Cunard Line, which is part of the carnival Corp & plc group, brought forward the dry docking of  Queen Victoria to January 2015 from December due to a problem in one of its propulsion units (see separate story) . “Two scheduled cruises are being canceled as a result. While the problem is being fixed, the ship also will get a multimillion-pound refit,” Cruise Critic reports on its website.

The line has canceled two sailings as a result of the decision, these are a 12-night Canary Islands cruise (January 3-15) and a five-night Amsterdam & Cherbourg cruise (January 15-20).

"Due to a bearing in one of her propulsion units requiring replacement, unfortunately we will need to bring Queen Victoria into her planned dry dock earlier than scheduled," Cunard wrote in an email toa Cruise critic member that passed the message on to the website.

"The issue does not affect the safety of the ship, however, our technical team have advised that it is necessary to rectify it before her scheduled docking in December 2015."

Queen Victoria was built in Italy in 2007. Its sister ship, the 2010 built Queen Elizabeth was dry docked in May-June of this year at the same yard due to technical problems, the work having originally been scheduled to take place later, Cruise Business was told in the summer.