Air Conditioning out the Star since yesterday

[Ronnieslady]

Thanks so much for letting us know about the AC. We are sailing(or at least we think we are) on the Coastal Cruise leaving Saturday. If you can keep us posted on what's going on as I am not sure Princess will say anything about it.

It is working now. See my above post about getting some fans just in case. Not even sure it’s allowed, sneek it on if you have to.

They seemed to blame the barnacle problem, like someone above mentioned. Going from cold waters to warmer waters. But how do the barnacles just go away. And can’t they do something to prevent it.

I hope your cruise goes well, I’m sure it will.

[chengkp75]

It is working now. See my above post about getting some fans just in case. Not even sure it’s allowed, sneek it on if you have to.

They seemed to blame the barnacle problem, like someone above mentioned. Going from cold waters to warmer waters. But how do the barnacles just go away. And can’t they do something to prevent it.

I hope your cruise goes well, I’m sure it will.

 

The barnacles, clams and mussels, only grow profusely in cold water, where the nutrients are much more concentrated, they grow much slower in warm water. As I said, the mollusks grow and attach to the steel of the hull, and when they die from warm water, they fall off virtually all at once, clogging the strainers, and they "go away" when the mollusks that have all died off. Then warm water mollusks will start to grow, but much slower. And, no, they cannot do something to prevent it, I've been on several ships over the years, that have each several times experienced this problem. It is a common problem in the maritime industry.

[ChrisB123]

We'll be on the Star in 2 weeks to Hawaii. I hope it's fixed by then. YIKES.

[beg3yrs]

We'll be on the Star in 2 weeks to Hawaii. I hope it's fixed by then. YIKES.

 

As previously reported, it's already fixed. No worries...

[pablo222]

And, no, they cannot do something to prevent it, I've been on several ships over the years, that have each several times experienced this problem. It is a common problem in the maritime industry.

 

Wouldn't something to prevent it be -- frequent monitoring and cleaning of the sea strainers,

during a seasonal re-positioning?

 

If it is a common problem, it seems like sloppy maintenance on Princess' part to allow it to occur, and to affect passengers.

[chengkp75]

Wouldn't something to prevent it be -- frequent monitoring and cleaning of the sea strainers,

during a seasonal re-positioning?

 

The sea strainers are periodically cleaned. What happens in these cases is that within a few hours, the mollusks die off and you get around 30-50 lbs of shells all at once. You can clean the strainer, and the system works fine and a couple of hours later you get another 30-50 lbs. I have frequently had to clear strainers every 4 hours for a day or two when these cold water to warm water transits happen. This typically takes 4-6 crew (more than the normal engineering watch complement at night) working around the clock to keep the system cleaned.

 

This is not sloppy maintenance, it is a problem across the maritime industry. Twice a year, the Houston Ship Channel is plagued with fish and shrimp that clog sea strainers so quickly that ships transiting the Ship Channel to lose all power and create situations where groundings and collisions can happen. This is so common a problem that the Houston Pilots Association warns ships whenever they board a ship during these seasons that the ship could lose power.

Edited October 6, 2018 by chengkp75

[Colo Cruiser]

:o...:o

Edited October 6, 2018 by Colo Cruiser

[cruisin'mama]

We were on the Dolphin deck in a Mini Suite. People around us slept with their balcony doors open and their Stateroom doors to the hallway propped open. My travel alarm has a thermometer and said it was 85 in our cabin. Princess tried to compensate everyone with $50 pp OBC and 25% of cruise fare credit toward another cruise.

 

 

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[happy cruzer]

The 25% credit toward a future cruise looks to be the real compensation. I would think the compensation should be based on how many nights the ac did not work in the cabin so 25% might be acceptable. $50 OBC pp is nice too. Cruise lines typically hate to give out psuedo cash compensation.

[Colo Cruiser]

A nice gesture by Princess but there will always be those that are not happy. :rolleyes:

[cruisin'mama]

A nice gesture by Princess but there will always be those that are not happy. :rolleyes:

 

 

 

I agree! I was just happy that they made the gesture, there were SO many people complaining! With 3 of us in the cabin, my bill was lowered by $150. I’m good with that!

 

 

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[riclop]

Thanks for the update.

