Carnival Liberty Propulsion Issues

[gamergeek]

I LOL'd and spilt my beer. :)

 

I call alcohol abuse.... :)

[Catrin]

Hi Everyone.... Here in the Liberty as well. All the info the OP stated is spot on. Here in San Juan now. We have to be back on the ship tonight. If the ship is fixed, we stay through tomorrow. If they cannot fix the issue, we leave tonight to make our way back to Miami for Saturday am.

Yes, I'm sad we missed St Thomas. But this being our 13th cruise, I can honestly say it has been a terrific week so far!!! !

 

I'll be back with an update as well!

Catrin.

[soccersharon]

Hi Everyone.... Here in the Liberty as well. All the info the OP stated is spot on. Here in San Juan now. We have to be back on the ship tonight. If the ship is fixed, we stay through tomorrow. If they cannot fix the issue, we leave tonight to make our way back to Miami for Saturday am.

Yes, I'm sad we missed St Thomas. But this being our 13th cruise, I can honestly say it has been a terrific week so far!!! !

 

I'll be back with an update as well!

Catrin.

 

 

Hope everything works out for you, and your fellow Liberty passengers. We board again in 2.5 weeks! Enjoy!

[mbmbird]

We were on the same cruise, Rita :) and revisting the Liberty in 18 days. Yes, the Liberty ran on 1 engine, and was doing about 9 knots (if I remember correctly). We finally pulled into Miami at about 11:30 am. Many folks were upset, as they were missing their flights. I know Carnival did offer some compensation, but since I was uneffected (we spend an extra night in Miami), we never did enquire.

 

I sincerely hope they correct the Liberty propulsion issues - so more folks are not disappointed. Would be a shame to miss ports due to a known issue.

 

OH Crap!:eek:

[groundhog59]

Funny, we were on the Liberty 3/3/12 sailing and we had cabin 2470 which is on deck two in the back on the corner, it is an oceanview room. At 10:45 pm the night before the last sea day and docking the next day, a huge bang literally made us sit up in bed. That was followed by a loud banging and vibration for about 40 minutes. (It actually was so bad, the TV hit the wall and banged for 45 min) Anything on the desk vibrated off. We slowed in the water but didn't actually stop. I recorded the banging with my camera, and even then the next more the "employees" denied anything was wrong but everyone in the cabins around us felt it too. Guest services also denied any problems....until noon when the Captain came on and told us of "propulsion problems" - we were 6 hours late getting back to port (many missed their flights) Right after that, we stopped to airlift an "injured crew member" - no info on that of course due to privacy.

 

We were on that 3/3/12 cruise as well. We were lucky we had a later flight time.

Hope they get it fixed so you don't miss any more ports.

 

We were sure it would impact the next cruises but it didn't. They must have bandaid fixed it because, it went right back out as scheduled.

 

It will be like the Destiny that they never fix, just patch up and propulsion problems become chronic and rear it ugly head from time to time. The depend on quick fixes in ports to keep the ships going on schedule, so I am sure there will be more problems from time to time.

 

We were on that 3/3/12 cruise as well. We were lucky we had a later flight time.

Hope they get it fixed so you don't miss any more ports.

[soccersharon]

OH Crap!:eek:

 

 

We'll be fine :) All together now....we'll be fine, we'll be fine...

[klmorg]

Bummer... hope they get it fixed in PR. We were supoosed to be on this cruise, but had to reschedule for the Glory next month.

[skyeman27]

tried calling carnival and can't get to speak to anyone, been on hold for a long time...

[mbmbird]

We'll be fine :) All together now....we'll be fine, we'll be fine...

 

Thanks Sharon! As long as we get on that ship and we go somewhere:p

[Razorbakfan]

Hi Everyone.... Here in the Liberty as well. All the info the OP stated is spot on. Here in San Juan now. We have to be back on the ship tonight. If the ship is fixed, we stay through tomorrow. If they cannot fix the issue, we leave tonight to make our way back to Miami for Saturday am.

Yes, I'm sad we missed St Thomas. But this being our 13th cruise, I can honestly say it has been a terrific week so far!!! !

 

I'll be back with an update as well!

Catrin.

 

Hey Catrin we found $2.50 Cold Coronas right off the ship at a place called Tiuana's!

[BriLam]

Thanks for the updates. Everyone over on the 12/8/12 roll call is keeping a watchful eye on this thread.

 

Best of luck!

[csunshine860]

We are to leave Saturday December 8th on the Liberty. Thanks for posting and please keep us updated.

 

Same here. Hope she will be in ship shape. Would hate to miss my next cruise once off the Liberty. Keep us posted.

[soccersharon]

Thanks Sharon! As long as we get on that ship and we go somewhere:p

 

Exactly! Being on a cruise is better than being at work any day!

[terryinal]

The Liberty is a Diesel-electric ship. This means you typically have several Diesel engine powered generators that provide electricity to an electric motor, one for each propeller. They also provide electrical power to the ship as a whole. I have yet to find out how many Diesels they have, but as an example, QE2 has nine of them, each the size of a double-decker bus. I'm quite sure that Liberty has less than that number.

