Carnival Freedom Funnel Fire

[Aplmac]

2 hours ago, chengkp75 said:

A wet berth would cost around $20k/day just for the berth. 

A drydock runs around $400k/day or more

- just for the dock time. 

Unless a drydock is required by statute,

or by the need to repair underwater equipment,

it ain't gonna happen, certainly not in the present fiscal environment.

 

Makes a ton of sense!

[ontheweb]

2 hours ago, KmomChicago said:

These middle school kids are freaking awesome these days!! Well said!

Right, and does anyone else watch Master Chef Jr. with 8-11 year olds competing as chefs?

[ItsADryHumor]

On 5/28/2022 at 12:43 PM, ontheweb said:

👍 for those at those middle schools responsible for those shows.

*a middle school drama teacher has entered the chat*
 

thank you! 

[ontheweb]

1 hour ago, stinkyenglishteacher said:

*a middle school drama teacher has entered the chat*
 

thank you! 

You are welcome from a former school board member.

[1980dory]

5 hours ago, caribill said:

 

So reports of car fires give you second thoughts about driving?

I was more concerned about cooking fires in my kitchen.  Perhaps I should

stop cooking my food.  And no more BBQ for certain.

[Guest BasicSailor]

6 hours ago, Tom-n-Cheryl said:

 

With 70+ Carnival cruises - yesterday on the Liberty, for the first time, I saw large jets of water being sprayed outward (not window washing), from what must have been fire type hoses while seated in the MDR for the sea day brunch. Not sure what was going on (I didn't go to the window to see more), but I suspect it might have something to do with the recent fire and their desire to put hoses into hands.

 

Tom

I had a feeling prep work was in the making. 👍 Enjoy that cruise.

[weregoingcruising]

On 5/26/2022 at 5:44 PM, WheresWalter said:

I NEVER expected Carnival to cancel another cruise and send a ship down to pick up those folks in Grand Turk. That's about as good of an outcome you could get if you're on Carnival Freedom. An extra day in Grand Turk, the ship is your floating hotel where everything is still working, and you'll still get a full Sea Day on the way back to Port Canaveral. Totally SUCKS for the folks who were set to sail Conquest on Saturday but that's truly remarkable what Carnival is doing. I never ever expected them to send another ship. 

Live and learn just proves about speculation is any body’s guess.

[tidecat]

Flying passengers back was never really an option. The flight from Grand Turk (GDT) to Providenciales (PLS) is served by an EMB-120, which seats all of 30 passengers. That then assumes there is capacity for an additional 3,000 people to get from PLS to MCO (Orlando), and then a number of those would need ground transportation to Port Canaveral.

 

Even keeping a ship on standby permanently would be a $12-15 million/year insurance policy, which is probably more than the lost revenue from the affected Freedom and Conquest sailings. The backup ship would also have to be in range of the affected ship, which might not be practical for all the areas Carnival sails to. While Carnival could use it for other brands, there's obviously a huge difference if you're picking up passengers form another brand.

[ontheweb]

7 hours ago, caribill said:

 

So reports of car fires give you second thoughts about driving?

I was actually driving once when our car burst into flames. Scared the hell out of me. And it scared DW in the front passenger seat even more.

 

I still drive, though of course not that car that was totaled by the fire.

 

I should add I will never go back to the place that did an oil change just before the fire and was responsible for it!

Edited May 29, 2022 by ontheweb
added last paragraph

[Lane Hog]

2 hours ago, tidecat said:

Flying passengers back was never really an option. The flight from Grand Turk (GDT) to Providenciales (PLS) is served by an EMB-120, which seats all of 30 passengers. That then assumes there is capacity for an additional 3,000 people to get from PLS to MCO (Orlando), and then a number of those would need ground transportation to Port Canaveral.

Hardly a problem to find airplanes to fly people out, but finding the crew and fuel could very well be a challenge.

 

 

2 hours ago, tidecat said:

Even keeping a ship on standby permanently would be a $12-15 million/year insurance policy, which is probably more than the lost revenue from the affected Freedom and Conquest sailings. The backup ship would also have to be in range of the affected ship, which might not be practical for all the areas Carnival sails to. While Carnival could use it for other brands, there's obviously a huge difference if you're picking up passengers form another brand.

 

Staging a spare ship is an expensive alternative for a situation that may not happen for another 2-3 years.  Or it could happen again next week...

 

Personally I think CCL's contingency plan as executed worked out well.  Some customers were upset with the change of itinerary or the canceled Bahamas cruise, but you were going to have people upset regardless.  This seems like the best of the bad choices available.  

 

[caribill]

12 hours ago, ontheweb said:

Right, and does anyone else watch Master Chef Jr. with 8-11 year olds competing as chefs?

 

Those kids act more adult than the participants on the original Master Chef show with adult chefs.

[Essiesmom]

Welcome back to Port Canaveral

 

[CruisingWalter]

19 hours ago, tidecat said:

Flying passengers back was never really an option. The flight from Grand Turk (GDT) to Providenciales (PLS) is served by an EMB-120, which seats all of 30 passengers. That then assumes there is capacity for an additional 3,000 people to get from PLS to MCO (Orlando), and then a number of those would need ground transportation to Port Canaveral.

 

For my TikTok today I did some calculations for flights.

2500 guests on Carnival Freedom requiring flights to Port Canaveral. 

A 737 can carry 162 passengers or 15 jets

A 757 can carry 243 passengers or 11 jets

The logistics to get those planes chartered and to Grand Turk would have added at least a week or more to the situation.

