The Tilbury ferry has been suspended because the Disney Magic cruise ship is blocking its way.

The service, which carries commuters and school children between Gravesend and Essex, is not running today (Monday) after its usual vessel, Thames Swift, broke down.

The replacement boat, Jacob Marley, is bigger and too big to berth where it needs to behind the luxury liner which is currently at Tilbury Docks.

Disney is running a series of 'staycation' cruises, with passengers embarking at Tilbury and going out to sea for one or two days.

While the ship is in the docks, the replacement ferry service is unable to run. The crossings will be operating tomorrow (Tuesday) when the Disney vessel will be out at sea. But the liner will be back again on Wednesday, so the ferry may have to be suspended once again if the smaller boat cannot be fixed in time.

Richard Bains, managing director of Jetstream Tours, which runs the ferry service, said: "The usual ferry has broken down and we are waiting for the repairs to be carried out but we are struggling to get the engineer down to fix it.

"We have the replacement vessel Jacob Marley on site and ready to go. But the Disney cruise ship is across the entire landing stage at Tilbury Docks and the replacement vessel is too big go around the back to berth.

"The plan all along was for the ferry to continue to operate alongside the Disney ship but the Jacob Marley is bigger and deeper than the Thames Swift.

"We will be back in service on Tuesday because the Disney ship leaves at 6.30pm tonight and Tilbury are going to open the security gates for us.

"We may have a problem again on Wednesday when there will possibly be no service again because the Disney ship will be back. But we are working with Tilbury to resolve the problem, or we hope to be able to get our usual vessel fixed by then. We are going to pull out all the stops. It is just very unfortunate that this has happened."

Mr Bains said they are keeping customers updated via Facebook, Twitter and on its website.

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