The length of four football pitches and taller than Dublin’s Liberty Hall, the second largest cruise vessel in the world has been sailing off the coast of Cork and Waterford for the past two weeks waiting for a berth big enough to accommodate it.
Like a giant ghost ship in the Celtic Sea, Allure of the Seas has been killing time, coasting with a minimal crew and no passengers.
“Vessels of this size like to report back to their home port, but with all the cruise lines [coming off the water] there is not enough harbour channel to dock, so some ships have just had to sail back and forth,” said its owner, cruise company Royal Caribbean.
“Right now our ships are going where we