgia said she had always wanted to see the world, but thanked Belfast for hosting them, calling it “a wonderful place”.
One pair of would-be voyagers became engaged while waiting for the cruise to begin.
On Tuesday, John Frim, a passenger, said he was a bit “confused” by the situation but was “happy to be home” and to have slept in his “own bed” onboard the vessel for the first time.
Another traveller, Andy Garrison, 75, said passengers had been “resilient” while waiting for the repairs to be completed. While he said he liked Belfast “a lot”, he was “so happy to be sailing away”.
He added: “I’m ready to go. We stop briefly in Brest, France, and then we go to Spain, we go to Portugal, and we head across the ocean to go to the Bahamas, where we stay for a while in the Bahamas.”
