| The MV Funchal set sail from the city on May 17 after tour operators Travelscope cancelled some bookings following the discovery of a plumbing problem that left between eight and 10 cabins out of service.
The 12-day cruise visited Tallinn, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Helsinki and St Petersburg.
A bug has hit another of the operator’s vessels, with the MV Van Gogh, sister ship of the Funchal, last night seized by officials at Harwich after reports that scores of people had been affected with a virus.
Travelscope today offered refunds to around 500 holidaymakers whose seven-day trip to Norway on the Van Gogh liner was cancelled yesterday.
The passengers waiting to board at Harwich docks were turned away when the vessel was detained.
Around 70 passengers and 15 crew had begun to suffer symptoms including diarrhoea and vomiting on the second day of the last cruise, Travelscope said.
One Dundee man whose wife had been “very ill” during the trip aboard the MV Funchal said passengers were “dropping like flies” but crew were denying there was any problem.
The man, who asked not to be identified, was angered that the ship wasn’t seized in Dundee like its counterpart at Harwich.
He said, “They are saying that people brought the virus on board but I find that hard to believe, especially with its sister ship being seized.
“The doctor was inundated with passengers and was giving people an injection and imodium.
“You went down for breakfast and that was all everyone was talking about.
“They (the company) seemed to be in denial.”
Councillor Bruce Mackie, who was a passenger on the Funchal, was among those who came down with the bug and was bed-ridden for two days.
“I missed the Tallinn trip and was watching what I was eating for the next couple of days. Quite a lot of people had it. I had to get the doctor, who seemed to be pretty busy and he gave me an injection and Imodium.
“My wife was fine. There were five out of the six people with whom we dined affected.
“We had a problem with clearing the toilet and there was certainly a smell in some parts of the ship.
“I had a lovely holiday apart from the couple of days that I was unwell.”
A spokesperson for Forth Ports, owners of the Dundee Port, said they were unaware of any illness on board the vessel.
He added, “Forth Ports weren’t informed of any incident of illness. That doesn’t necessarily mean to say there wasn’t an incident of people being ill on the vessel.”
A spokesesperson for Travelscope said, “There were 62 passengers in total who were taken ill during the cruise.
“There were no new cases during the 72 hours prior to arriving in Dundee.
“The port’s health authority went on board on arrival and advised the ship what cleaning should be done.
“With no new occurrence of the illness the health authority said the ship was free to sail.” |
