World’s most luxurious cruise ship launch hit by five-month delay

The launch of Scenic Eclipse, the highly anticipated “discovery yacht”, and a contender for the world’s most luxurious cruise ship, has been delayed by five months. The ship, due to launch at the end of August, will now be unveiled in late January 2019.

Scenic founder and chairman Glen Moroney blamed construction issues for the delay. Eclipse and identical sister ship Sister Eclipse II are both under construction Uljanik shipyard in Pula, Croatia.

“Despite the best efforts of our build supervision team to make up construction time, we are not prepared to compromise the quality of the vessel and potentially impact guest experiences to meet the original launch date,” said Moroney.

He confirmed that passengers pre-booked on an Eclipse voyage would receive a full refund and consideration of any other reasonable associated costs incurred. Those who re-book during the next two years will be given a cruise credit to the value of 25% of the cost of their cruise.

Scenic Eclipse is the first ocean cruise ship from Scenic. Every one of the 114 suites will have a private veranda and lounge area. There will be 10 dining options on board, and a discovery fleet, which will include Zodiacs, kayaks, e-bikes, helicopter and a submarine, to help guests explore destinations including the Arctic and Antarctica.

Scenic is not the only cruise line to suffer delays in construction. Hurtigruten has pushed back the launch of its two hybrid vessels currently under construction in Kleven shipyard in Norway. The first, Roald Amundsen, was originally due to launch in July 2018 but has been put back to May 2019, which has had a knock-on effect on second ship Fridtjof Nansen, originally slated for launch in 2019.

The launch of tall-ship cruise line Star Clippers’ Flying Clipper – the largest masted sailing ship in the world – has also been delayed. The launch was originally due to happen in August 2017 and a new date has still not been announced.