Passengers on a luxurious New Year’s cruise round New Zealand and Australia have reportedly been stranded on board for per week due to a “marine progress” on the ship’s hull.

Divers had to remove the “biofoul” — an accumulation of microorganisms, crops, algae or small animals — from the 930-berth Viking Orion whereas it was anchored in worldwide waters, the Australian authorities stated.

The cleansing was required to guard Australia’s waters from “doubtlessly dangerous marine organisms”, the fisheries department said in a statement sent to AFP.

The nine-deck Viking Orion, built in 2018 with a spa, theatre, sports deck and pool, left Auckland on December 23, according to tracking website vesselfinder.com.

But the cruise ship had made no port calls since leaving the New Zealand capital Wellington on December 26, the tracker said, apparently missing scheduled stops in Christchurch, Dunedin and the Tasmanian state capital of Hobart.

After being cleaned in international waters off the South Australian state capital Adelaide, the Viking Orion was finally docking in Melbourne on Monday evening, the tracking website showed.

Viking confirmed it had to remove “a limited amount of standard marine growth” from the hull.

“While the ship wanted to overlook a number of stops on this itinerary to ensure that the required cleansing to be carried out, she is predicted to renew the present itinerary,” Viking said in a statement sent to AFP.

“Viking is working directly with guests on compensation for the impact to their voyage,” the corporate stated, declining to provide additional particulars.

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