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  "path": "/2026/03/05/mum-trapped-cruise-ship-son-3-dubai-missiles-firing-overhead-27239009/",
  "publishedAt": "2026-03-05T12:13:33.000Z",
  "site": "https://metro.co.uk",
  "tags": [
    "News",
    "World",
    "British Airways",
    "Dubai",
    "Emirates",
    "Iran",
    "Iran war",
    "Israel",
    "Wiltshire",
    "UAE",
    "charities",
    "government",
    "Thailand",
    "Birmingham",
    "Phuket",
    "**check our news page**",
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  ],
  "textContent": "Emily Kingsley is trapped on the MSC Euribia with her 3-year-old son and husband (Picture: Darren Lee/ Emily Kingsley)\n\nA British mum has spoken of her anxiety and fear at being stranded upon a cruise ship for almost a week in the Gulf with her 3-year-old son.\n\nMother-of-three Emily Kingsley, 33, who is on the MSC Euribia ship that is docked in the Rashid port Dubai, described being ‘filled with anxiety and scared’ that she ‘can’t get home’ to her two other children.\n\nMrs Kingsley – who boarded the cruise on Saturday with her husband and three-year-old son – has not left the liner since.\n\nThe captain has told passengers to stay close to the terminal area as missiles fly overhead.\n\nThe family from Wiltshire, whose other two daughters aged nine and ten are at home with their grandparents, are amongst apparently 200 other Brits stranded abroad.\n\nThe view from the family’s taxi before boarding the cruise, with smoke rising from a presumed missile strike(Picture: Emily Kingsley)\n\nMrs Kingsley’s son is desperate to get off the boat (Picture: Emily Kingsley)\n\n‘It’s been pretty unnerving,’ Mrs Kingsley told **Metro**. ‘My son is fed up and just wants to get off the boat but we are staying here as have seen some pretty scary things.\n\n‘Missiles being intercepted above our heads, black smoke clouds on the port, loud bangs and explosions.\n\n‘We get emergency alerts on our phones and it’s pretty worrying.’\n\nWith their flight home on Saturday cancelled, the family – who were meant to be on a week’s holiday – do not know when they can return and for how long they will be stranded on the boat.\n\nMrs Kingsley said: ‘We actually have no idea as we are getting no information from Emirates as every time we call them the lines hang up as it is obviously so busy and their live chat does the same thing.’\n\nThe family can’t praise the ship’s staff enough for being ‘so caring’ and jokingly said whilst much of the ship’s facilities are up and running, ‘the casino has been shut the whole time so annoyed a lot of the guests.’\n\nEmily is desperate to get home to her other children (Picture: Emily Kingsley)\n\nAs for how she is spending her time, Mrs Kingsley said she is able to sit and the sun and her child has been able to use the kid’s club.\n\nUnderstandably, her frustration at not getting through to Emirates is ‘making my anxiety sky high’.\n\nShe added: ‘It’s so frightening hearing bangs and missiles, although I do have faith in the defence system here. I’m just desperate to get home as I need to see my other kids.\n\n‘For now I’m just trying my hardest to get some information from the airline or embassy but nobody gets back to us. It is so upsetting.’\n\nOther Brits have also told of their nightmare trapped abroad unable to catch a flight home.\n\nMum Emma Hudson, 43, has been stranded in the UAE since Saturday, after her British Airways flight was cancelled.\n\nIranian attacks have forced Dubai airport to close, leaving Emma and her husband Paul, 41 and daughter Sadie,14, stuck in their hotel.\n\nShe said the family are ‘traumatised’ by the constant loud bangs of missile interceptions and that they had to seek shelter in the basement.\n\nEmma says her family are traumatised (Picture: Emma Hudson/ SWNS)\n\nEmma claimed that British Airways told her to go to the bombed Dubai airport to seek help with accommodation, which is costing her £350 a day.\n\nThis can’t be paid for by her insurance because they don’t cover ‘war’, she added.\n\nThe mum said the British Embassy told her to ‘stay inside’ and ask local charities to help with funding.\n\nCalling on the government to do more to help Brits, the learning support assistant, from Middlesborough said: ‘British Airways and the government have 100% failed their own.\n\n‘The airline told me the only way they can help with accommodation is if I go to the airport and speak to ground staff.\n\n‘I said, “is that a joke?”, the airport has been bombed twice.\n\n‘My daughter suffers with anxiety, and she’s been absolutely petrified.’\n\nHusband Paul, 43 and daughter Sadie 14, are also stranded in Dubai (Picture: Emma Hudson/ SWNS)\n\nThe family’s flight home on March 4 was cancelled before the rebooked plane back to the UK on March 4 was also scrapped.\n\nThe earliest flight Emma can get out of the UAE booked for March 9.\n\nAnother couple say they have endured a ‘holiday from hotel’ after being stranded in Thailand due to the conflict.\n\nLaura and Paul Webster, from Birmingham, are stuck in Phuket, Thailand and have been told by their travel agent that there are no available flights to get them home during the next two weeks.\n\nThey were booked to fly with Emirates to Dubai on Wednesday for three nights before heading home to Birmingham.\n\nBut their flights were cancelled because of the conflict in the Middle East, and they are unable to find alternatives.\n\nThe pair are now miles away from their young children back in the UK, who are being looked after by former partners.\n\nEmirates airplanes parked at the Dubai International Airport after its closure (Picture: AP)\n\nMrs Webster, 40, told the Press Association: ‘We’ve got work, we’ve got kids. We want to get back ASAP. We don’t care if that means four flights.\n\n‘The travel agent said there’s none on their central reservation system.\n\n‘They keep trying to put us on Emirates via Dubai and the flights keep getting cancelled because of the airspace.\n\n‘When we’ve tried to look for flights ourselves, there’s just none.’\n\nMrs Webster said that there are ‘loads of people’ in their hotel who are stuck and that while they secured three extra nights of accommodation, they will be forced to ‘fend for ourselves’ after that.\n\nShe added: ‘You can’t claim for it on insurance, because it’s war. It’s just horrible. It’s literally a holiday from hell.’\n\nEmirates has told passengers it is operating ‘a reduced flight schedule until further notice’.\n\nThe airline said passengers transiting in Dubai ‘will only be accepted for travel if their connecting flight is operating’.\n\n**_Emirates has been** _approached_** for comment **_regarding_** Emily Kingsley and Laura and Paul Webster._**\n\n**_British Airways has been approached for comment regarding Emma Hudson._**\n\n******Get in touch with our news team by emailing us atwebnews@metro.co.uk.******\n\n**For more stories like this,****check our news page**.\n\nComment now Comments  Add Metro as a Preferred Source on Google Add as preferred source ",
  "title": "Mum trapped on cruise ship with son, 3, in Dubai with missiles firing overhead"
}