BELFAST: A luxury round-the-world cruise ship plagued by technical delays that has been docked in rainy Belfast since May finally departed the Northern Ireland capital on Monday, sparking celebrations among passengers. “We’re going to have a blast tonight, we’re going to party like there’s no tomorrow,” beaming passenger Joe Martino told AFP before boarding. The lively Odyssey cruise ship left Belfast Harbor at 2240 GMT as passengers on board cheered. But even Monday’s departure encountered another technical snag. Dozens of passengers were left waiting at the Belfast cruise terminal after their scheduled boarding time because the last piece of paper required was delayed. After Mike Petersen, head of the American company Villa Vie Residences, which owns the Odyssey, finally gave the green light to disembark, passengers screamed with joy and hugged each other. “The joy of getting on that ship when it takes off will be the feeling of a lifetime,” said Martino, 61, an actor from Chicago who has spent the past four months waiting in Belfast. Passenger Holly Hennessy held a cat named ‘Captain’ and said ecstatically: “I’ve been in Belfast for four months and two days, but who’s counting!” The Odyssey was scheduled to set sail from the Northern Irish capital on May 30 for a three-and-a-half-year voyage. But the equipment, certification processes and engine repairs took much longer than expected. “Everything that could go wrong did go wrong,” Martino said. The ship underwent repairs due to engine problems in dry dock at Belfast’s Harland & Wolff, the famous shipyard where the doomed Titanic was built more than a century ago. Further delays saw the shipbuilder go into financial administration this month. Passengers can either buy or rent long-term cabins on a so-called “residential” cruise ship with the promise of unlimited sailing around the world. During the long wait, passengers could spend the whole day on board the ship, but were not allowed to sleep there, so they spent the nights in hotels or rented apartments. Some chose to explore Northern Ireland, while others took the opportunity to travel around Europe or join other cruises while the Odyssey remained stranded. They then gathered back in Belfast in recent days for their expected departure, when the ship will head first to Brest, then to Bilbao in the Azores and across the Atlantic to the Caribbean. The floating town, which can accommodate around 600 passengers, is set to visit all seven continents with more than 425 stops in 147 planned destinations. The stay in port will last from two to seven days.
