Cruise ships escape through Strait of Hormuz and will carry passengers within weeks

Six vessels managed to sail out of the Gulf over the weekend
All six cruise ships that had been stranded in Dubai since the start of the Iran war have been able to clear the Strait of Hormuz and are set to resume passenger sailings within weeks.

Within hours of the first US-Israeli attack on Iran on 28 February, Tehran dispatched missiles and drones laden with explosives at key economic infrastructure in the Gulf states.

Six cruise ships were operating in the region at the time.

MSC Euribia, Celestyal Discovery and the Tui ship Mein Schiff 4 were in UAE ports when hostilities broke out.

Celestyal Journey and Mein Schiff 5 were in Doha.

Saudi-owned Aroya Manara was in the eastern port of Dammam.

A spokesperson for Celestyal Cruises said: “On Friday 17 April, Celestyal Discovery , under the command of Captain Nikolaos Vasileiou, became the first cruise vessel to depart the Arabian Gulf, executing a carefully coordinated voyage plan developed in close collaboration with regional authorities and maritime security teams.

“This pioneering movement established a safe and proven route through the Strait, enabling other cruise operators to follow.

“Building on this, on Saturday, April 18, Celestyal Journey , led by Captain Angelos Vasilakos, successfully navigated the same passage, heading a wider convoy of cruise vessels departing the region using the established corridor.”
Data from CruiseMapper.com indicates Celestyal Journey departed from Doha on the afternoon of Friday 17 April and sailed east towards the Strait of Hormuz.

Mein Schiff 5 sailed from the Qatari port late on Friday night.

The final vessel to leave the Gulf was Aroya Manara , which sailed from Dammam in the early hours of Saturday morning and cleared the strait late on Sunday night.

All six ships sailed close to the Omani shore of the Strait of Hormuz, staying as far as possible from Iranian territory.

The first five ships to leave the Gulf are understood to be sailing around the Cape – rather than the much shorter journey through the Suez Canal – before resuming scheduled sailings in Europe in May.

Aroya Manara is sailing around the Arabian peninsula to Jeddah on the western coast of Saudi Arabia.

Wybcke Meier, chief executive of Tui Cruises, said: “The past weeks have presented all of us with extraordinary challenges.

My special thanks go to our captains, the crews, as well as all teams on board and on shore, who, with great professionalism, prudence, and dedication, have contributed to managing this situation.

“We are therefore all the more pleased that we can now return swiftly to regular operations and deploy our entire fleet as planned.”
A spokesperson for MSC Cruises said: “ MSC Euribia is on course to resume her Northern Europe season, and as the ship will now be able to return sooner than previously anticipated, MSC Cruises confirms that the cruise departing on 16 May from Kiel (and 17 May from Copenhagen) will now operate as originally scheduled, with all subsequent sailings operating as planned.”
Dozens of cruises have been cancelled while the ships were stranded in the Gulf, costing the companies tens of millions of pounds.

Several other parts of the world were already off-limits due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine – notably the Black Sea and the key Baltic port of St Petersburg.

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