Villa Vie Odyssey Belfast: Final countdown for passengers, as hopes rise cruise liner to depart this evening

Owned by US company Villa Vie Residences, it is understood the liner will be the first perpetual round the world cruise, calling in 147 countries every 3.5 years.

However the launch has been delayed by four months due to unforeseen repair requirements by maritime regulators.

CEO Mike Petterson has told the News Letter this is in large part because the company is a start up and as the ship was bought from Fred Olsen shipping in March.

Subsequently, he said, regulators were particularly scrupulous in checking the ship over and required work done by the previous owners to be redone because there was no documentation to show it had been carried out.

Florida native Holly Hennessy, a wealth manager by profession, is used to living on her own boat with her Siamese cat Captain.

However she is now glad to be done with all the paperwork and maintenance and has bought her own cabin on the Villa Vie Residence.

"The shuttle buses have been booked to bring us board today at 5pm," she told the News Letter this afternoon.

Asked where the vessel is heading to first, she laughed: "Most of us don't really care!"

"But first of all we are supposed to be heading to Brest in France, then Bilbao and Vigo in Spain, Porto in Portugal then the Azores, Bermuda and then the Bahamas."

It is understood the vessel could leave Belfast for warmer shores any time up to 11pm this evening.

The cost of a perpetual world cruise starts with buying a cabin for around £75k with monthly fees of £1,870 for a single or £2,620 for a couple. This covers food, laundry and entertainment and “being ushered around the world”.

Shorter packages on board are also available.

UPDATE: Villa Vie Residences CEO Mike Petterson joined passengers in the cruise departure lounge at Belfast City Harbour at about 7:10pm to tell them there was still some essential paperwork outstanding but he expected they would leave withing 24 hours.

It seemed as though passengers began holding their breath, and there was mention of contingency plans for hotels.

However 15 minutes later he appeared once again to announce that it had all been signed off, to cheers from passengers and slaps on the back.

It was reported at 7:50pm that the vessel has now fired up its engines and it preparing to move from the ship yard to collect the passengers at the cruise liner terminal. Mr Petterson told the passengers that they had until 11:58 tonight to depart.

Mr Petterson told the News Letter at 7:42pm: “Yeah, we’ll be on our way shortly.”

• ‘ARE WE LEFT YET?’ See for yourself if the liner has left Belfast as you follow its progress on the high seas with satellite tracking: Click here.