Celebrity Cruises has declared the decision to repatriate 2,000 British holidaymakers from Spain a major success.
New $500 million ship Celebrity Eclipse made the mercy mission to Bilbao on Thursday after agreeing with Thomas Cook, Tui Travel and The Co-operative to bring home customers caught up in the volcanic ash crisis.
Celebrity bosses are delighted with how the repatriation went, saying how the customers, some of whom spent up to 15 hours on coach transfers, were overjoyed to be on the ship.
Many of the passengers, which included around 240 children, had never been on a cruise ship before and were said to be amazed by the facilities on board.
Celebrity staff said the atmosphere onboard was fantastic and the guests dressed up for their one evening on board and made use of all the facilities including the pools, restaurants, bars, gym and spa.
Booking desks were opened on board and the line was said to have done a good amount of business from guests.
Richard Fain, president and chief executive of Royal Caribbean Cruise Line, said the decision to help the repatriation effort was taken quickly once they realised how long the crisis was going to last for.
“I don’t think any of us appreciated just how long the air interruptions were going to last. Once it became clear we had a management meeting and the decision was taken very quickly and there was no hesitation about it. It was, frankly, an easy decision to make,” he said.
“In the shipping industry we are a very superstitious lot, so to have an opportunity to participate in a small way in what was a very big problem was really quite a good opportunity. It made us feel good, it made the crew feel good and as an omen for the success of the ship it was unparalleled.”
The mercy mission replaced a planned two night trade and media inaugural sailing but, as many of the international guests could not make it and many of the travel agent guests were able to swap to the weekend’s sailing, it had little impact.