[mcrcruiser]

We are happy to hear that the A/C has been restored . The 25% cruise credit & the $50 obc is only reasonable for that inconvenience;)

[kitkat343]

Thanks so much for the explanation. I had no idea bout the sea creature growth

[bichonandon]

We just got off the Star yesterday.

 

Our Baja deck balcony was sweltering for at least a full day. We also had to keep our balcony door open, and that led to other problems such as smoke and radio/music noise wafting over from neighbors. Our immediate neighbor to the right was not going to let the heat get them down, and apparently decided to throw a party in their room. The music and smoke was intense. Thankfully, it was short-lived because all of a sudden it was quiet except for one loud-mouth yelling "We had to turn it down because some *&%)@$* complained." LOL. We had a good laugh over that, and no we did not complain but we were grateful someone else did.

 

I have mixed feelings about the A/C situation. On one hand, we did not fully enjoy our vacation because of it. On the other hand, we found it amusing that every time we were in an elevator or sitting near others at an activity, the one exact phrase we heard constantly was, "Everybody's talking about it," meaning the A/C issue. The rumor mill was also in full swing. We heard everything from seaweed to the possibility that since the Star was in Alaska, they didn't know the A/C wasn't working. We were relieved to get a note from Princess which explained everything and as mentioned, offered some measure of a different kind of A/C, acknowledgement and compensation.

 

Still, it was hard to see some people seeming to suffer from the heat. In addition to the folks who were using whatever they could to fan themselves, we saw that at least one person was driven out of their room for the night and took refuge on a reclining deck chair near a pool in order to get some sleep. Even asleep he looked uncomfortable.

 

I guess for us, we aren't disgruntled and we didn't let it ruin our vacation, but we are also lucky we had a balcony and we are physically able to withstand some unexpected heat without consequences. Also, we appreciated the response from Princess before the end of the cruise.

[beg3yrs]

We just got off the Star yesterday.

 

Our Baja deck balcony was sweltering for at least a full day. We also had to keep our balcony door open, and that led to other problems such as smoke and radio/music noise wafting over from neighbors. Our immediate neighbor to the right was not going to let the heat get them down, and apparently decided to throw a party in their room. The music and smoke was intense. Thankfully, it was short-lived because all of a sudden it was quiet except for one loud-mouth yelling "We had to turn it down because some *&%)@$* complained." LOL. We had a good laugh over that, and no we did not complain but we were grateful someone else did.

.....

 

I sure hope they got fined for smoking in a non-smoking area.

[hobbyfarmer2]

The sea strainers are periodically cleaned. What happens in these cases is that within a few hours, the mollusks die off and you get around 30-50 lbs of shells all at once. You can clean the strainer, and the system works fine and a couple of hours later you get another 30-50 lbs. I have frequently had to clear strainers every 4 hours for a day or two when these cold water to warm water transits happen. This typically takes 4-6 crew (more than the normal engineering watch complement at night) working around the clock to keep the system cleaned.

 

This is not sloppy maintenance, it is a problem across the maritime industry. Twice a year, the Houston Ship Channel is plagued with fish and shrimp that clog sea strainers so quickly that ships transiting the Ship Channel to lose all power and create situations where groundings and collisions can happen. This is so common a problem that the Houston Pilots Association warns ships whenever they board a ship during these seasons that the ship could lose power.

 

Thanks for your great explanations on how things work. I gave watched a few TV episodes of sea chests being cleaned but did not really understand the problems until your posts.

 

Funny how some people with little technical knowledge expect complex machinery to run perfectly 100% of the time without maintenance and in limited spaces to boot.

Edited October 7, 2018 by hobbyfarmer2
Error

[happy cruzer]

Yep, when people get caught smoking on the balcony, they often yell out at the world how unfair it is.... Happened before we had even left port once, the sooner the better - after that no issues.

 

 

Thanks for the report.

[pablo222]

Funny how some people with little technical knowledge expect complex machinery to run perfectly 100% of the time without maintenance and in limited spaces to boot.

 

Every time I board an aircraft.

[satxdiver]

Every time I board an aircraft.

 

I have been on quite a few aircraft that were not able to leave the terminal after we had all boarded, on aircraft that pushed away only to return, on aircraft that took off only to return immediately to the airport and more. I was grateful that the flight crew discovered the problem and took action to correct it.

