REGENT Seven Seas Cruises’ (RSSC) Seven Seas Explorer (pictured) has become the third ship in under a month to be refused entry into New Zealand due to a “dirty hull”. Explorer is in the midst of her first cruise season in the Australia & New Zealand regions (CW yesterday), but...
REGENT Seven Seas Cruises’ (RSSC) Seven Seas Explorer (pictured) has become the third ship in under a month to be refused entry into New Zealand due to a “dirty hull”.
Explorer is in the midst of her first cruise season in the Australia & New Zealand regions (CW yesterday), but like Princess Cruises’ Coral Princess (CW 23 Dec 2022) and Viking’s Viking Orion (CW yesterday), RSSC has been required to perform a cleaning operation on the ship’s hull due to NZ regulations, which will see her miss a number of port calls.
New Zealand authorities refused Explorer’s operations in Nelson, forcing RSSC to modify the Explorer’s itinerary – mainly due to the unavailability of recognised diving companies required to fulfil the operation, the line said.
Explorer is now rerouting to the coast of South Australia, near to where the same operation was performed on Orion, and due to the time needed to perform the cleaning of the ship’s hull, she will afterward proceed directly to Auckland, foregoing the remaining ports of call from the originally scheduled itinerary.
A letter to guests from RSSC’s new President Andrea DeMarco said the line will provide a 50% refund on each guest’s cruise-only fare, and will also issue a 50% future cruise credit based on the cruise-only fare.
If any portion of the booking has previously applied credits, they will be returned to the guest’s account, and are non-refundable.
“We apologise for modifying your itinerary and any inconveniences this has caused,” the letter said.
The cruise is still expected to disembark in Auckland, meaning return flights will remain unchanged, RSSC added.
