The delivery of Scenic Luxury Cruises & Tours new discovery yacht Scenic Eclipse has been delayed by five months until late January 2019.
The company blamed “construction issues within the shipyard” for causing the delay.
Scenic said it will contact all travel agents with clients affected by the delay “as a matter of priority and will be managed in order of impacted sailing date”.
Company founder and chairman, Glen Moroney, said: “Despite the best efforts of our Scenic Eclipse build supervision team to make up construction time, we are not prepared to compromise the quality of the vessel and potentially impact guest experiences to meet the original late August launch date.
“Scenic will provide guests with a full refund for the cost of their Scenic Eclipse cruise and consideration of any other reasonable associated costs incurred with travel plans.”
He added: “We recognise the inconvenience this will cause agents and their clients and in addition to the full refund, the Scenic team are committed to working closely with agents and their clients to reschedule their trip to a suitable time for travel within the next two years.
“Scenic will also provide all guests who rebook a Scenic Eclipse voyage during this time a future cruise credit to the value of 25% of the cost of their rebooked cruise, and agent commission will be protected on all affected bookings.”
He added: “We recognise the inconvenience this will cause agents and their clients and in addition to the full refund, the Scenic team are committed to working closely with agents and their clients to reschedule their trip to a suitable time for travel within the next two years.
“Scenic will also provide all guests who rebook a Scenic Eclipse voyage during this time a future cruise credit to the value of 25% of the cost of their rebooked cruise, and agent commission will be protected on all affected bookings.”
The 228-passenger luxury vessel is being built at a shipyard in Croatia.
The 16,500-ton ship is due to feature two helicopters and a seven-person submarine and is deigned top have the highest passenger ship ice-rating to allow it to operate in the Arctic and Antarctica.