Royal Princess has reported she lost power in the Med!

[Single Cruiser]

Primary switchboard overloaded seems to be the common cause coming out of reports from those onboard.

 

And it took a while to switch to the backup, guess they didn't want to overload that one either!

[Pam in CA]

Geez folks (or at least some folks), let's give Princess a break. Imagine buying a new car and after a few months having it just fail and refuse to start. You need to get it towed to a garage where they still have no clue. Then you get it taken to a dealer where they finally find and repair the problem.

I had a good laugh at this. Seven years ago, I bought a brand new BMW and paid a small fortune for it. BMW is one of the best, right? Nothing can go wrong. At 6,000 miles, I was turning onto the PCH and the car died. Nothing. I could go backwards, not forwards. I managed to back up out of traffic and onto a side street and called AAA. They came and there was nothing they could do so they loaded the car on a truck and towed it to the dealer. Turns out it was a "programming" problem. It took the BMW dealer a month to re-program what was essentially a brand new car a few months old. Whenever I called, they told me, "It's taking so long because we have to re-boot the system." I heard that excuse for a month. Those who know me know that I was programming computers in 1963 and have used computers for literally decades so treating me like a grey-haired old lady who is willing to accept that excuse will only make me call 3x a day and drive them nuts. My point is that even supposedly well-made, highly respected mechanical vehicles can have problems. The Beemer? I gave it to my daughter and bought an Acura.

[monakayk]

I just printed out my "packing list" for my Royal T/A this morning. I'd greyed out "flashlight." Think I'll bring my little wind-up flashlight for "just in case." I'm also bringing a charging battery for my iPad. :)

 

 

I have taken for the last 2 years a mini LED flashlight on cruises...and carry it in my purse everywhere I go..all the time...even during the day and night:

http://www.aliexpress.com/item-img/SMALL-SUN-ZY-8866-6-LED-Mini-Keychain-LED-Flashlight-w-Keychain-Assorted-Color-1pc-set/641207830.html

 

Anyone have other suggestions about small flashlights that are good to take and does not weigh much?

 

Pia,

Hope your cruise on the Royal is great. Can't wait to hear all about it.

[The Big Booper]

To help you understand..

This link is a sticky on the RC board. You are correct in that it has nothing to do with RC. However, that is were I took it from. ;) RC folks are commenting on how it is over there and NOT on the Princess board.

 

I assumed they had stuck a sticky on all the non-Princess boards - but they haven't. Just RCI.

[icat2000]

Yeap. And sometimes even the best cars are just lemons. No matter what you do, tweak it, fix it, its a lemon. Happens to all brands.

[pjo]

Send the ship to dry dock for a week and get the necessary repairs. Cancel one scheduled cruise and just fix the problems and move on. No big deal, unless you were on the cruise that was cancelled.

 

Paul

[Loonbeam]

I thought I posted something similar but I can't find it..

 

But as this story illustrates, problems are actually more likely to arise several weeks/months after a new build goes online (look at the Dreamliner). There's an old adage that says 'No plan survives contact with the enemy", I often paraphrase that to "No tech survives contact with reality.

 

Engineers do there best to predict stresses on a system and design for it, but nothing can completely model all the potential variables. And its after the systems have had a chance to "run-in" they find them out.

 

Now obviously, this failure had to be complex to cancel the cruise. That doesn't mean dangerous or serious, just complex. It could be a software issue that requires a code patch, or maybe more people than projected turned on hair dryers at the same time (not an option on the ship really, but there is a famous test done at every stadium build, the flush test, where someone stands at every toilet and on a broadcast count of three hits the flusher. And yes, the systems have 'exploded'), or lubricant didn't behave as expected, or..or..or.

 

Unfortunately, the economics of the cruise industry don't permit the kind of shakedown cruise that would greatly reduce the risk of episodes like this (30-40 days of cruising with an all volunteer passenger list stress testing the systems)

 

 

I had a good laugh at this. Seven years ago, I bought a brand new BMW and paid a small fortune for it. BMW is one of the best, right? Nothing can go wrong. At 6,000 miles, I was turning onto the PCH and the car died. Nothing. I could go backwards, not forwards. I managed to back up out of traffic and onto a side street and called AAA. They came and there was nothing they could do so they loaded the car on a truck and towed it to the dealer. Turns out it was a "programming" problem. It took the BMW dealer a month to re-program what was essentially a brand new car a few months old. Whenever I called, they told me, "It's taking so long because we have to re-boot the system." I heard that excuse for a month. Those who know me know that I was programming computers in 1963 and have used computers for literally decades so treating me like a grey-haired old lady who is willing to accept that excuse will only make me call 3x a day and drive them nuts. My point is that even supposedly well-made, highly respected mechanical vehicles can have problems. The Beemer? I gave it to my daughter and bought an Acura.

