Ambassador Cruise Line has confirmed that the commissioning of its first ship, the Ambience, has been delayed. The ship has undergone extensive engineering and other work while in dry dock in Croatia. The process has been affected by some significant supply delays, which have also resulted in a temporary shortage of marine diesel in Croatia.
Although they have now been resolved, its inaugural voyage to Hamburg, initially scheduled for April 6, 2022, has been rescheduled for April 20, and its first two voyages to the Norwegian fjords have been cancelled.
Ambassador has contacted all guests who booked these three affected trips to offer them a range of very attractive alternatives or a full refund, depending on their preferences.
Managing Director Christian Verhounig said: “Today we made the difficult decision to postpone the launch of our first vessel, Ambience. This was not a hasty decision, but one we worked tirelessly to try and avoid. While we were able to mitigate several delays during Ambience’s dry-dock period, there is currently widespread supply chain disruption and delays in many commercial areas. These issues have recently been exacerbated by the crisis in Ukraine. Therefore, it was not possible to sail to London Tilbury on our originally planned date. This has impacted our maiden voyage schedule, which we have managed to limit to the initial three sailings.”.
This is bad news for guests who have booked these sailings, and we apologize for that. We hope that most of them will be able to enjoy our ship and our service on the alternatives we have arranged for them. The good news is that, despite the delay, the ship has completed its refurbishment, is now operating with a higher level of environmental responsibility, the captain and crew are on board, and it looks wonderful. Everyone on the Ambassador team is looking forward to welcoming our first guests aboard.
