Cruise ship Belfast: Villa Vie Odyssey ship stranded for months in Belfast returns to UK port hours after leaving

Villa Vie Residences chief executive Mike Petterson said the US liner still had to complete administrative paperwork before it could finally depart on its three-year round-the-world cruise. The Villa Vie Odyssey was scheduled to leave Belfast in May but its departure was delayed as it needed repairs.

Sky News reports that it understands the ship remains in the Belfast Lough and will not come in to port this evening (Tuesday 2 October). "We still have some administrative paperwork to be finished before leaving the Belfast area," Mr Petterson said.

The stranded passengers have not been staying on the ship during the four-month delay and have instead stayed in hotels and short-term rental properties in Belfast. One couple even became engaged while waiting for the cruise to begin.

Gian Perroni, from Vancouver in Canada, and Angie Harsanyi, from Colorado in the US, got to know each other as they walked to and back from the ship in the past few months. After a proposal under a supermoon, they said they have found their soulmates.

Andy Garrison, 75, who said he will be on board for at least three and a half years, said he arrived in Belfast for what he thought was three days in August and ended up there for six weeks. As news broke that the ship was ready to depart, he said: “I like Belfast a lot actually, I would stay here and enjoy myself except I’m leaving on a ship.

“I am so happy to be sailing away, I’m ready to go. We stop briefly in Brest, France, and then we go to Spain, we go to Portugal, and we head across the ocean to go to the Bahamas, where we stay for a while in the Bahamas.” The cruise ship s now expected to depart on Wednesday afternoon (3 October), according to the latest update on the Belfast Harbour website.