CRUISE passengers have spoken of their relief after flying into Bournemouth airport from Sweden after their ship broke down in the Baltic.

Tugs were sent to tow the MSC Opera to port after it lost all electrical power off the island of Gotland on Sunday.

Flights were chartered and the British passengers arrived in Bournemouth and Stansted airports on Monday night after leaving Southampton on May 7.

Geoff Simms, 49, from New Milton, described the final days of his holiday as “shocking,” adding: “On Saturday morning some people heard a bang and half the power went off. We had cold showers and no TV.

“The cabins were in total darkness and they said they didn’t have any torches. The toilets didn’t flush for 10 hours.

“The most information we got was from people texting us from home. They wouldn’t tell us where we were or where we were going.”

Mike O’Shea from Bournemouth had to travel back to Southampton to pick up his car.

He said: “It wasn’t bad for the first couple of days, then the generator broke down. The biggest problem was the toilets.”

Noel Rampton, 62, branded the cruise “an absolute nightmare”, adding “There was no running water for 24 hours, no emergency lights, no hot food and no working lifts.

“This is the first cruise we’ve been on, and it’ll be our last.”

Catherine Jordine, 62, from Newcastle, said: “It’s been dreadful. If we had a complaint, all of a sudden they didn’t speak English. If you weren’t giving them a tip, they didn’t want to know.

“This was supposed to be a five-star cruise and we were offered one piece of cheese for dinner.”

Retired engineer Richard Cox, 66, said: “There were problems but they did everything they could to help us; they handled the whole situation very well.”

The ship’s Italian-owned operators said the engines had to be switched off. MSC Cruises apologised for not offering “its usual standards of service”, adding that passengers would be given credit vouchers for the full value of their trip.