Cruise Ship Reports “Splash” in Strait as Five Ships Escape Persian Gulf

April 22 ------ Taking advantage of the relative calm with the current ceasefire and reports that the Strait of Hormuz is open, the first of the cruise ships began their outward journey. Six cruise ships had been caught inside the Persian Gulf when hostilities began and have remained for the past 47 days alongside at ports including Port Rashid, UAE, and Doha, Qatar, while their passengers were repatriated.

Three cruise ships, MSC Cruises’ MSC Euribia (184,000 gross tons), and the sister ships Mein Schiff 4 and Mein Schiff 5 (each 99,000 gross tons) were seen on AIS sailing together on Saturday through the Strait of Hormuz. The ships were staying on the southern side, remaining in Omani waters.

The master of one of the cruise ships reported to the monitoring operation UKMTO (UK Maritime Trade Operations) that it saw a “splash” close to the ship. It happened when they were approximately three nautical miles east of Oman. It is unclear if a missile or drone was fired, but it came after UKMTO received reports that a containership was struck in the Strait and IRGC speedboats shot at a tanker. Iran said on Saturday that the Strait is again closed due to violations in the ceasefire, just a day after both the Iranians and Donald Trump declared the Strait open.

The first of the cruise ships to begin the exit sailings was the Celestyal Discovery (42,289 gross tons), which departed from Port Rashid on April 17 and successfully transited the Strait into the Gulf of Oman on her way to Muscat. Built in 2003, the ship was acquired by Celestyal in 2024 as part of its two-ship fleet. Her running mate, Celestyal Journey (55,819 gross tons), began the transit several hours later, departing from Doha, on her way to the Strait and then to Oman.

For a small company, getting its two ships out of the Persian Gulf and starting the repositioning is critical for Celestyal. The company was forced to cancel its revenue trips through the end of April and hopes to resume commercial service at the beginning of May in the Greek Islands. Celestyal Journey has a capacity for a total of 1,360 passengers, and Celestyal Explorer has a capacity for 1,260 passengers. The two ships in total have a normal complement of just over 1,000 crew.

While making statements to assure the travel community that it was still financially strong, Celestyal also told UK regulators that it was reviewing parts of its business. It had said that due to the financial strain and the uncertainty on the restart, it was looking at possibly a small downsizing of parts of its business.

Hours after the first Celestyal ship appeared to have made the transit, and Donald Trump and the Iranians said the Strait of Hormuz was open to all ships, more cruise ships also got underway. Reports are that the MSC Cruises’ MSC Euribia had to first refuel before she got underway. Similarly, Mein Schiff 5 (99,000 gross tons), operated by the partnership between TUI Group and Royal Caribbean Group, also got underway from Doha bound for Oman, and was followed by her sister ship, Mein Schiff 4.

One other cruise ship, Aroya (150,695 gross tons), has not gotten underway, although its AIS shows that it would be repositioning from Dammam to outside the Strait, going to Fujairah, both in Saudi Arabia. Aroya, registered in Malta, is operated by a company set up by Cruise Saudi. She had been scheduled to reposition to the Mediterranean for the summer season.

MSC days ago proposed that its cruise ship could possibly be used to evacuate stranded crewmembers or others from the Gulf region. As late as the beginning of this week, it said it was uncertain when the ship would be able to leave the Persian Gulf.

All the ships were able to repatriate their passengers, but it is unclear what the different cruise lines did with their crews. TUI had reported that it repatriated the crews from its two ships, leaving only skeleton crews aboard.

Once the ships exit the Persian Gulf, the cruise line faces another safety decision. Celestyal and Aroya had run their ships through the Red Sea and the Bab al-Mandeb despite the safety concerns from the Houthis. TUI, however, had sent its ships around Africa. All the ships will be sailing just with crew, but so far, only Celestyal Discovery is showing a route to the Suez Canal. TUI and MSC have not said how they will route the ships to the Mediterranean.

The Middle East had been a strong market for the cruise industry, especially for repositioning ships from Europe for winter season cruises. MSC Cruises, however, has already announced its plan to reposition its ships for next year away from the Persian Gulf and the Middle East. MSC World Europa (215,863 gross tons), which was scheduled to sail between November 2026 and April 2027 in the Persian Gulf, will make her first appearance in the Caribbean for a replacement season sailing from Martinique and Guadeloupe.

It is anticipated that other cruise lines that had planned to sail next year in the Persian Gulf will also reposition their ships for alternate destinations.

Source: maritime-executive.com