Elderly passengers wept as temperatures in Budapest hit 35C this week, trapped aboard a Tui river cruise ship whose air conditioning had broken – a problem the company knew about before they even boarded. Now, after two days of chaos, the 146 passengers on the Skyla are being flown home tomorrow with a full refund.
Judith Dunn, 83, had paid £2,000 for what was meant to be a special Danube River trip marking her 60th wedding anniversary with her late husband and the 80th birthday of her friend, whose husband died a year ago. Instead, she told the BBC, it became a “nightmare”. She described the heat on board as “absolutely stifling”.
“Tui apologises and flies home 146 passengers after air con failure on Danube cruise during Budapest heatwave.”
The passengers arrived in the Hungarian capital on Monday lunchtime and were taken straight to the ship – only to be told the air conditioning had failed. At around 7.30pm local time, they were transferred to hotels and told to arrange their own food. But the frustration only grew: “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,” said Dunn.
Temperatures are forecast to hit 39C on Tuesday, intensifying the ordeal for passengers – many of them elderly. Melanie Roberts, another traveller, praised the crew for ensuring there was plenty of water but said “a few people are quite distressed with the situation. 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.”
On Tuesday, passengers were taken back onto the ship for lunch. Tui River Cruises initially issued a statement saying engineers were working to fix the “technical issue” caused by extreme heat. But later, passengers received a letter saying more time was needed and the cruise had been cancelled. Affected passengers will get a full refund plus a £100 goodwill voucher.
“We are 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 this is causing to our customers’ holidays,” a Tui spokesperson told the BBC. For Judith Dunn, the apology came too late: “It’s been absolutely stifling,” she said, looking out at a neighbouring docked ship from her cabin window – not the scenic river views she had expected.