Ambassador Cruise Line has confirmed that the entry into service of its first ship, Ambience has unfortunately been delayed.
The ship has undergone extensive engineering and other works whilst in dry-dock in Croatia. The process has been subjected to some significant recent supply-side delays which also led to a temporary lack of availability of marine gas oil in Croatia.
Whilst these have now been resolved, her maiden voyage to Hamburg, originally planned for 6th April 2022 has been rescheduled to now depart on 20th April, and her first two sailings to the Norwegian Fjords have subsequently been cancelled.
All guests booked on these three impacted sailings are being contacted by Ambassador to discuss a range of highly attractive alternatives or a full refund as per their preference.
CEO, Christian Verhounig says “We have taken the difficult decision today to delay the launch of our first ship Ambience. It’s not a decision that has been made in haste but something we have been working tirelessly to try and avoid.
Whilst we were able to mitigate several delays impacting our extensive programme of works during the period Ambience was in dry dock, everyone is aware that there is at present, extensive supply chain disruption and delays in many commercial areas. Most recently these have been worsened by the crisis in Ukraine.
It has therefore not been possible to depart for London Tilbury on the original date we had planned. This has had a knock-on effect to our inaugural sailing programme which we have managed to limit to the three initial sailings.
It is incredibly disappointing news to the guests booked on these sailings and we apologise for the disruption to their holiday plans that this news will cause. We are hopeful that most of them will be able to enjoy our ship and service on the revised dates and the alternatives we put together for them. The good news is that despite the delay, the ship has completed her refurbishment, she is now operating to a higher level of environmental responsibility, the captain and crew are on board, and she is looking wonderful.
All of us at Ambassador cannot wait to welcome our first guests on board. We appreciate that our guests may have questions beyond our initial communications to them, so we’re making more staff available today and opening our phone lines tomorrow to offer peace of mind and help with booking alternative sailings.”
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