SOUTHAMPTON cruise ship Thomson Celebration was forced to abandon its maiden voyage yesterday, leaving hundreds of angry and disappointed passengers with their holidays in ruins.

A fleet of three aircraft was sent to Portugal to pick up more than 600 passengers from the ship to fly them back to Bournemouth and London Gatwick airports.

The 21-year-old ship, which left the city's port last Sunday, ran into trouble just three days after leaving Southampton when a large number of cabins and bathrooms in public areas were hit with a major problem with the vessel's plumbing system.

When the 33,930-ton ship docked at Bilbao in northern Spain, its first scheduled stop on the 14-night cruise, all passengers were taken off and put up overnight in hotels while engineers worked to fix the broken system.

The passengers returned to the ship on Wednesday and the vessel sailed that evening, heading for next port of call, Lisbon.

However, on Thursday evening the problem struck again, leaving the majority of passengers without plumbing and when the ship docked in Lisbon yesterday the company took the decision to cancel the rest of the cruise.

About 500 passengers not accommodated in cabins affected by the plumbing problem have opted to stay on the ship for the return voyage back to Southampton where Thomson Celebration is due to arrive on Monday morning.

Thomson has offered all the passengers, some of whom paid up to £3,000 each for the Iberia Odyssey voyage, a full refund of their total holiday costs plus 25 per cent off another cruise with the company.

Passenger David Cross, from Manchester, said: "It's all very well talking about a refund, but it's our summer holiday gone.

"Like many people on board we have been looking forward to it for months, but this has been a fiasco from the day we set out.

"We had problems with the toilet in our cabin from the start, and the shower was so scalding hot you dare not use it.

"Passengers on some other decks - many of them elderly - had to go up three or four levels to find a public toilet which was working, and by the end of the week most of them weren't. It's been a disgrace."

Thomson Celebration, formerly Holland America Line's Noordam underwent a wide-ranging refit that began in November in Falmouth.