A world cruise liner that was stranded in Belfast for months has been labelled as “SS Clusterf**K by furious passengers after toilets stopped working on the beleaguered ship.
Passengers on Villa Vie Odyssey finally set sail following a chaotic four-month delay. However, some admitted in the early days they considered leaving the ship for good due to the smell of “sewage” by irate passengers after the toilets on the beleaguered ship stopped functioning, the Mirror reports.
However, some confessed that they contemplated abandoning the ship permanently due to the stench of sewage “wafting through the corridors.”
Another passenger admitted that due to the issues with the plumbing and the inability to flush the toilets, it felt like a “third-world situation”. In a post on the Substack platform, passenger Joe Rhodes, who had been documenting his unfortunate experiences on board the ship, revealed that the water supply failed on the first night they departed from Ireland.
Although it was repaired later in the day, hot water was not restored to the passengers until their second day in Bilbao, Spain.
He wrote: “Most Residents didn’t realise this – the shutdown happening in the middle of the night – until AFTER they’d made deposits, so to speak. Yep, we awakened to the faint smell of s**t marinating in a hundred unflushed bowls, wafting through the corridors, gently mixing with the ocean breeze.
“Nothing about this trip, except for the fact that I’ve been drunk a great deal of the time, has gone like it was supposed to go. Every single thing, from the food to the furnishings, the TV channels to the swimming pools (neither of which are yet operational), has turned out to be something less than advertised.
“Not on a catastrophic level – there weren’t any corpses in the cabins or anything, at least not on my deck – but it’s all been somewhat disappointing, somewhat shoddier and somewhat less functional than the brochures led us to believe. Have I mentioned that the beer sucks?”
The cruise had been scheduled to depart Belfast in May for a three-year, round-the-world voyage, but it was plagued by problems. Despite this, passengers finally set sail from Northern Ireland earlier this month, only to find themselves stuck in Belfast Lough for administrative reasons.
Due to ongoing repairs, the 125 passengers have been forced to settle for booze cruises and sightseeing tours in Northern Ireland instead of their promised luxury voyage to 425 ports in 147 countries. The luxury cruise provides rentals from 35 to 120 days, or alternatively, villas can be bought for prices ranging from £90,000 to £260,000.
Purchasing a villa on board ensures the room for at least 15 years, but the ownership remains valid for the entire operation of the ship.
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