[The Big Booper]

Send the ship to dry dock for a week and get the necessary repairs. Cancel one scheduled cruise and just fix the problems and move on. No big deal, unless you were on the cruise that was cancelled.

 

Paul

 

That will not appeal to all the people flying over to Barcelona right now. But there are ships leaving Barcelona 9/26 and 9/28 for Med cruises, with some empty cabins. If you have liquidity in your checking account and available credit cards.........

[Pia1913]

Send the ship to dry dock for a week and get the necessary repairs. Cancel one scheduled cruise and just fix the problems and move on. No big deal, unless you were on the cruise that was cancelled.

 

Paul

 

Thank you very much. Did you want to send me a check for my airfare now, or will you meet me at the airport and hand to me in person? :rolleyes:

[Cruise Junky]

Send the ship to dry dock for a week and get the necessary repairs. Cancel one scheduled cruise and just fix the problems and move on. No big deal, unless you were on the cruise that was cancelled.

 

Paul

 

Kind of selfish don't you think seeing as you have a November booking on her? Cancel someone else's cruise, just don't mess with mine :rolleyes:

[e2011]

Do you mean Carnival Corporation & Plc, a holding company that owns Princess, Cunard, HAL, Seabourn, Carnival Cruise Lines, etc.; or are you referring to Carnival Cruise lines? Carnival Cruise Lines has nothing to do with Princess as the lines are managed separately.

 

Yes I mean Carnival Corporation & Plc. i thought that was obvious.

[icat2000]

Just cancel the Royal Princess period. Melt her down, sell or the bits off and rebuild it properly :D

 

The best outcome would be for them to try and fix it. Though, if I was travelling on the Royal Princess over the coming weeks I would make sure I had the appropriate level of travel insurance.

 

Look what happened with the Sun Princess, it got cancelled as people were checking in, delayed in Singapore sailed to Fremantle and on the first cruise, I believe it missed a port and limped along. I think its right now.

 

I think the biggest worry would be attempting the TA with the issues its experiencing at the moment. You don't want it to breakdown in the middle of no where.

[gioia73]

lets get back on topic everyone- crusies! not cars:D

[RMM34667]

Engineers do there best to predict stresses on a system and design for it, but nothing can completely model all the potential variables. And its after the systems have had a chance to "run-in" they find them out.

 

 

Wondering if four hours of trying to "raise the anchor" could have stressed the systems.

[gioia73]

Reading this board to figure out what is happening with this ship is exasperating. Nobody seems to realize that the cruiseline is in full control and can say or do whatever they want.....I read, if there is a fire the alarms would have gone off and they would have told us....NOT! All systems can be manual overridden in the case of short circuits etc. "happenings" on cruise ships is not new....It has always happened from the days my grandparents used to work on them (old time entertainers).....but the stories were kept quiet...there was no internet and communications, and as long as people got where they were going safely...which was cruises were for back in the day...everyone was happy. My grandparents talked of rapes, robberies and fires as a common occurrence, but as they said...it all happened at sea.....and that was that. Different times.

 

For the cruiseline to have cancelled a cruise which is costing them millions of dollars in expenses and lost revenue flights etc. They KNOW something is seriously wrong and are going to try and fix it. Ships make repairs all the time at sea, so their actions are clearly serious for serious problems......This ship is going to need major work. Thats my take on it. Otherwise, they would have flown in engineers to naples to do the repairs with parts there...... Has princess said what the problem is after two days of working on it so far? Nope? Electrical? Mechanical? no news....which is never good.

 

I applaud princess for taking the safety of passengers first....At least I hope so. I hope they have had no other problems they have hidden in order to keep the ship sailing....nothing surprises me that these cruise lines do and I await the serious Legal Bill of rights for government oversight of these operations.

