Celebration and Hair Styling Tools

[Alleycatgirl]

Thankyou staceyglow - from what I am reading, it's just the Celebration class of ship that seems to be the issues.  Good to know though as going on the Horizon in 2026.

[Doctorsbaby]

Dyson AirWrap would *not* work on the Celebration in March. It would come on for a few seconds then turn off. 

[chengkp75]

19 hours ago, Alleycatgirl said:

Ok, new information - I spoke to a representative at Carnival Cruise.

I would take this with a few grains of salt, unless this person was in the technical marine department.

 

19 hours ago, Alleycatgirl said:

Apparently any device that has that ALCI plug (they refer to it as a surge protector) will not work on ships in the Celebration class

This statement is why I wouldn't take anything this person said as correct.  An ALCI plug is not a surge protector, nor is it anything remotely resembling a surge protector.  An ALCI does the same thing for your hair appliance as the GFCI outlet does in your bathroom and kitchen; prevent shocks.

 

19 hours ago, Alleycatgirl said:

will not work on ships in the Celebration class (he claims all ships but I know this to not be true as my hair dryer has this and it worked on the Magic).  Perhaps some of you will say you were able to use devices with this type of plug, however, the representative at Carnival read to me the specifications which claim it absolutely will not work.

Again, not quite correct.  There is no difference in the electrical system on the Celebration class ships than any other Carnival ship, or any cruise ship.  As I've stated many times in many threads on most of the forums here on CC, newer hair appliances will sometimes work, and sometimes not work, on the same ship on different days, or even at different times on the same day.  Without getting too technical, it all depends on whether the ship has a ground fault (failing insulation on a piece of electrical equipment anywhere on the ship) at the time you want to use your hair dryer, 

 

This kind of "sometimes" failure is due to ALCI plugs, digital motors (like the Dyson products), and ceramic heating elements in hair straighteners and the like.  The digital circuitry in these latter two instances don't recognize the shipboard wiring as being correct if there is a ground fault, and won't turn on.

[Alleycatgirl]

4 hours ago, chengkp75 said:

 

 

Again, not quite correct.  There is no difference in the electrical system on the Celebration class ships than any other Carnival ship, or any cruise ship.  As I've stated many times in many threads on most of the forums here on CC, newer hair appliances will sometimes work, and sometimes not work, on the same ship on different days, or even at different times on the same day.  Without getting too technical, it all depends on whether the ship has a ground fault (failing insulation on a piece of electrical equipment anywhere on the ship) at the time you want to use your hair dryer, 

 

This kind of "sometimes" failure is due to ALCI plugs, digital motors (like the Dyson products), and ceramic heating elements in hair straighteners and the like.  The digital circuitry in these latter two instances don't recognize the shipboard wiring as being correct if there is a ground fault, and won't turn on.

So, based on what you are saying, it really is just hit or miss on basically all new appliances.  I ordered this one from Amazon because it does not have the ALCI plug.  Was manufactured first in 2021 - but the description does include "ceramic" so - if that's the case, I assume this also may or may not work at various times.

 

So, based on your knowledge, would you say.....

1) Wattage is irrelevant

2) Dual voltage is irrelevant

3) Using a non-surge protector extension cord is irrelevant

 

In other words, it comes down to how the ships power is being distributed at a particular time and how the appliance interprets the reception of the power at that time.

 

So is there any foolproof method you can depend on....i.e. something with no ACLI plug and not a trace of ceramic?

 

Interesting note about it being "All Ships" as the Celebration is the first ship I encounted a problem - maybe I was just lucky in the past or the appliances were older.

 

[hapytobehr]

I have been on the Celebration 4x and this is the one I brought with me and had no problem with it:

 

Salon Flat Iron Hair Straightener, Negative Ion Flat Iron with Titanium Plates Get Frizz-Free Hair, Dual Voltage Flat Iron for Hair with Auto Shut-Off

 

Enjoy your cruise!

[chengkp75]

35 minutes ago, Alleycatgirl said:

1) Wattage is irrelevant

Correct, except that if two or three high wattage hair dryers are plugged into adjacent cabins, and used at the same time, the outlet breaker may trip.  Typically the outlet circuits for cabins supplies 2-3.

 

37 minutes ago, Alleycatgirl said:

2) Dual voltage is irrelevant

Except that you can plug the dual voltage unit into either the US or European outlet.

 

38 minutes ago, Alleycatgirl said:

3) Using a non-surge protector extension cord is irrelevant

Use of an extension cord is irrelevant, but no surge protector should ever be used on a ship.

