Cruise lines forced to cancel planned sailings on six ships still trapped in Middle East war zone

Six cruise ships remain trapped in the Persian Gulf due to conflict in the Middle East, forcing cruise lines to cancel a slew of sailings — and leaving the floating havens for relaxation anything but.

While a majority of the whopping 15,000 cruise passengers that had been previously stranded in the danger zone have been repatriated, using a combination of private charters and other travel arrangements, a half-dozen ships that carried the vacationers and crew haven’t been so lucky — yet.

The ships included the MSC Euribia (currently in Dubai), TUI’s Mein Schiff 4 and (currently in Abu Dhabi) Mein Schiff 5 (currently in Doha), Celestyal Cruises’ Discovery (currently in Dubai) and Journey (currently in Doha), and the Saudi-based AroyaManara (currently in Dubai), People reported. All of their locations are visible on CruiseMapper.

Returning to safer seas would require a trip through the Strait of Hormuz — obviously out of the question. Getting guests back to their home countries reportedly took as long as two weeks.

On March 6, a statement shared with People from a MSC Cruises representative stated that a “dedicated flight operation” had been initiated to get passengers on the Euribia home through at least five charter flights.

A statement put out by TravelWeek confirmed that the 1,500 passengers all returned home by March 9.

Now, the affected companies are left to figure out how to accommodate customers on future planned sailings.

TUI put out an announcement on March 25 that the Mein Schiff 4’s scheduled sailings up to April 11 would now be canceled, while the Mein Schiff 5 announced that its sailings would be halted until April 24. 

Celestyal Cruises also announced that it would be quashing three set sails — two Mediterranean voyages on the Journey and a Greek island sailing on the Discovery.

Meanwhile, MSC’s Euribia will not be setting sail again until a roundtrip voyage out of Kiel, Germany on May 2.