 

Also people....keep in mind that while cruisecritic has rules and regulations, all you need is an email to post here. That said, there are for SURE people on these boards who work for the cruiselines to allay fears and try and put good comments for bad situations....How would cruisecritic know? They are not the internet police. Everyone has Yahoo and hotmail and gmail.....So take some of these posts...mine included...with a grain of salt and an intelligent outlook. Don't believe everything you read as Gospel! Remember weapons of mass destruction???? I rest my case.

 

Wishing those people who have had their plans ruined good luck. Wishing all future cruisers safe travels. I wish Princess would be forthcoming with what exactly happened to cause that outage? There is clearly much they know already and are not telling.

 

Safe travels to all!

 

A brand new ship and 2 outages now?? this is not typical and very unheard of.... my ta has been in business for 40 years and has never heard of this , and old ship yes that would be expected. Princess better smarted up with the regal forsure or they will end up like carnival.. giving away their cruises for so little

[weberman]

Geez folks (or at least some folks), let's give Princess a break. Imagine buying a new car and after a few months having it just fail and refuse to start. You need to get it towed to a garage where they still have no clue. Then you get it taken to a dealer where they finally find and repair the problem. The Royal Princess is a new ship and like all modern cruise ships the electrical systems are complex beyond the comprehension of most normal folks. The onboard staff can certainly isolate the failure, which apparently is going to take some resources to repair (beyond what is available at sea). But it can take several days and the help of real experts to isolate the "cause" of a failure. If a main electrical bus or generator fails.. that is obvious. But why that bus fails is not always so obvious. So even though one can repair the bus, it is necessary to find the underlying cause to prevent future failures. So to assume that Princess knows all and is not telling all is a real stretch. And with a new vessel it also becomes a warranty issue as there is much money at stake. If it is a manufacturers defect that Princess can seek restitution to make the cruise line whole. So many questions? Give em a chance. All that being said, we do really feel compassion for those on that cruise and those that will have their lives affected by one or more cancelled cruises.

 

Hank

 

If your car breaks down and you need a garage, a short tow will get you there. However in the case of a cruise ship that is several hundreds or a thousand miles at sea, well that is a totally different matter.

 

I did the Maiden Trans-Atlantic on the Emerald and there were no problems, of course, the Emerald was the second ship of her class. It seem the Royal has been plagued by problems since her launch three months ago. Nothing as serious as this, but still a lot of problems.

 

What if this current situation had occurred if the Royal was in the middle of the Atlantic, half way to Fort Lauderdale. That would have been, well almost a tragedy. I don't think Princess has been truthful about the Royal.

 

I am scheduled for the upcoming Tran-Atlantic, and I have to admit, I am a little concerned with six days at sea.

 

But you pay your money and you take your chances. :confused:

[abbydancer2003]

 

Engineers do there best to predict stresses on a system and design for it, but nothing can completely model all the potential variables. And its after the systems have had a chance to "run-in" they find them out.

 

Now obviously, this failure had to be complex to cancel the cruise. That doesn't mean dangerous or serious, just complex. It could be a software issue that requires a code patch, or maybe more people than projected turned on hair dryers at the same time (not an option on the ship really, but there is a famous test done at every stadium build, the flush test, where someone stands at every toilet and on a broadcast count of three hits the flusher. And yes, the systems have 'exploded'), or lubricant didn't behave as expected, or..or..or.

 

Unfortunately, the economics of the cruise industry don't permit the kind of shakedown cruise that would greatly reduce the risk of episodes like this (30-40 days of cruising with an all volunteer passenger list stress testing the systems)

 

There was a documentary a few years ago on one of the cable stations about the building of a new RCI ship (not the Behemoth, oops Oasis, of the Sea, but one of the big ones).

 

Before they did the first passenger cruise, they did a short (couple of days) employee cruise, where the employees did a shakedown. One of their activities (I kid you not) was to, at the sound of a chime, flush every toilet on the ship at once.

[dchip]

Wow, my heart goes out to all of you on this cruise! I quit reading the thread yesterday when it was all about flashlights. Was shocked to see where it went since then!!

 

Fingers crossed for those of you on the 9/27 cruise and the TA. This just plain stinks.

