Broken elevators on a cruiseship

[Jeano222]

From a safety standpoint, can a cruise ship be allowed to sail knowing that the only elevators working are the forward ones? If so, how many voyages can that ship make without repairing the rest of them?

[miched]

What are the safety points that your are addressing or concerned about? In case of any emergency you are always told not to use the elevators.

 

Other than that it would just make it a little less convienant and maybe a longer wait.

 

.

[wwcruisers]

From a safety standpoint, can a cruise ship be allowed to sail knowing that the only elevators working are the forward ones? If so, how many voyages can that ship make without repairing the rest of them?

 

Are you referring to a particular Celebrity Ship? When? :confused:

[Jeano222]

No not Celebrity, but Carnival Triumph. They are pretty nasty over there so I didn't want to ask. My daughter was on that ship on 1/28 and the only working elevators were forward, none midship or aft. The only elevators on this last cruise working was the forward, so my guess is they never fixed the problem experienced on 1/28 voyage. She took pictures all over the ship and sent them with a letter to Carnival and they never responded. There was sewage running out of the dining area on her cruise, which she has pictures of and they never fixed that problem either as recent pictures from passengers show the same area. After seeing the pictures myself, that ship should have never sailed. I know you can't use elevators in emergency or drills, but aren't they required to be functional all other times?

 

My Carnival days were over a long time ago, Celebrity has always been my first choice. I wanted well maintained ships and good service, and Celebrity has never disappointed me.

[TommyD3]

No not Celebrity, but Carnival Triumph. They are pretty nasty over there so I didn't want to ask. My daughter was on that ship on 1/28 and the only working elevators were forward, none midship or aft. The only elevators on this last cruise working was the forward, so my guess is they never fixed the problem experienced on 1/28 voyage. She took pictures all over the ship and sent them with a letter to Carnival and they never responded. There was sewage running out of the dining area on her cruise, which she has pictures of and they never fixed that problem either as recent pictures from passengers show the same area. After seeing the pictures myself, that ship should have never sailed. I know you can't use elevators in emergency or drills, but aren't they required to be functional all other times?

 

My Carnival days were over a long time ago, Celebrity has always been my first choice. I wanted well maintained ships and good service, and Celebrity has never disappointed me.

 

Before the fire I would not have sailed on Carnival, now I would not sail on them even if you paid me :)

[wwcruisers]

Come to think of it, I don't ever recall seeing an out-of-order elevator, on any of my cruises on RC or X -- aside from routine maintenance, cleaning, etc. Generally speaking, there seem to always be many people on cruise ships with mobility issues, due to various medical conditions and age. I can only imagine the uproar that would result from half (or more) of the elevator banks not functioning for an entire cruise.

[gelo7]

I have never encountered a broken elevator on a cruise ship.

[Jeano222]

Yes, she was told that elderly and people with mobility problems should use the forward elevators and others should use the stairs. Good thing she's fit cuz she told me if she hadn't been, going up and down all those stairs would have killed her. She said a lot of people didn't mind that or the other problems on the ship. I hate to sound snooty but I guess we have higher standards. Deferred maintenance on a cruise ship simply doesn't work. Eventually something serious could happen and it did. They knew things were wrong but chose to ignore them and sailed anyway.

[Kathie44]

Whoa! There were that many problems already on the ship and they still sailed? Yikes! I sail X and RCCL only, mostly X. Never had any problems. There was one mid-ship elevator out of service on Summit last week after we sailed, but the techs worked on it and it was running within two days.

TommyD3--I'm with you. The first thing my TA told me in Nov. '01, when she was helping us plan our first cruise was, "Well, you don't want Carnival." That's all I needed to hear and that sentiment has been validated over and over by friends and other cruise aquaintances with negative experiences.

What I'm wondering is if Carnival's pockets are deep enough to absorb the hit from this debacle in addition to the Concordia disaster last year. All of this has got to make a lot of cruisers, new and veteran, think twice or thrice about cruising Carnival.

[Lsimon]

S class had 8 mid-ship elevators in two banks of four. It seems from time to time one or two on one or both banks might not be working as they just seem to stay at the same floor for a long time. But I've never noticed more than that. I also suspect that most of those situations are just times when they're doing maintenance or my own impatience as opposed to a breakdown.

[fishycomics]

Ground hog day

[windra06]

If the cruise company doesn't want to know, I'm sure the news papers would.

With all the bad things going on at the moment, if this is how they leave port then it's no surprise.

 

I am so glad that I have chosen Celebrity for my first cruise,it sounds like they take more care than most lines.

[Seadays Rock]

I am new to cruising and rank safety and quality as the most important attributes, when selecting a cruise line. For those reasons I chose Celebrity and after a very positive transatlantic crossing in 2012, will sail with Celebrity again later this year.

 

I did a lot of research before booking my first cruise and recognised quite quickly that Carnival does not score well in either category. Now that I've spent more than 10 days at sea and met passengers who'd sailed on other lines, including Carnival, I would certainly rank Carnival and sister Carnival Corp. brand Costa at the very lower end of cruise lines.

 

To read on this thread that a passenger cruise ship with 14 or 15 decks is permitted to sail with out of service elevators, is truly astonishing and asks a question, not just of Carnival's operational processes but also regulation by the US Coast Guard and maritime responsible statutory bodies.

 

I for one will never sail on Carnival and would even now be hesitant to sail on Carnival Corp. Cunard ships, as it seems to me that Carnival's strategy is one of low cost, low quality operations and in such circumstances safety and quality always risk compromise.

[harz99]

My first and last sailing on Carnival (Valor) in December had one midship elevator OOS for the whole two weeks and others OOS for a day or more at a time.

