Ambassador’s Ambience has once again been blocked from sailing into Amsterdam by climate change protestors, this time with 170 delegates attending the Advantage Latitude cruise conference amongst the 1,400 passengers onboard.
The captain made the announcement that the ship would be diverted as Ambience set sail from London Tilbury for a three-night round-trip cruise. Instead of docking in the city centre, the ship will dock on Friday morning at IJmuidena, a 45-minute drive away, and passengers will travel by shuttle bus to the city centre.
He said the ship had received advanced information that Extinction Rebellion protestors planned to chain themselves to the locks on the approach to Amsterdam on Friday and Saturday , preventing ships from going in and out. “I don’t consider it safe to call at Amsterdam at this time,” Captain Egil Aune told guests over the ship’s loudspeaker. “I do apologise for the inconvenience, but the safety of the ship and all of us onboard is my priority.”
Demonstrations by climate change protestors have prevented several cruise ships from entering the port in recent weeks, including Ambience on several previous occasions. MSC Virtuosa was stuck in the locks for five hours on Tuesday due to the protests.
Some 120 Advantage members and 50 of its suppliers, including UK cruise line representatives, are onboard Ambience for the consortium’s annual three-day Latitude cruise conference.
Chief Commercial Officer Kelly Cookes said the conference, being held on an ex-UK cruise for the first time, had attracted 50 more members than last year, when it was held on Uniworld’s much smaller Joie de Vivre river cruise ship in Paris.
“This time, we wanted our members to experience an end-to-end cruise,” said Kelly. “When we first put this one out, it sold out so quickly that we asked for more cabins, but they also sold quickly, so we had a wait list. That shows the interest in cruise and the interest in Ambassador from our members.”