Ambassador Cruise Line has confirmed that the commissioning of its first ship, Ambience, has unfortunately been delayed.
The ship underwent extensive engineering and other work while in drydock in Croatia. The process has recently suffered significant delays on the supply side, which has also resulted in a temporary lack of marine gas oil availability in Croatia.
While these have now been resolved, her maiden voyage to Hamburg, originally scheduled for 6and April 2022 was rdeparture scheduled for 20and Apriland her first two crossings to the Norwegian Fjords were subsequently cancelled.
All passengers who have booked on these three affected cruises are being contacted by Ambassador to discuss a range of very attractive alternatives or a full refund depending on their preference.
CEO, Christian Verhounig said “Today we have made the difficult decision to delay the launch of our first ship Vibe. It was not a decision that was made in haste, but something that we have worked tirelessly to try to avoid.
Although we were able to mitigate several delays affecting our extensive works program during the period Vibe was in dry dock, everyone is aware that there is currently a major supply chain disruption and delays in many trading areas. More recently, these problems have been compounded by the crisis in Ukraine.
It was therefore not possible to leave for London Tilbury on the date originally planned. This had a ripple effect on our inaugural sailing schedule which we managed to limit to the initial three starts.
This is incredibly disappointing news for passengers booked on these cruises and we apologize for the disruption to their vacation plans this news will cause. We hope most of them will be able to enjoy our ship and service on the revised dates and alternatives we have in place for them. The good news is that despite the delay the ship has completed its refurbishment, it is now operating at a higher level of environmental responsibility, the captain and crew are on board and it looks stunning.
We at Ambassador are all looking forward to welcoming our first guests on board. We appreciate that our customers may have questions beyond our initial communications with them, so we are making more staff available today and opening our phone lines tomorrow to provide peace of mind and help book alternative crossings. .
Visit Cruise Critic to research and plan your future cruises, connect with other cruise lines and share your passion for cruising.
