Scenic Eclipse: launch delayed yet again!

The launch of the highly-anticipated Scenic Eclipse has been delayed—again!

Scenic Luxury Cruises & Tours has announced that the first sailing date for Scenic Eclipse is being amended to Aug. 15, 2019.

Back in July 2018, Scenic first announced that the ship's arrival would be delayed until January 2019. Then, in November 2018, the company announced yet another delay, this time with delivery hoping to be amended to Apr. 13, 2019. This recent announcement is the third time Scenic has had to readjust its course.

What happened?

Confirming media reports, Scenic cites that the ongoing financial challenges faced by the Uljanik Shipyard, where Scenic Eclipse is being built, have caused a range of ongoing impacts. 

Shipyard workers have not been paid full salaries since August 2018, which has led to strikes and manpower shortages as well as several other shipyard disruptions, resulting in months of lost production. 

To keep the build moving as quickly as possible in these challenging circumstances Scenic has expanded the team within the shipyard by employing Cruise Ship specialists from Finland, Italy, the UK and Norway. The expanded Scenic team took over the lead role in completing the ship with in excess of 115 directly-employed specialists in cooperation with the shipyard’s remaining management team and more than 500 subcontractors.

“We are deeply sorry for the inconvenience these delays to the launch of Scenic Eclipse have caused our guests. As a company we have done everything possible to complete the ship within the time limits that were set previously, but a series of events that are outside our control have put us in a position where we must delay,” stated a company spokesperson.

What happens to guests?

Guests who may have been booked on the Scenic Eclipse will be compensated.

"We so appreciate the partnership of our travels agents and their commitment to Scenic and will be protecting agent commission on any impacted Scenic Eclipse departures, due to this delay," Lisa McCaskill, VP sales and marketing, Scenic Canada, told PAX. "We are providing guests a full refund for the cost of their Scenic Eclipse cruise and consideration of any other reasonable associated costs incurred with their travel plans. In addition, Scenic will provide all guests who rebook a Scenic Eclipse voyage a future cruise credit to the value of 25% of the cost of their re-booked cruise."

In addition, Scenic will provide all guests who rebook a Scenic Eclipse voyage a future cruise credit to the value of 25 per cent of the cost of their re-booked cruise.

Scenic has established a dedicated phone number for guests and has begun reaching out to all guests and travel agents to provide details on the process of refunding and offering an opportunity to apply the 25 per cent discount to other voyages.

Accordingly, the Scenic Group has signed a letter of intent with the new consortium that will lead the shipyard to set up a new Discovery Yacht division within the restructured Uljanik group. This new joint venture will be fully focused on completing Scenic Eclipse and on expediting the build of the second Scenic Eclipse, as well as progressing development of the next generations of Scenic’s Discovery Yachts.

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