Eighty-three-year-old Judith Dunn had paid £2,000 for a river cruise along the Danube – a special treat to mark her 60th wedding anniversary and her friend’s 80th birthday. Instead, she spent two days stranded in Budapest during a heatwave, with temperatures topping 35C, after the air conditioning on her Tui-operated ship, the Skyla, broke down.
“It was absolutely stifling,” Dunn told the BBC. She and 145 other passengers arrived in the Hungarian capital on Monday lunchtime, were brought to the ship and then told the air con had failed. Around 7.30pm local time, they were transferred to hotels and left to fend for themselves for food.
“Tui cruise passengers stranded in Budapest heatwave after air con failure to be flown home with full refund.”
Dunn said the experience turned into a “nightmare”. And then came the realisation that the problem was not new. “We have since found out that the air con has been broken for a little while, in fact the people who were here last week on a cruise had to be in a hotel as well. So they did know about this, so we were a little bit upset by that.”
The heatwave gripping Europe shows no sign of easing: temperatures in Budapest were forecast to hit 39C on Tuesday. Passengers were taken back onto the ship for lunch today, but the relief was temporary.
Another traveller, Melanie Roberts, praised the crew for supplying plenty of water, but acknowledged the toll on fellow passengers. “There are a few people who are quite distressed with the situation,” she said. “There are some elderly people on here and people who are not as mobile as others. I think basically now we're getting to the stage where people just want to go home.”
Tui River Cruises initially said it was “aware of a technical issue affecting the air conditioning on Tui Skyla following the extreme heat in Budapest, and we're very sorry for the disruption”. Engineers and specialist teams were working to fix it. But later, in a letter to passengers seen by the BBC, the company admitted more time was needed and announced the cruise was cancelled.
Tui has now arranged flights home for tomorrow and offered a full refund plus a £100 goodwill voucher. For Judith Dunn, the anniversary and birthday celebrations she had envisioned are over. She expected scenic views of the Danube from her cabin window; instead, she looked out at a neighbouring docked ship.