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Royal Lost Power Today!

Clutterlady

By Clutterlady,
in Princess Cruises

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bluesea321

bluesea321

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I was on The Royal 3/2-9 and we lost power one night at about 2 am. The emergency lights were activated and the ship alarms went off. The captain got on the speakers to announce a problem; minor but waking up most people. I wonder why this keeps happening.

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ar1950

ar1950

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I was on The Royal 3/2-9 and we lost power one night at about 2 am. The emergency lights were activated and the ship alarms went off. The captain got on the speakers to announce a problem; minor but waking up most people. I wonder why this keeps happening.

 

Maybe because the electrical system was built by the lowest bidder? .......Oh, wait. The whole ship was built by the lowest bidder........:cool:

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clmom

clmom

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This also happened when the ship was brand new last year, but only for a few minutes. I do wonder why myself.

It was more than just a few minutes. We were aboard the Royal sailing in late September which lost power for several hours after leaving Mykonos, enroute to Naples.

A staff member told us the problem was with a computer glitch. The computers would shut down the main system and not allow the back-up system to kick in. Princess ended up canceling the remainder of the cruise when we reached Naples (a day late) and we were all flown home. We missed the ports of Rome, Livorno, Toulon and Barcelona. Princess stepped up and refunded our entire cruise fare + 25% a future cruise + flew us home at their expense. It was disappointing to have to end our cruise so abruptly but it was a fabulous cruise while it lasted and Princess handled it with few problems.

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Squire5000

Squire5000

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We were on the Royal 2/9 saying and we lost power one day. It was limited to a couple of areas on the ship (I forget exactly where) but with a history of power outages, there may be a a more significant power issue that needs to be addressed.

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Loonbeam

Loonbeam

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Scattered outages are not a problem unless they recur. After the Splendor, a lot of ships systems were set to better safe than sorry and trip at the slightest hint of trouble, then it takes techs a few minutes to figure out the cause and reset. For example, on the RCCL Liberty, someone apparently broke a bulb with a metal suitcase or something and caused a quick short and half the promenade plus a few cabins shut down for about 10 mins. We were not onboard at the time, but heard the story around the ship a few times, including from the staff in the cupcake shop.

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cougaraz

cougaraz

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Shipboard electrical systems are far more complicated than their land side counterparts. Remember that the ship is a giant piece of metal sitting in a wonderful electrolyte (the ocean). I have actually been most impressed with the relative rarity of electrical problems during the cruises I have taken. I wouldn't say it is normal to have transient issues, systems are designed to operate under challenging conditions and provide smooth power throughout, I also wouldn't call it shocking. It is funny though when there is a load shift while we are on the ship and the lights flicker just a touch most people don't notice, but as a former Combat Systems Officer on Navy ships, I get a little sick.

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clmom

clmom

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I recall when the Royal was launched that it had a backup system. If something happened to the power, the backup would take over. I may be mistaken???!!

Yes, the Royal has a complete back-up system. The issue on our cruise, from what I understood, was the computer caused a glitch with the main system and then would over ride the back up system and not allow it to kick on. That is why Princess decided to end our cruise early, in Naples, and fly in the engineers who actually built the system.

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Woobstr112G "Live from...." Rare

Woobstr112G

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This also happened when the ship was brand new last year, but only for a few minutes. I do wonder why myself.

 

They had those issues right before the T/A as well. During the T/A, our cabin power went out briefly on two separate occasions.....

 

Bob

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chengkp75

chengkp75

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Yes, the Royal has a complete back-up system. The issue on our cruise, from what I understood, was the computer caused a glitch with the main system and then would over ride the back up system and not allow it to kick on. That is why Princess decided to end our cruise early, in Naples, and fly in the engineers who actually built the system.

 

To say that the Royal has a "complete back up system" is not quite accurate. Because she is designed to the IMO's Safe Return to Port requirements, she can sustain loss of one engine room, or loss of one propulsion room, without affecting the others, and remaining with power and propulsion. So, yes, there are two power sources (the engine rooms) and two sources of propulsion (the two propellers), but neither of which will supply all the power needed for the ship. All hotel functions would be powered, but the ship would only be able to make about 60-75% of full speed. The problem comes during the transition, as diesel engines do not start right away, and take a minute or more to start generating electricity. Also, when the automation system senses an overload condition (more power needed than the online generators can produce), it will "shed" large power consumers as required to keep the load within acceptable parameters until another generator (if available) can be started. These large power consumers are things like propulsion (slow down the propellers, or stop them if needed), A/C, and galley power. However, if the system does not react quickly enough, the ship can trip out all the generators, causing a black-out.

 

There is, of course, the emergency generator, which is designed only to provide power to things required to evacuate the ship, including reduced lighting, and there will also be battery powered lighting.

 

These power outages sound to me like automation problems, and they are very hard to rectify as there is generally no "smoking gun" burned or broken bit that you can say "that's what caused it". It becomes a bit of trial and error.

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waverley7

waverley7

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Looks like Royal has made St Thomas, earlier data indicated she was traveling at 19.8 knots. That to me would be a good thing.

Ken

 

 

Hey Ken,

 

I'm keeping an eye on her too!! I was so glad to see her in port! :D

 

whew!

 

Jan

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