CIC Athena, Arion, Princess Danae & Princess Daphne all now impounded

Over the last few weeks CIC have ben having some rough times over unpaid debts that led to Athena, Arion & Princess Danae being impounded.

Yesterday it was confirmed that CIC's 4th ship Princess Daphne was impounded in Crete. The German charter firm, Ambiente, has repatriated their passengers and cancelled forward bookings.

Athena is due to depart for Australia next month, however, there is still no word as to whether or not this will go ahead - despite CIC's Australian website being in full working order.

The latest impounding was confirmed by Seatrade Insider this morning. CIC's 5th ship, Funchal, is in Lisbon...she was in the process of being upgraded for SOLAS but as yet she has only received a reported 20% of upgrades that she requires.

It isn't looking good for this collection of beautiful old ladies, hopefully someone can rescue them...CIC's financial backers do not appear to be willing to help out, despite forward bookings for all 4 of the impounded ships that go through to 2014. The crews will be in limbo just as those booked on the ships.

It is a very sad state of affairs for all involved...

We did a lovely trip on Athena a couple of years ago. We went because we had heard it was at the cheap end of the cruise market and it was all we could afford. It was only when we did a tad more research we realised that going with Fred O, P&O or even Cunard is proactically the same price that we moved onto those lines. And that is obviously what is happenning. These old ships are really no cheaper that much more swish lines - so that is the way to go. Yes it is sad but that is economics.