Ambassador Cruise Line has been forced to cancel a second cruise following an issue with a lifeboat station.
The line cancelled a three-day festive markets sailing from Tilbury departing on Sunday, but hours later has pulled its Christmas and New Year Canary Islands cruise due to start on Wednesday (December 21).
The 1,400-passenger ship Ambience is currently sailing to Bremerhaven, Germany, where work will be carried out.
She has left London Tilbury this afternoon to go to Bremerhaven where the work and tests will be completed. Regrettably, this will not be concluded in time to operate our Christmas & New Year Canary Islands Cruise, which was due to sail on Wednesday 21st December 2022. 2/4
— ambassadorcruiseline (@ambassadorcruis) December 19, 2022
However, the line said tests on the ship would not be completed by Wednesday and therefore would now axe the second cruise.
Ambassador confirmed affected passengers and agents were being notified this afternoon.
It added: “We would advise all guests on this sailing to please wait to receive this communication before contacting either us directly or your travel agent.
“We can only apologise for any upset and inconvenience this announcement will cause our valued guests and our trade partners.”
Announcing the cancellation on Twitter on Sunday, Ambassador said: “We have chosen to immediately address this as a precautionary measure and, as such, will not be able to complete the repair and post-repair test in time to successfully operate today’s sailing.
“It is never an easy decision to cancel any itinerary, particularly at this time of year, and we would like to apologise to all those guests ho were due to sail with us.”
The company is offering affected passengers the option to transfer their cruise and receive a 50% discount or cancel and get a full refund, including parking/coach service and 25% future cruise discount.
Ambassador added in a statement: “We have communicated transfer and compensation options to our guests, and any additional concerns they might have will be dealt with by Ambassador on a case-by-case basis in the days to come.
“It is too early to say whether any future itineraries will be impacted as a result of the works. However, we would like to reassure all guests whose cruise might be affected that our priority will be to advise them directly and as soon as we can of any developments.
“We will provide further updates as appropriate.”
Built in 1991, Ambience originally operated for Princess Cruises before sailing as Pacific Dawn for P&O Cruises Australia and had been due to join Ambassador predecessor company Cruise & Maritime Voyages before its collapse in 2020.