Crew members of a P&O cruise ship will remain on board for three months while the vessel is docked in North Shields.
P&O Cruise's Oceana has been docked in the Port of Tyne's Northumbrian Quay since the beginning of June.
With cruises cancelled until at least October 15 due the coronavirus pandemic, P&O Cruises says its home port of Southampton has no space to berth all of its ships, so it moved the 77,000-tonne liner to North Shields, where it will stay for around three months.
Port of Tyne and P&O Cruises both say the 170 crew members will remain on board while the cruise liner is docked.
P&O Cruises said: "Having reviewed all of our ship operations and industry recommendations, P&O Cruises is bringing our ships home to the UK and suspending any new cruises until October 15, 2020.
"This pause in operations has been done in an abundance of caution to support the global effort to contain the spread of Covid-19.
"Our home port of Southampton, unfortunately in the current climate, does not have berth availability for all our ships. We are consequently working with other UK ports to berth our ships. Oceana, will be berthed in the Port of Tyne.
"We are taking the utmost caution and as a precautionary measure, all shore leave for P&O Cruises crew has been cancelled with crew remaining on board for the docking duration. No visitors are permitted to our ships, other than the very few people essential to official business.
"We are extremely grateful for the support that all our partner ports are providing and the understanding of our crew."
According to Port of Tyne, the 2,000 person capacity Oceana is estimated to depart from North Shields on September 15.
A Port of Tyne spokesperson said: "In light of COVID-19, cruise ships are gradually being brought home to the UK and require layby at major ports around the country.
"The P&O Cruises ship, the Oceana, will be berthing at the Port of Tyne’s Northumbrian Quay for a period of around three months.
"There is only a small core crew of around 170 on-board. There will be no shore leave for crew and the ship and its crew have not been affected by COVID-19 and no visitors are permitted to the ship."
