Royal Olympia cruise ship impounded in St Thomas

Photo: royalolympiccruises.com

Sunday, December 28, 2003

ST THOMAS, USVI: More than 800 passengers aboard the Olympia Voyager, which departed from Port Everglades Dec. 17 on a 16-day Amazon River cruise, have spent the past week anchored off St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, unable to set sail because of a bankruptcy proceeding.

According to court documents filed in federal court, the Kreditanstalt Fur Wiederaufbau, an economic development bank owned by the German government and based in Frankfurt is trying to collect money owed to it by Royal Olympia Cruise Lines Inc., which recently filed for Chapter 11.

Neither representatives of the cruise line nor attorneys for the German bank were available for comment Friday. But a notice posted on the Internet by the ship's owners acknowledged that the Voyager was temporarily waylaid in St. Thomas because problems with creditors. Another ship owned by the company, the Olympia Explorer, had to cancel a cruise scheduled to leave Monday from Los Angeles, headed for Ensenada, Mexico, and the Hawaiian Islands, for the same reason.

The Voyager has a capacity of 836 passengers, according to the company's promotional material.

The ship's captain reportedly sought permission to take the Voyager three miles offshore so he could open the duty free store and the casino, but the court refused. The passengers can go ashore in a tender, but they say they have exhausted the attractions on the island.

The plan is for the ship to leave St. Thomas Monday and cruise slowly back to Florida to adhere to its scheduled arrival. 

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