 

If a screw (propeller) is not turning, you likely either have an electric motor issue, a shaft issue, or a propeller issue. When I hear reports of vibration and banging, it could be possible that a propeller blade was lost, but this is so uncommon these days. While old ships such as Titanic had only three propeller blades per shaft, Queen Mary, 4, you'll typically see 5 to 6 blades per shaft now. However, loss of a blade will imbalance the shaft, and things will get messy after that!

 

Here's a photo of propeller blades as artwork on the deck of QM2:

 

 

However, these are actually spare blades for use on the azipods, not just objets d'art.

 

Here's a photo of the props on Carnival Dream- six blades. Note the stern thrusters in the hull, forward of the propellers.

 

 

Love your plane. I always wnted to fly. I did do a class and went up for 30 mins. When I was young I couldn't talk clear so I never went back

[Jeffy294]

The Liberty is a Diesel-electric ship. This means you typically have several Diesel engine powered generators that provide electricity to an electric motor, one for each propeller. They also provide electrical power to the ship as a whole. I have yet to find out how many Diesels they have, but as an example, QE2 has nine of them, each the size of a double-decker bus. I'm quite sure that Liberty has less than that number.

 

If a screw (propeller) is not turning, you likely either have an electric motor issue, a shaft issue, or a propeller issue. When I hear reports of vibration and banging, it could be possible that a propeller blade was lost, but this is so uncommon these days. While old ships such as Titanic had only three propeller blades per shaft, Queen Mary, 4, you'll typically see 5 to 6 blades per shaft now. However, loss of a blade will imbalance the shaft, and things will get messy after that!

 

Here's a photo of propeller blades as artwork on the deck of QM2:

 

 

However, these are actually spare blades for use on the azipods, not just objets d'art.

 

Here's a photo of the props on Carnival Dream- six blades. Note the stern thrusters in the hull, forward of the propellers.

 

The Liberty has six Diesel electric gensets.

[mbmbird]

Exactly! Being on a cruise is better than being at work any day!

 

I hate to say this, but thank goodness it happened now (sorry to those of you who are there now and I hope that everything works out) because I'm sure they will have it fixed before our cruise. If they don't at least we have this information early.

[Jeffy294]

I would think, with what the Carnival staff were referring to would be they have lost propulsion to one of the electric motors. Due to bearing or motor failure or power delivery to that motor. I feel like some may confuse the word motor with engine. Engine refers to the internal combustion engine that generates the electricity, it is then fed to the ships electrical switchboards that feed the entire ship and the propulsion motors (which are electric motors). It would be impossible for the ship to have any propulsion at all with only 1 of its 6 engines generating electricity and running the ships entire electrical system. (The ship normally operates on 5). I would speculate that if Carnival is flying in a technician it would have something to do with the switchboard delivering power to one of the motors or a part failure on one of them. No way a they would be able to replace a motor or bearing overnight in SJ. I think a bearing would require a drydock. And with the tech coming in, it must be something fixable.

[Liverpoollovely]

does anyone know if this issue has been resolved?

[QTBabyNurse]

We are sailing on the Liberty this Saturday, so I just got off the phone with Carnival and they can't seem to find that the Liberty is having any difficulties at all! No big surprise there! ;) I had to tell HER what passengers on board have been reporting!:rolleyes:

[mbmbird]

I would think, with what the Carnival staff were referring to would be they have lost propulsion to one of the electric motors. Due to bearing or motor failure or power delivery to that motor. I feel like some may confuse the word motor with engine. Engine refers to the internal combustion engine that generates the electricity, it is then fed to the ships electrical switchboards that feed the entire ship and the propulsion motors (which are electric motors). It would be impossible for the ship to have any propulsion at all with only 1 of its 6 engines generating electricity and running the ships entire electrical system. (The ship normally operates on 5). I would speculate that if Carnival is flying in a technician it would have something to do with the switchboard delivering power to one of the motors or a part failure on one of them. No way a they would be able to replace a motor or bearing overnight in SJ. I think a bearing would require a drydock. And with the tech coming in, it must be something fixable.

 

Thank you for this information.

[tracyktn]

We are on the Liberty this Saturday too. It would be great to hear if they got this fixed in San Juan.

 

Thanks!

[doodlefan]

We're on the Liberty on Saturday too. The deckcam is still showing the Liberty docked in Old San Juan. That's good news I guess. If it can be fixed they are supposed to stay overnight in San Juan otherwise they sail.

 

So far so good.

[PhotoPete]

I was on the 3/3/12 sailing as well. I believe it was the starboard screw that was inop. Between the propulsion and the medevac the Liberty was late arriving in Miami. Carnival did offer some decent money to those that had to reschedule their flight. Liberty is a beautiful ship and look forward to sailing on her again.

[Hinano]

We're on the Liberty on Saturday too. The deckcam is still showing the Liberty docked in Old San Juan. That's good news I guess. If it can be fixed they are supposed to stay overnight in San Juan otherwise they sail.

 

So far so good.

 

I'm watching too!!!

[doodlefan]

I'm watching too!!!

 

Well the foreward deckcam where you can see Old San Juan hasn't changed at all. It hasn't refreshed so who knows if it's actually up to date.

 

Oh well, we'll find out tomorrow for sure. Good night