 

We were on the Grand's inaugural TA in 1998 when she went dead in the water due to a fire in the kitchen. It didn't last long but it is one scary sight to see all the kitchen staff exit with their life vests on while you are having breakfast in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.

 

Cheers, Denise

[rdsqrl]

I hope it's still under warranty.

I'm worried that that pregnant woman who deliberately smashed a glass bottle into the hull may have voided the warranty . . .

 

And, complaining about this will probably cut into complaining

about balcony size and no middle stairs.

Never! It's the root case. If there were bigger balconies, more people would be out on their balconies, not inside the ship, where they're consuming more electricity via blenders for cocktails, casino machines in use, etc. And, of course, as they all leave their small balconies for the public areas, they're having to use the elevators more, thanks to the lack of a midship staircase, thus increasing the power load there, too.

 

If you give me a minute, I'm sure I can also trace this power issue to the lack of a promenade deck and no oceanview cabins . . . .

[The Big Booper]

There was a documentary a few years ago on one of the cable stations about the building of a new RCI ship (not the Behemoth, oops Oasis, of the Sea, but one of the big ones).

 

Before they did the first passenger cruise, they did a short (couple of days) employee cruise, where the employees did a shakedown. One of their activities (I kid you not) was to, at the sound of a chime, flush every toilet on the ship at once.

 

Attention to detail. Stress the system and see what happens, before the revenue cruises start.

[IECalCruiser]

Yes, Barcelona is a great city. And I know where to find inexpensive wine :D

Better than cheap, the Hotel Continental is supposed to have complementary white wine, but don't if it will be to your liking. Sorry we were forced to cancel and will miss this adventure. It might be a companion story to our adventures after the Chilean Earthquake on the Star in 2010.

[ne1travel]

From Cruise Critic~

 

Royal Princess Cruise Canceled; Ship to be Taken out of Service for Repair

 

(8:30 a.m. EDT) -- The cruise ship Royal Princess will be taken out of service for repair and the remainder of its current sailing will be canceled following a power outage onboard on Sunday, September 22.

 

The ship is currently en route to Naples, Italy, where it is expected to arrive a day later than scheduled, early Tuesday morning, according to a statement from Princess Cruises.

 

Once in Naples, passengers will be disembarked and flown home. Princess is making all flight arrangements for passengers and has promised to provide a full refund of the cruise fare as well as a 25 percent future cruise credit. The line said that passengers will likely spend Tuesday night (Sept. 24) onboard the ship and depart on Wednesday (Sept. 25).

 

The power outage occurred while the ship was in the Mediterranean traveling between Mykonos, Greece, and Naples, Italy, and lasted for at least 3.5 hours, although some passengers were reporting up to six hours of outages. According to a spokeswoman from Princess, additional problems with plumbing, electrical and air conditioning systems reported by passengers are unrelated to the power outage.

 

Princess said it was not yet known how long the ship would remain out of service or whether further cruises would be canceled or shortened. Pending approval from Royal Princess' flag state, Bermuda, the ship will make its way to Barcelona on Wednesday (Sept. 25) for repairs; it is next scheduled to depart from Barcelona on Sept. 27.

 

Royal Princess is the line's newest ship, launched on a windy and overcast day in a ceremony in Southampton, England, on June 13, 2013. A heavily pregnant Duchess Kate of Cambridge presided over the christening during the ceremony as the ship's godmother.

[Feelin' Nauti']

Royal Princess cruise is still up in the air about the departure on September 27.

Feel for those you who are traveling aboard (air/hotel) to meet the ship and haven't a clue if they will be sailing or not.

 

 

[Pam in CA]

Yes I mean Carnival Corporation & Plc. i thought that was obvious.

You'd be surprised at how many people say that Princess is owned by Carnival and they mean the cruise line. Unless I see a reference to Carnival "Corp.," I assume they mean the cruise line.

[MauiLvrs]

Never! It's the root case. If there were bigger balconies, more people would be out on their balconies, not inside the ship, where they're consuming more electricity via blenders for cocktails, casino machines in use, etc. And, of course, as they all leave their small balconies for the public areas, they're having to use the elevators more, thanks to the lack of a midship staircase, thus increasing the power load there, too.

 

If you give me a minute, I'm sure I can also trace this power issue to the lack of a promenade deck and no oceanview cabins . . . .

That explains it ;)