Royal Caribbean’s Odyssey of the Seas cruise ship diverted from her planned route to rescue 77 refugees in distress this week.
Overnight from Monday 5th to Tuesday 6th August, the ship responded to a request from Greek authorities to aid a sailboat that was loaded with passengers southwest of Pylos.
The ship was able to send a lifeboat and pilot craft to the sailboat to rescue the stranded refugees, whose nationality has not been released.
A passenger captured the rescue from the ship:
@aileencd Rescue on the Ionian Sea. #greece #ioniansea #rescue #odysseyoftheseas #lifeboat ♬ original sound – AileenCD
The refugees were forced to abandon many personal belongings and were brought to the cruise ship where they were fed and given medical attention, if needed. They were kept in crew-only areas of the ship.
The cruise ship then had to make an unexpected diversion to Kalamata to drop the refugees off with the Greek authorities, which meant the planned trip to Santorini for that day was cancelled.
Apparently it has been rescheduled for later this week, but at the cost of a call to Mykonos which will now no longer be going ahead.
The cruise line would be expected to refund any cancelled excursions for the Mykonos port, but any passengers who booked through a third party will need to seek their own refunds.
Anyone who booked travel insurance with missed port cover would also be able to get a refund on the missed port.
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