Hundreds of Americans are stuck on a cruise ship off Australia.
The hull would be contaminated with biofouling, which would prevent the boat from docking for seven days, reports
The Guardian
on Sunday.
Australia's National Marine Coordination Center called for the boat to be cleaned immediately before allowing it to moor.
Shame on @VikingCruises for their negligence.
They have now canceled 3 of our 8 ports, including all of prime South New Zealand & Hobart.
A dirty & biohazard ship bottom.
After 2 years of waiting, Viking disappoints.
Great food but poor ship hygiene.
Buyerbeware.
pic.twitter.com/Oc284Ca0Sy
— Kenn Heydrick, EdD (@KHeydrick) December 26, 2022
Access to this content has been blocked to respect your choice of consent
By clicking on "
I ACCEPT
", you accept the deposit of cookies by external services and will thus have access to the content of our partners
I ACCEPT
And to better remunerate 20 Minutes, do not hesitate to accept all cookies, even for one day only, via our "I accept for today" button in the banner below.
More information on the Cookie Management Policy page.
Plungers to clean up
The ship had left New Zealand on December 26 to introduce cruise passengers to Australia.
The Australian Department of Fisheries has highlighted the dangerousness of this biofouling on marine fauna and flora to justify this decision.
Despite hiring divers to clean the hull outside Australian waters, the situation did not change.
On Twitter, some vacationers did not hesitate to make their dissatisfaction known.
“Shame on Viking Cruises for their negligence.
They have now canceled three of our eight ports of call,” one wrote on social media, referring to “dirty, biohazardous ship bottom.”
Several others complained of having saved for several years for this now wasted trip.
Nevertheless, the captain of the ship informed the passengers that they would benefit from an offer of compensation as soon as they returned home after the cruise.
World
Australia: Cruise ship with 800 Covid-19 positive passengers docks in Sydney
Company
"Icon of the Seas": The inaugural cruise of the largest liner in the world is already complete
World
Australia
UNITED STATES
Cruises
Wildlife