Cruise ship stuck in Belfast for four months sets sail ... almost

The luxury cruise liner stranded in Belfast for four months has returned to the city only hours after it set sail to cheers and applause from its 125 passengers who thought when they departed they were finally on their way around the globe.

- Lisa O'Carroll

The Villa Vie Odyssey only made it a few miles from Belfast harbour on Monday night before it dropped anchor in the mouth of Belfast Lough, where it stayed overnight and for much of yesterday. Passengers were told it would depart late last night.

The chief executive of Villa Vie Residences, Mikael Petterson, said paperwork still had to be completed before the liner could finally depart to undertake its inaugural three-year, round-the-world cruise.

Petterson said the passengers would not disembark when the ship returned to port, and the vessel would leave when the paperwork was completed, before midnight.