A CRUISE liner carrying dozens of passengers suffering from a highly contagious vomiting bug has arrived back in Scotland, writes Mark Macaskill.

The Black Prince, which left Edinburgh last weekend on a seven-night cruise of the Norwegian fiords, returned to Leith after 136 passengers fell ill.They are believed to have been struck down by a norovirus, a bug that causes severe vomiting and diarrhoea.

The Fred Olsen ship, which docked yesterday morning, had been due to set sail again yesterday. However, its departure has been delayed until today to allow it to be disinfected.

The cruise company said that claims for compensation would be assessed on a “case-by-case” basis but some angry passengers said they had no intention of using the firm again. Many had been forced to spend much of the cruise confined to their cabins.

The 11,209-ton vessel had been carrying 412 passengers and 210 crew.

Michael Collins, one of the passengers aboard the stricken ship, said: “Nobody from Fred Olsen is interested in compensation. I’ve been with other cruise liners and this is just the pits. I will absolutely never travel with them again.”

However, Gordon Burgess, another passenger, said he had no complaints: “It’s a lovely clean ship and I’m sure that whatever happened, it’s nothing to do with the crew. Goodness knows where it [the bug] came from.”

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