Breaking News: Fire aboard Royal Princess causes cancellation of cruises

PRINCESS Cruises has cancelled the remainder of Royal Princess's current and next cruise departing June 25 after a fire broke out in the engine room as the ship was leaving Port Said, Egypt on June 18. Princess Cruises said in a statement the ship needed to be moved to a shipyard to complete necessary repairs. The company said it would provide affected passengers on both voyages with a full refund of their fare, plus a future cruise credit equal to 25% of the cruise fare paid for these sailings. No-one was hurt in the incident. Princess said the blaze was quickly estinguished and all 733 passengers and 393 crew were accounted for. All passengers returned home over the weekend at Princess' expense. There was no early indication what had caused the fire. The ship was on the 5th day of a 12-day Holy Land sailing between Civitavecchia in Italy and Athens. Hilka Birns