Visitors and residents booked aboard Villa Vie Odyssey can rejoice that the ship has lastly set sail from the Harland & Wolff shipyard in Belfast, prepared to start its much-anticipated voyage after a prolonged string of repairs and delays that stored the ship from getting underway.
The crusing has been a very long time coming, initially having been deliberate to depart on Could 30, 2024 however extensively delayed attributable to a sequence of technical points, refits, and failed sea trial inspections.
Lastly, nonetheless, the ship has been deemed seaworthy and has handed her remaining inspections, in a position to welcome company. The inspections had been accomplished on Friday, September 27, 2024, and over the weekend the ship moved to the D1 pier in Belfast able to board company, who’re undoubtedly desperate to make themselves at residence on the ocean moderately than staying in inns and short-term leases.
Passengers did, in actual fact, board the ship on Monday, September 30, and left dock late within the night at roughly 11:30 p.m. – however they didn’t really get far. For Monday night, the ship is barely transferring into Belfast Lough to anchor, however will resume (or moderately, start) her voyage within the morning on Tuesday, October 1.
This does place the ship off the coast of northern Eire and able to set sail in spectacular vogue, starting what’s billed as a perpetual world cruise that can encircle the globe each 3.5 years.
Vacationers are largely excited to be onboard and prepared for what guarantees to be a singular journey, and plenty of of them have loved their unanticipated and prolonged time in Belfast, having bonded over their uncommon alternative.
With the intensive renovations and repairs – from wastewater tank points to issues with the rudder shares – now full, the ship can lastly start her grand voyage.
The place Will the Ship Go First?
Whereas it’s thrilling information certainly that Villa Vie Odyssey has finally set sail, the place will she head subsequent? Given the large delays to getting her first voyage underway, the ship could should severely re-route from her initially deliberate itinerary.
Nonetheless, the small ship – at simply 24,344 gross tons – is certain to go to memorable ports of name that bigger vessels should not in a position to see attributable to docking restrictions, harbor depths, neighborhood measurement, and different concerns.
In whole, one circumnavigation ought to cowl 147 nations and 425 ports of name, a lot of them with prolonged visits to allow distinctive immersion in native historical past and tradition.
The ship’s full itinerary was final up to date on the finish of July, that includes Norway and Iceland as her first areas to go to, adopted by a wide range of locations in Scandinavia and northern Europe all through August, and exploring Spain, Portugal, and even Bermuda in September.
That schedule reveals Villa Vie Odyssey deliberate for Freeport within the Bahamas on September 30, 2024, adopted by an in a single day go to to Nassau from 7 a.m. October 1 by 6 p.m. October 2. Provided that the ship is at present 4,000 miles from the Bahamas, it appears unlikely that she’ll make that port go to on time this week.
October is deliberate to be spent within the Western Caribbean, having fun with visits to locations corresponding to Jamaica, Grand Cayman, Mexico, Belize, Honduras, and extra, earlier than the ship strikes to the Japanese Caribbean – Barbados, St. Lucia, Martinique, Dominica, Antigua, and so on. – throughout November.
In fact, this plan will now want revision, which shall be straightforward sufficient to do with the vessel really underway. It’s not but recognized at what port of name the ship will “catch up” with the initially deliberate itinerary, however that may probably be the best strategy to modify the crusing route.
Villa Vie Odyssey can welcome as many as 929 company (minus one passenger eliminated simply days in the past), with a mixture of owner-residents onboard in addition to vacationers who’ve booked simply partial passage on a world cruise in contrast to some other. Additionally onboard are greater than 350 worldwide crew members to make sure everybody has a memorable and satisfying voyage.
