$800 Million cruise ship seized for unpaid bill

I have just  recently returned from my own cruise on board the Independence of the Seas (17th – 25th May 2014) sailing around the Norwegian Fjords. Arriving back into Southampton and turning on my WiFi (as the ships WiFi packages were extortionate)  I noticed the first news story which came up in my news feed was about the Independence of the Seas cruise ship which I had just disembarked from, apparently having being seized by the Norwegian Coastal Administration (NCA)  whilst we were in Alesund.

Whilst we were docked in Alesund it appears that a local bailiff served the court papers on board the ship and then placed the ship under arrest until Royal Caribbean paid the $101,000 it owed for the unpaid pilot and security fees from 2013, and should have been paid in October 2013.  Once the papers had been served Captain Hendrik contacted Royal Caribbean who pay the monies owed and then the ship was released about an hour later.

Royal Caribbean aren’t the only cruise line who owe the Norwegian Coastal Administration (NCA) money, and similar action will be taken against them when they enter into Norway. They are still owed approx 6-7 million Norwegian Krona from cruise ships which have not paid their bills.

None of the passengers on board the ship were aware of anything amiss. We were the only ship in that day, but by lunchtime another ship had entered the port, but instead of being alongside the quayside, it was just anchored in the middle of the harbour and was fairly close to our ship and was facing our ship. After reading what had happened in Alesund, its now apparent that ship was blocking us in until the unpaid fees were sorted.

Luckily Royal Caribbean dealt with the matter quickly and without any disturbance to any of the passengers on board so we were able to set sail that evening onto our next port of call which was Stavanger.

I will write a review of my cruise in my next blog.