Spaniel Lover Posted March 17, 2013 #1 Share Posted March 17, 2013 I was just reading the transcript of the Carnival Corporation earnings call that occurred a few days ago. Something that Howard S. Frank said jumped out at me. He's the Vice Chairman of the Board and Chief Operating Officer of Carnival Corporation. I'm kind of surprised that no one has mentioned this yet, as his announcement sounds newsworthy to me. My interpretation of what he said is that all ships in the entire Carnival Corporation fleet (that's all 100 ships, including all Carnival, Princess, Costa, etc.) will be getting upgraded emergency generators capable of powering the toilet systems in an emergency. This will take years to accomplish, but it will go a long way to ensuring passenger comfort in case of a total generator malfunction in the future. (For example, a Splendor/Triumph type of incident.) Here is exactly what Mr. Frank said on this topic during the earnings call last week: (I'm adding bold text to highlight the specific part about upgrading the emergency generator capabilities.) A few comments about the Carnival Triumph incident that I want to make. Although there are many lessons to be learned from the incident, it is important to understand that our fire suppression systems did work and our crew did a superb job. The ship systems and crew were able to quickly respond to the fire and extinguish it, so there were no injuries to either passengers or crew. Although our emergency generator power was not adequate to provide effective passenger comfort, the emergency systems we had on board are in accordance with and, in fact, go beyond the latest regulatory guidelines. But having said that, we will make the changes necessary to provide even greater redundancies to our shipboard systems and, in the event of a loss of power, to increase the emergency generator power to provide a more effective level of comfort to the passengers and crew on the ship. An assessment of shipboard redundancies and emergency generator power will be carried out on a corporate-wide basis for our entire fleet. And accordingly, enhancements will be implemented on all ships in the fleet. In this regard, our Corporate Maritime Policy Department, together with the maritime executives at the brands, have already made preliminary assessments of the ships in the fleet, and plans are under way to make the appropriate modifications. This project, of course, will take some time to complete. But I want to assure you that we will address these issues as quickly as feasibly possible. Having said all this, I want to emphatically state that all the ships in our fleet are safe, and the work we are planning will add further enhancements to the safety systems already in place. Given all the misconceptions about the causes of the Triumph incident, let me make it perfectly clear. Our ships are built not just in compliance with regulations, whether IMO, whatever classification society, but, in many instances, go beyond regulatory requirements. Our corporate and brand management teams will continue to focus on ship safety as their first priority. OK, he didn't specifically say toilet systems... but I'm pretty sure that when he used the word "passenger comfort" that he was really talking about the toilet system. I hope someone that works for Cruise Critic will "reach out" to Carnival for more details of this initiative to upgrade the emergency generators on every ship in the fleet. This sounds like important news to me, which could have a huge effect in making things better for passengers during future emergencies at sea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cruisin' Cool CAT Posted March 17, 2013 #2 Share Posted March 17, 2013 Thanks for posting...I would like more info as well. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sargent_Schultz Posted March 17, 2013 #3 Share Posted March 17, 2013 Toilets, elevator or two, ventilation... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrPete Posted March 17, 2013 #4 Share Posted March 17, 2013 We as passengers should not have had to worry about reduntant systems and such. We should have just been fine with putting our faith in those that were taking care of us. We found out since this is not true. I am still sad thinking about those poor Titanic victims. Why should they have thought there were not enough lifeboats to get everyone off the ship. Some times we leaqrn there was simply too much trust. As long as those $$ are flowing in..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ib4cruzn Posted March 17, 2013 #5 Share Posted March 17, 2013 Barn door/stolen horse... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sargent_Schultz Posted March 17, 2013 #6 Share Posted March 17, 2013 I have yet to see a horse on a cruise ship. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonbgd Posted March 17, 2013 #7 Share Posted March 17, 2013 So this will be done with the normal drydock scheduling or just pierside sooner than later Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aplmac Posted March 17, 2013 #8 Share Posted March 17, 2013 Barn door/stolen horse... It took this unfortunate string of events to have the decision made to upgrade all emergency gen-sets.Anyway, something good has come out of it and we are thankful for this approach. Just sorry I'm not the one selling CCL all those new gen-sets! :) . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swedish weave Posted March 17, 2013 #9 Share Posted March 17, 2013 We as passengers should not have had to worry about reduntant systems and such. We should have just been fine with putting our faith in those that were taking care of us. We found out since this is not true. I am still sad thinking about those poor Titanic victims. Why should they have thought there were not enough lifeboats to get everyone off the ship. Some times we leaqrn there was simply too much trust. As long as those $$ are flowing in..... I don't think you can fault Carnival when they are in compliance with the guidelines of all the regulatory agencies who are involved in the cruise lines business. Why the Titanic comment ?? Waaay out of the scope of the current Carnival situation !!!:eek: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swedish weave Posted March 17, 2013 #10 Share Posted March 17, 2013 It took this unfortunate string of events to have the decision made to upgrade all emergency gen-sets.Anyway, something good has come out of it and we are thankful for this approach. Just sorry I'm not the one selling CCL all those new gen-sets! :) . I would venture a guess that Wartsila will absorb a lot of the replacement costs if it is their equipment that has been failing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrPete Posted March 17, 2013 #11 Share Posted March 17, 2013 I don't think you can fault Carnival when they are in compliance with the guidelines of all the regulatory agencies who are involved in the cruise lines business. Why the Titanic comment ?? Waaay out of the scope of the current Carnival situation !!!:eek: What would have been better? Using the Concordia and thinking what nut Captain would sail by sight and not use instruments while sailing amongst rocks and islands? What questions should we have to ask about our safety before sailing. NONE! We should assume they have worked out all contingencies. And have failed us. Twice in a month. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rottweiler Puppy Posted March 17, 2013 #12 Share Posted March 17, 2013 I have yet to see a horse on a cruise ship. Its only a matter of time before some idiot gets one certified as a sleep apnea service animal and brings one on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rockee4055 Posted March 17, 2013 #13 Share Posted March 17, 2013 It took this unfortunate string of events to have the decision made to upgrade all emergency gen-sets.Anyway, something good has come out of it and we are thankful for this approach. Just sorry I'm not the one selling CCL all those new gen-sets! :) . I actually called CCL the other day after all this came to the surface. Was it a canned speech, maybe but I really think the women I was talking to was being honest with me. She worked in the pursers office on ships for 16 years. What she told me was that every ship was scheduled for "upgraded" modifications to the ships and the work would be completed within 1 year for CCL specifically. This would not be a dry dock type of work over but mainly for this "upgrade" to backup systems. Do I believe it? Do I believe it was a canned speech? Yes and yes....I just don't think it is in their best interest right now to try and "fool" their faithful guests into thinking something is going to happen. After talking to her I decided to send an email to guest relations and I did get a response within 24 hours. I think what i received was slightly different from what I was told but I believe what was replied to in email has to be fairly truthful since they put it in writing and that email will be protected from deletion, just in case.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chengkp75 Posted March 17, 2013 #14 Share Posted March 17, 2013 I would venture a guess that Wartsila will absorb a lot of the replacement costs if it is their equipment that has been failing. Let's see, only one of the incidents that Carnival has had involves a generator failure (Dream), and we do not know whether this is the engine that failed or the generator. The electrical generator attached to the engine is usually manufactured by someone else than the engine manufacturer. There is also no indication that a new emergency generator would be required to add the additional hotel services that they are talking about. Most emergency generators are oversized, and it may just require rewiring the emergency power bus to service more motor control centers that power the various things like elevators, vacuum toilet systems, and galleys. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonbgd Posted March 17, 2013 #15 Share Posted March 17, 2013 Its only a matter of time before some idiot gets one certified as a sleep apnea service animal and brings one on. Now that is funny :eek: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ferfoodle Posted March 17, 2013 #16 Share Posted March 17, 2013 (edited) I have yet to see a horse on a cruise ship. Now, now yes you have: a teenage boy! Well, they eat like one anyway, at least both of mine did.;) Edited March 17, 2013 by ferfoodle Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ib4cruzn Posted March 17, 2013 #17 Share Posted March 17, 2013 I have yet to see a horse on a cruise ship. How about cows? ;-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aplmac Posted March 17, 2013 #18 Share Posted March 17, 2013 How about cows? ;-) See the Steak House. ;). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ib4cruzn Posted March 17, 2013 #19 Share Posted March 17, 2013 See the Steak House. ;). HOPEFULLY it's cow. See Burger King. ;-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swedish weave Posted March 17, 2013 #20 Share Posted March 17, 2013 Let's see, only one of the incidents that Carnival has had involves a generator failure (Dream), and we do not know whether this is the engine that failed or the generator. The electrical generator attached to the engine is usually manufactured by someone else than the engine manufacturer. There is also no indication that a new emergency generator would be required to add the additional hotel services that they are talking about. Most emergency generators are oversized, and it may just require rewiring the emergency power bus to service more motor control centers that power the various things like elevators, vacuum toilet systems, and galleys. The comment I referenced said they are upgrading all the emergency gensets. Isn't a genset the motor and generator? I believe Wartsila furnishes and maintains the entire package. Is this correct ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sargent_Schultz Posted March 17, 2013 #21 Share Posted March 17, 2013 Its only a matter of time before some idiot gets one certified as a sleep apnea service animal and brings one on. There are miniature horse service animals for the blind, or at least an experiment with it. I wonder where they would sit in the comedy club? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrPete Posted March 17, 2013 #22 Share Posted March 17, 2013 There are miniature horse service animals for the blind, or at least an experiment with it. I wonder where they would sit in the comedy club? With all the other naysayers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zeroed Posted March 17, 2013 #23 Share Posted March 17, 2013 (edited) I have yet to see a horse on a cruise ship. I'm bringing my therapy horse on Elation and don't you dare say a word! ;) Edited to add that my seeing eye monkey sometimes steals the horse after he's had a few too many. Edited March 17, 2013 by zeroed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonbgd Posted March 17, 2013 #24 Share Posted March 17, 2013 There are miniature horse service animals for the blind, or at least an experiment with it. I wonder where they would sit in the comedy club? And Carnival doesnt have enough issues with poop WHo is going to clean up after the horse:eek: How do you potty train a horse:eek: Is the horse just going to back up over the commode and drop a deuce:eek: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sargent_Schultz Posted March 17, 2013 #25 Share Posted March 17, 2013 And Carnival doesnt have enough issues with poopWHo is going to clean up after the horse:eek: How do you potty train a horse:eek: Is the horse just going to back up over the commode and drop a deuce:eek: Hopefully there will never be a seeing eye goat. :eek: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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