 

It would seem the culture is one of firefighting repairs when a failure occurs, rather than planned maintainence and planned periodic replacement of equipment that is in use 24/7 and WILL eventually fail completely.

 

That might be okay on road transport, but not rail/sea/air where problems are at least multiplied and at worst can be catastrophic.

[A Sixth?]

No not Celebrity, but Carnival Triumph. They are pretty nasty over there so I didn't want to ask. My daughter was on that ship on 1/28 and the only working elevators were forward, none midship or aft. The only elevators on this last cruise working was the forward, so my guess is they never fixed the problem experienced on 1/28 voyage. She took pictures all over the ship and sent them with a letter to Carnival and they never responded. There was sewage running out of the dining area on her cruise, which she has pictures of and they never fixed that problem either as recent pictures from passengers show the same area. After seeing the pictures myself, that ship should have never sailed. I know you can't use elevators in emergency or drills, but aren't they required to be functional all other times?

 

My Carnival days were over a long time ago, Celebrity has always been my first choice. I wanted well maintained ships and good service, and Celebrity has never disappointed me.

 

Post those pictures please. :eek:

 

Everyone knows the ninth rule of the internet. :rolleyes:

[floridatravelersforlife]

In 19 sailings only once did we encounter a dead elevator at the start of a cruise and it was repaired by next morning. By the way we never cruised Carnival. Having reread the member reviews on the Triumph you can see it coming, even though in hindsight. Lots of mechanical issues. It seems the ship was in bad need of a drydock, similar other cruise lines.

[fishycomics]

I am sure their excellent crew can repair the ship.

 

West world

[spookwife]

From a safety standpoint, can a cruise ship be allowed to sail knowing that the only elevators working are the forward ones? If so, how many voyages can that ship make without repairing the rest of them?

 

there is no safety issue.. the safety issue would be if there were no STAIRS available nearby. that's why all elevators have the cute little sign that says "ICOE please use stairs!"

 

at best it is an inconvenience to have to go forward if you cannot physically use stairs( by which I mean have a valid medical condition that prevents it, not just because you don't wanna walk to the other end of the ship then walk back once you reach your deck to your cabin which is far aft.)

 

for all you know the necessary parts are not on board. or it could be taking a while to get them on board. or maybe there's no one on board qualified to fix the problem.

[CABINET]

Have to say that there were elevators out of order on Silhouette last May.

 

Not very often but certainly a few times which struck me as odd because the ship is so new.

[Texed]

My Carnival days were over a long time ago, Celebrity has always been my first choice. I wanted well maintained ships and good service, and Celebrity has never disappointed me.

 

Glad you have enjoyed Celebrity.

OT, I was born and raised in Melissa, and still have relatives around there. :)

[miched]

Having worked in the construction business I know that elevators are highly regulated in the states. Only certified licensed repairmen can work on or repair them unless it is something minor like changing a light bulb. I would also think that the cruise ships have the same standards or regulations. It may be that they don't have the certified mechanics on board.

 

The other is the concern about safety on a elevator. How many when getting on really pay attention or are concerned about the capacity on board? Every elevator has the max number of passengers allowed and max weight. Seen many times where both were exceeded at the same time. Especially when going to or leaving the buffet area around dining times. :D

[jackdiamond]

We began cruising in February of 1999, and we have never even considered cruising Carnival; and, of course, now will never will. In the past our main concern was the quality of the line; and, now, of course, we have serious conerns vis-a-vis the safety of cruising on that line.

[ariawoman]

 

I for one will never sail on Carnival and would even now be hesitant to sail on Carnival Corp. Cunard ships, as it seems to me that Carnival's strategy is one of low cost, low quality operations and in such circumstances safety and quality always risk compromise.

 

I'm not sure I'd condemn the entire Carnival umbrella. I've been on both Holland America and Seabourn - and they were both great cruises. That said, I'm loyal to X because of the smoking policy and plan to keep sailin' on X until I reach elite :-) At which point I can consider sailing RCL at times since they have reciprocity. (the RCL sailing i'm doing in December is a fluke and my first RCL sailing lol). Given the choice I'd sail X to get the credits.

[spookwife]

Seen many times where both were exceeded at the same time. Especially when going to or leaving the buffet area around dining times. :D

 

well a few times on Royal the door refused to close when it was.. full, so I assumed it was because it was over max. not even squishing further in made a difference so finally eventually somebody got tired of waiting and stormed off.

 

I will also mention that on one day, the only 2 elevators that service the Viking Crown Lounge did NOT go to said VCL.. it would not go any further than the deck below( but you could call the elevator up to the VCL from the VCL and ride down)

 

we found put later that the elevators are locked after the VCL closes to prevent packs of wild teens( a crew member's words, not mine) from trashing the VCL in the middle of the night. Unfortunately the CL and DL are now on that deck so it was a pain for both those of us who wanted to access them during the day and the poor attendants who had to stock the buffet.

[chrismakris]

Hello all,

 

Our first cruise happened to be on the Triumph a few years back and while nothing bad happened mechanically it almost put my wife off of cruising.(As you can see by my signature, almost six years in between cruises)

 

Too many people drinking too much. It seemed that Carnival didn't care how much noise people were making on deck while on the days at sea. We finally had to go to the adults only area to get some semblance of peace and quiet and it was still a little loud.

 

My TA said that it would be a ship with guests more our age, but I guess she didn't realize we weren't the party all the time type. Oh well.

 

We are very much looking forward to our first cruise with X in January on the Summit.

 

Maybe we'll see some of you on it.

 

Cheers