Eclipse delivery put back

SCENIC Luxury Cruises & Tours is today contacting passengers booked on the revised first seven voyages of its Scenic Eclipse “Discovery Yacht”, after confirming the inaugural voyage will be delayed by a further three months (TD breaking news).

Originally planned to debut last Aug, the company had earlier announced that due to construction delays the vessel would debut on 28 Jan 2019.

However the latest setback has seen the company revise the first sailing date to 13 Apr next year.

Although there are more than 600 workers on board each week day progressing the ship’s interiors, financial issues at the Croatian shipyard where the ship is being built had seen a strike by specialist commissioning engineers resulting in about six weeks of lost time.

Scenic said it had “been in constant contact with the shipyard, workers’ representatives and the Govt to ensure the completion of the ship as soon as possible”.

Under the new schedule the first Scenic Eclipse sailing will be a “Great Civilisations Mediterranean Cruise” from Barcelona to Athens.

Scenic has committed to providing full refunds for the cancelled voyages, along with “consideration of any other reasonable associated costs”.

Guests who rebook a Scenic Eclipse voyage before 31 Mar 2019 will also receive a future cruise credit to the value of 25% of their rebooked cruise.