The cruise ship will return to Belfast to complete paperwork a few hours after departure

A luxury cruise ship stuck in Belfast for four months is due to return to the city just hours after finally setting sail.

Villa Vie Residences general manager Mike Petterson said the liner still needed to complete paperwork before it could finally depart to embark on a three-year world cruise.

The Villa Vie Odyssey was scheduled to leave town in May, but it was delayed because it needed repairs.

Passengers cheered, applauded and kissed the liner’s boss when he confirmed on Monday evening that they were ready to leave Belfast port.

However, on Tuesday the ship remained moored off the Co Down coast and information on the Belfast Port website said it was due to return to port in the afternoon with another departure scheduled for 8 p.m. hours.

Mr Petterson told the PA news agency: “We still have some paperwork to complete before we leave the Belfast area. »

He said passengers would not disembark when the ship returned to port and that the liner would depart when paperwork was completed before midnight.

Residents of Villa Vie Odyssey said goodbye to the Northern Ireland town they knew so well on Monday evening, taking memories and keepsakes with them.

A man carrying a self-assembled model of the Titanic on board on Monday said he was enjoying Belfast but was ready for the rest of the cruise.

Another woman from Georgia said she had always wanted to see the world, but thanked Belfast for welcoming them, calling it a “wonderful place”.

Two would-be travelers got engaged while waiting for the cruise to begin.

Gian Perroni, from Vancouver in Canada, and Angie Harsanyi, from Colorado in the United States, got to know each other while walking to and from the ship over the past few months.

After a proposal under a super moon, they declared they had found their soul mate.

Andy Garrison, 75, who said he would remain 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 stayed there six weeks.

He said he wanted to do something, so he ordered a model of the Titanic which he built in three or four days.

Asked if he was concerned that this could be considered a bad omen, he replied: “No, I am not. In fact, I’m going to put this on my bedroom wall.

He said passengers had shown “resilience” while waiting for repairs to be completed and described them as a “really nice group”.

“I really like Belfast actually, I would stay here and have fun unless I went on a boat,” he said.

“I’m so happy to be going again, I’m ready to go. We stop briefly in Brest, France, then we go to Spain, we go to Portugal and we cross the ocean to the Bahamas, where we stay in the Bahamas for a while.

Cyndi Grzybowski, 69, of Appling, Ga., said she always wanted to see the world and was excited for the journey to begin.

“My other half passed away three years ago, so this gives me the opportunity to get off the farm, literally, and see the world, which is what I wanted to do,” she told reporters on Monday.

“My son has been so supportive because when this opportunity came up, I was really humming because I’ve been on the farm for 27 years, and he said, ‘Mom, the only thing I heard you say about going to see the world.”

“We started as strangers in Southampton and Belfast and now we are truly family. Yesterday we had two amazing evenings with the pedal bikes… and last night at Revolution de Cuba we had an evening with fantastic food.

“Thank you all so much – truly, Belfast has been such a wonderful place. I enjoyed every minute here so much.

The luxury cruise offers rentals of 35 to 120 days, or villas can be purchased for between £90,000 and £260,000.

Owning a villa on board guarantees the room for at least 15 years, but ownership remains valid throughout the ship’s operation.