AIDAnova accidents and incidents

December 2022Cruise Illness / Virus Outbreaks

(Coronavirus) The ship arrived in Port Lisbon (Portugal) on December 29, 2021, but was held in port through January 2nd due to a COVID outbreak among the crew. Diogo Vieira Branco (the Port's Director) reported that a total of 52 (out of 1353) crew onboard had tested positive, experiencing only mild symptoms.

There were no positive cases among the 2844 passengers. They were allowed to disembark the ship in Lisbon without any restrictions. AIDAnova carried only vaccinated crew and passengers (12-yo and older). All tourists had both antigen and PCR tests prior to departure from Hamburg.

The infected crew were discovered early in the cruise, during routine testings. All of them were disembarked in Lisbon and quarantined.

On January 2nd were reported another 16 COVID cases (4 pax plus 12 crew) and the voyage was officially canceled. All passengers were disembarked and flown back to Germany.

On January 3rd (at 1:24 am UTC) AIDAnova left Lisbon en route to Barcelona.

The incident occurred during the Holiday (New Year's Eve-themed) voyage - 14-day itinerary from Hamburg to Tenerife (Dec 22 - Jan 5) with call ports Rotterdam Holland, Zeebrugge Belgium, La Coruna Spain, Lisbon (planned overnight port stay Dec 29-30/7 am - 7 am), plus the Canaries ports Arrecife Lanzarote (Jan 2/canceled), Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (Jan 3) and ending in Santa Cruz de Tenerife (Jan 5).

The itinerary also included an anchorage off Madeira Island (for watching Funchal's New Year's Eve fireworks show) which was also canceled.

16 January 2019Other Incidents

On January 16, 2019, the LNG tanker ship Coral Methane (IMO 9404584) successfully carried out its first LNG bunkering on AIDAnova - world’s first LNG-powered cruise vessel. The operation was conducted at Port Santa Cruz de Tenerife (Canary Islands) during the 7-day "Kanaren und Madeira 3" cruise. The itinerary (Jan 12-19) was roundtrip from homeport Las Palmas (Gran Canaria) visiting the islands Madeira (Funchal), Tenerife, Fuerteventura (Puerto del Rosario) and Lanzarote (Arrecife).

Coral Methane ship (built 2008) has LNG capacity 7500 m3. The tanker was modified from gas carrier to LNG bunker vessel in 2018. Its LNG is supplied by Shell Oil Company (a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell). Vessel's 1-year long conversion project required engineering-modification works plus obtaining bunkering licenses for seaport operations.

December 2018Structural and Technical Issues

Maybe partially related to the fire accident (Oct 24, see below), but ship's delivery was delayed, resulting in 4 cancelled departures and re-scheduled inaugural cruise (Dec 19 instead of Dec 2). AIDA Cruises reimbursed all cruise bookings with a full refund. Next tables show the cancelled itineraries in December (2, 8, 12, 15).

10 days, Hamburg to Santa Cruz de Tenerife

7 days, Lisbon to Las Palmas

7 days, Kanaren und Madeira

7 days, Kanaren und Madeira

The inaugural cruise started from Tenerife (Canaries) - 7-day Kanaren und Madeira "Christmas Cruise".

24 October 2018Fire Accident

In the morning of October 24, 2018, in Eemshaven (Groningen, Holland) was reported a fire accident on the cruise liner. Several fire brigades were called. Soon the fire was confined to one of the staterooms and was quickly extinguished. The liner entered Port Eemshaven on October 9 for completion.

The Dutch police suspected arson and started an investigation. The scheduled 6-day sea trials were canceled. The liner remained anchored in Eemshaven harbor during the investigation. Most of the workers, staff, and crew (around 3000 people) usually slept on the ship. However, the shipbuilder decided to evacuate all and house them overnight in local hotels.

Vessel's owner at the time (the German shipbuilding company Meyer Werft GmbH) re-scheduled the official delivery to AIDA Cruises for November 15, 2018.