Cruise ship to collect 2000 stranded passengers
20.04.10
The first leg of UK launch celebrations for new ship Celebrity Eclipse have been cancelled so that it can be used to help rescue holidaymakers stranded in the volcanic ash airspace shutdown. Celebrity Cruises is working with UK tour operators to collect more than 2000 holidaymakers affected by the airport closures.
The 2852 passenger vessel is due to arrive in Southampton as scheduled this morning and will depart this evening to Bilbao, where it is set to arrive in the early hours of Thursday Stranded holidaymakers will embark the ship Thursday morning and it will return to Southampton, arriving late on Friday evening.
Eclipse will collect delayed holidaymakers – some by up to seven days – who were on package holidays with major UK tour operators. The mercy mission will replace activities planned during a two-night launch celebration cruise from Southampton and comes as cruise ships, coaches and ferries are also being used by Thomson and First Choice parent TUI Travel to bring stranded holidaymakers home.
Thomson ship Island Escape, currently on a fly-cruise in Funchal, Madeira, will bring passengers directly back to the UK. The vessel is due to arrive in Falmouth in Cornwall Thursday. Extra spaces on board the ship has enabled more than 300 other Thomson holidaymakers in Madeira whose flights had been cancelled to be repatriated back to the UK. From Falmouth, people will then be transferred by coach back to their original UK departure airport.
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