[pablo222]

I have been on quite a few aircraft that were not able to leave the terminal after we had all boarded, on aircraft that pushed away only to return, on aircraft that took off only to return immediately to the airport and more. I was grateful that the flight crew discovered the problem and took action to correct it.

 

 

I've been on a flight, that two hours after departure returned to the airport we left from,

as that was the only place that had a part to fix some problem that cropped up during flight.

 

I think this is quite different from a seasonal change killing mollusks, which sounds

like it is common, and predictable.

[hobbyfarmer2]

I've been on a flight, that two hours after departure returned to the airport we left from,

as that was the only place that had a part to fix some problem that cropped up during flight.

 

I think this is quite different from a seasonal change killing mollusks, which sounds

like it is common, and predictable.

Predictable, yes. They still have to clean and scrape off the stuff off the intake filters as it keeps piling up.

[chengkp75]

I've been on a flight, that two hours after departure returned to the airport we left from,

as that was the only place that had a part to fix some problem that cropped up during flight.

 

I think this is quite different from a seasonal change killing mollusks, which sounds

like it is common, and predictable.

 

Predictable, yes. They still have to clean and scrape off the stuff off the intake filters as it keeps piling up.

 

As stated, it is predictable, but not something that can be done preemptively. Cleaning the strainers won't do anything until the shellfish actually die off and that is unpredictable. Then, when the strainer is full, and the sea water flow is reduced, the AC system is affected. So, you reduce AC capacity, shut off one sea chest, and clean the strainer, hoping that the other one doesn't block up while cleaning this one, and then you put both strainers back on line, and hope to get AC capacity back up before the next strainer clogs. Then it's "rinse and repeat". And there is no way of knowing how quickly the strainers will fill up again, or how long the die off will continue. I've had cases where in the cold, nutrient rich waters off Nova Scotia, the clam larvae are small enough to get through the sea strainer, and then attach to the piping wall after the strainer, and grow quite large over several months. Then when the Gulf Stream moved closer to shore, we got warmer water, the clams died off, and we had serious problems because the clams were now beyond the strainer, and would clog the heat exchanger tubes themselves for the diesel engines. Here we could harvest about a 55 gallon drum of clam shells every day for 7-14 days. Did we know it was going to happen once a year? Sure. Was there any way of predicting what day it would happen, or how long it would last? Nope. Was there anything we could have done to prevent it? Yes, but it involved injecting biocide (poison) into the sea water, which was not good for other marine life when the biocide laden water was discharged, nor for the crew who had to handle this toxin. So, it was decided that the risk of using the biocide outweighed the benefit, and was discontinued.

[pablo222]

As stated, it is predictable, but not something that can be done preemptively..

 

Could Princess have hired divers to do the cleaning, prior to entering warm water?

[chengkp75]

Could Princess have hired divers to do the cleaning, prior to entering warm water?

 

Cleaning of sea chests by divers is always touted as possible, and many ships have the gratings hinged to allow this, but I have yet to see one instance where it was completed satisfactorily. To do this, the sea water suction to the sea chest must be secured, so there is no suction to possibly trap a diver against a pipe inlet, so this reduces the ability to cool AC or engines while this is being done. First the diver must unbolt (and the bolt has a safety split pin in it, requiring even more manual dexterity underwater to remove the pin) about 20-30 bolts and then lower the grating down onto its hinges without getting knocked out by the 2-300 lb weight. Then he has to climb into the sea chest, a structure about 10' x 10' x 10', which is subdivided by structural partitions into about 4-5 chambers. These chambers are accessed via oval openings in these partitions about 15" x 20", which are hard to climb through in dry dock, let alone underwater wearing breathing gear. He then has to scrape off the growth over the approximately 1200 square feet of surface in the sea chest, and collect all the material scraped off, as this marine life came from a different ecosystem, and if any are still alive, you can introduce possibly invasive creatures into the ecosystem where the cleaning is being done. This is why ships have to treat ballast water to kill marine life, as the water loaded in one part of the world can have invasive species when discharged in another part of the world (see the zebra mussel in the Great Lakes). Then he has to get out, and rebolt the grating over the sea chest. And, this cleaning only gets as far as the diver's arm into the 20" diameter sea water pipe leading from the sea chest to the sea strainer, so there will still be growth there. And as I've noted, in many cases, the growth can be downstream from the strainer, so this can never be cleaned without removing the piping.