Could idle cruise ships become pop-up hotels at UK seaside resorts?

Sign up to Simon Calder’s free travel email for expert advice and money-saving discounts Get Simon Calder’s Travel email Get Simon Calder’s Travel email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Cruise ships that are currently anchored and idle off the UK coast should temporarily become pop-up hotels, a seaside council leader has said. At present almost all of the world’s 270 pre-pandemic cruise ships are idle, with a significant number of them at anchor off the south coast of England. “We could also build relationships with a couple of cruise lines so they may call at Torbay in future.” With no harbour capable of handling cruise ships, vessels are obliged to use tenders to get passengers ashore. If someone from the Midlands is unable to book, they may come down for a day.” A spokesperson for Marella, the cruise operation owned by Tui, said: “Our main focus is maintaining our ships to return to service for our customers as soon as we possibly can.” Since the 1980s, cruise ships have been deployed to provide accommodation at major sporting events including the Winter Olympics in the Black Sea resort of Sochi in 2014 and the summer Games in Rio.