The Norwegian Star, shown here on one of its previous trips to Vancouver, will not be used as Olympic accommodation after the travel company that had booked it ran into financial trouble. (CBC)

A group of terminally ill children whose wish to go to the Vancouver Winter Olympics was threatened when the company operating their cruise ship hotel weighed anchor will have places to stay after all.

About a dozen children and their families from Canada and the United States sponsored by Make-A-Wish Canada were scheduled to attend the Games, with the first arriving next Thursday.

'I'm absolutely amazed at the goodness of people' —Make-A-Wish executive director Ross Hetherington

They were to stay aboard the Norwegian Star, a Norwegian Cruise Lines vessel leased by Edmonton-based Newwest Special Projects as a floating hotel for the Games.

But Newwest suddenly cancelled its venture Tuesday, citing higher than expected costs and slow sales of the expensive packages for the ship's 1,100 staterooms, despite cutting the price.

"I found out Monday around noon," Make-A-Wish executive director Ross Hetherington said Wednesday.

"I honestly went to bed Saturday night thinking, OK, 10 months of work, it's done. And then Monday morning it got blown out of the water, literally."

Two of the 13 kids were from Australia and headed directly to alpine events at Whistler, and are unaffected by the cruise-ship debacle.

Offers flooded in

News reports about the crisis triggered a flood of calls offering help, everything from hotel rooms to private homes, the use of cars, even berths on a yacht, Hetherington said.

"The phone hasn't stopped ringing since six o'clock this morning," he said.

"We're just inundated with people who want to help. I'm absolutely amazed at the goodness of people."

Arrangements for alternate accommodation likely won't be finalized until the end of the week.

"It's a lot of back and forth as to what they have available and what our kids' needs are, but I feel a lot better about it today than I did yesterday," Hetherington said.

The children — four from across Canada and seven from the United States — range in age from eight to 17 and suffer from a range of illnesses, from lymphoma and leukemia to muscular dystrophy.

"These are life-threatening medical conditions," says Hetherington. "These kids have gone through far more than kids should have to go through in their young lives."

Two of the Canadian kids did participate in the Olympic torch relay, he said.

They'll be arriving throughout the Games and will attend a variety of events, from the opening and closing ceremonies to hockey and figure skating finals.

They'll also get to meet top Olympic competitors, although Hetherington said which athletes they meet will be a surprise. And they'll be hosted at NBC's Olympic studios and at Canada House.

As for Newwest, "no one's heard from them," said Hetherington.

The Edmonton company has not contacted Make-A-Wish, nor returned calls from the U.S. marketing firm that arranged the kids' rooms on the ship, he said.

In a news release Tuesday, Newwest said it was arranging refunds for those who had booked rooms and would help to find other accommodations.