Not to mention, the Grand Turk runway is only 6300 feet and the 737 requires 6800 while the 757 requires 8000 feet. So as you say above, it's going to be smaller planes and many many more flights.

 

Ultimately Carnival got everyone home just 2 days late with their solution. It was the best solution for that particular situation.

 

I also agree with you that having a ship on standby is a no-go. Never mind the costs of maintaining that ship, where would you port it? We have no idea where a situation like this could happen again. It just so happens the situation happened two days sailing from Florida. But if it's Alaska, or the Mexican Riviera or the Mediterranean....there's no way to have a 'standby ship' to handle the entire world. 

 

[Indytraveler83]

The Conquest coming to rescue passengers was clearly the best solution here.  As that ship is only on 3-4 day cruises right now, it was certainly the best solution financially for Carnival, as well as logistically for the stranded passengers.  

 

This was a particularly unique situation (fortunately) in that the ship had this fire while at the dock.  Most past situations involving damaged or disabled ships happened at sea, and they had no choice but to leave passengers onboard and try to limp/tow the ship home with passengers still there. 

 

Planning contingencies for the future is nearly impossible, as you don't know what the exact situation or emergency will be.  Having a good chunk of the fleet sailing close together is likely the best they can hope for, so they can provide some sort of assistance in the event of future emergencies.  

[lyannea]

On 5/29/2022 at 9:28 AM, Barry ATL said:

I hope those on board will tell us a little more about the transfer between ships.  Did they have all of your info already loaded into the computer on the new shop?  What about keycards?  Same cabin numbers?  How did they handle luggage?

 

I know, a lot of questions.  I am really curious about the process.

 

I am happy the comments so far have been positive.

This is response from someone on Facelook that I copy and pasted:

 

they put boarding passes in our mail slots on Freedom. When we left Freedom they scanned our folios and when we boarded the Conquest scanned the boarding pass and our folios were waiting at our new rooms (we had the same room on both ships)

[CruisingWalter]

4 hours ago, lyannea said:

This is response from someone on Facelook that I copy and pasted:

 

they put boarding passes in our mail slots on Freedom. When we left Freedom they scanned our folios and when we boarded the Conquest scanned the boarding pass and our folios were waiting at our new rooms (we had the same room on both ships)

Sounds the same as what I heard from Twitter. They really did do a great job with this and I LOVED the signs from the Conquest crew. They really seemed to help make the entire situation go much smoother and with a smile. 

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

Perhaps I missed it, but what was done for the folks who had their Conquest cruise cancelled/commandeered?

 

Tom 

[1kaper]

8 minutes ago, Tom-n-Cheryl said:

Perhaps I missed it, but what was done for the folks who had their Conquest cruise cancelled/commandeered?

 

Tom 

 

 

Someone on another post stated they were given a reimbursement and a free cruise credit to use within a year. 

 

 

[quattrohead]

On 5/29/2022 at 9:31 AM, tidecat said:

I I'm wondering if Carnival would take the opportunity-or even has the opportunity-to update the livery and perform a full drydock now that the ship is out of service.

No because there was no time to plan and they just need to get her back out and earning again.

I think it will be back in service late June, possibly in a couple of weeks with a short straight stack.

Edited May 31, 2022 by quattrohead

[Aplmac]

52 minutes ago, quattrohead said:

I think it will be back in service late June,

possibly in a couple of weeks with a short straight stack.

 

OMG that is going to look so weird -almost unthinkable! lol

[CruisinCrow]

1 hour ago, quattrohead said:

No because there was no time to plan and they just need to get her back out and earning again.

I think it will be back in service late June, possibly in a couple of weeks with a short straight stack.

 

 

I think you are right that they will try to get Freedom back in service as soon as possible.  They probably started working on her before she even got to Freeport.

 

We're booked on the June 16 cruise and my concern is that the cruise won't be cancelled but parts of the ship will be blocked off and we'll have shortened time in the ports because we'll be cruising on half the engines.  Personally, I'd rather they just go ahead and cancel us now.

 

I wonder when we'll get an update on the damage and repair timeline.

[Indytraveler83]

I agree that they'll probably just try to patch her and safely modify the current funnel to get the ship back out ASAP.  She's got the old white hull, so there's got to already be plans to drydock at some point for repainting.  They can replace the funnel then.  

 

Still wonder if there's anything more to the damage beyond the funnel.  I keep hearing rumors about engine damage and struggles to restart, but nothing more than rumors as far as I know...

[CruisinCrow]

Just now, Indytraveler83 said:

Still wonder if there's anything more to the damage beyond the funnel.  I keep hearing rumors about engine damage and struggles to restart, but nothing more than rumors as far as I know...

 

Where are you hearing the rumors?  I haven't seen many updates on the ship or from the passengers.

[quattrohead]

10 minutes ago, Indytraveler83 said:

Still wonder if there's anything more to the damage beyond the funnel.  I keep hearing rumors about engine damage and struggles to restart, but nothing more than rumors as far as I know...

She was able to hustle to Freeport at 17 knots so I doubt there is any engine damage.

BTW, it is bookable for June 11th and later.....just sayin 🤔

[Indytraveler83]

11 minutes ago, CruisinCrow said:

 

Where are you hearing the rumors?  I haven't seen many updates on the ship or from the passengers.

 

On other social media.  But again, rumors.  Nothing substantiated or official.