 

39 minutes ago, Alleycatgirl said:

In other words, it comes down to how the ships power is being distributed at a particular time and how the appliance interprets the reception of the power at that time.

Yes.  A ground fault can be poor insulation in a motor, a bad connection to a piece of galley equipment, or an exterior light fixture that has filled with water from a storm.  Any of these things, completely outside your control, can cause unbalanced voltage and flow in the wires leading to your appliance, and cause problems with the ACLI feature or the solid state circuits in the digital motors and ceramic heaters.  Ground faults are important to the ship's engineers, and they will trace them down and rectify them as soon as possible, but they also happen at any time.

 

43 minutes ago, Alleycatgirl said:

So is there any foolproof method you can depend on....i.e. something with no ACLI plug and not a trace of ceramic?

Being a balding male, I don't have much use for hair appliances, but I would think that the cheapest hair dryer out there would be best.  No bells and whistles.  Yes, no ACLI plug and no ceramic heater will give you a better chance, but I can't say it would be foolproof.

[aborgman]

7 hours ago, chengkp75 said:

I would take this with a few grains of salt, unless this person was in the technical marine department.

 

This statement is why I wouldn't take anything this person said as correct.  An ALCI plug is not a surge protector, nor is it anything remotely resembling a surge protector.  An ALCI does the same thing for your hair appliance as the GFCI outlet does in your bathroom and kitchen; prevent shocks.

 

Again, not quite correct.  There is no difference in the electrical system on the Celebration class ships than any other Carnival ship, or any cruise ship.  As I've stated many times in many threads on most of the forums here on CC, newer hair appliances will sometimes work, and sometimes not work, on the same ship on different days, or even at different times on the same day.  Without getting too technical, it all depends on whether the ship has a ground fault (failing insulation on a piece of electrical equipment anywhere on the ship) at the time you want to use your hair dryer, 

 

This kind of "sometimes" failure is due to ALCI plugs, digital motors (like the Dyson products), and ceramic heating elements in hair straighteners and the like.  The digital circuitry in these latter two instances don't recognize the shipboard wiring as being correct if there is a ground fault, and won't turn on.

 

The digital circuitry in these latter two instances don't recognize the shipboard wiring as being correct if there is a ground fault - because if there is a ground fault it ISN'T correct by definition.

 

There is no such thing as a "digital motor" - it's just a bogus name Dyson made up for their brushless motors. Certain motor controllers likely have issues with the 120VAC delta systems (two hots at 60VAC, no neutral, floating ground).

 

Ceramic heating elements have nothing do with the issue - they are just resistive heaters that don't respond to electricity any differently than any other resistive heating elements. It is almost certainly the temperature controller that has an issue.

 

...and most hair care ALCI plugs can't detect a ground fault - because they don't even attach to ground. They are polarized, two prong units that are detecting current imbalance between hot/neutral (or in the case of a ship, hot/hot).

 

Or tripping because of detecting RFI in the air. Or tripping because of line transients in dirty power systems. Etc.

 

GFCI/ALCI are very prone to tripping from "noise" - old Nextel "Push to Talk" phones would trip one from about 4 feet when transmitting/receiving. I've seen GFCI that would trip due to line transients every time a refrigerator compressor kicked in.

 

 

[aborgman]

3 hours ago, Alleycatgirl said:

So, based on what you are saying, it really is just hit or miss on basically all new appliances.  I ordered this one from Amazon because it does not have the ALCI plug.  Was manufactured first in 2021 - but the description does include "ceramic" so - if that's the case, I assume this also may or may not work at various times.

 

So, based on your knowledge, would you say.....

1) Wattage is irrelevant

2) Dual voltage is irrelevant

3) Using a non-surge protector extension cord is irrelevant

 

In other words, it comes down to how the ships power is being distributed at a particular time and how the appliance interprets the reception of the power at that time.

 

So is there any foolproof method you can depend on....i.e. something with no ACLI plug and not a trace of ceramic?

 

Interesting note about it being "All Ships" as the Celebration is the first ship I encounted a problem - maybe I was just lucky in the past or the appliances were older.

 

 

The lower "tech" it is - the more likely it will work.

 

If it uses digital circuitry to control motor speeds and heating element temperatures - it may or may not work.

 

If it uses old school passives like resistors/switches/etc. for controlling motor speeds and heating element temperatures - it will work fine.

[Alleycatgirl]

Well I very much appreciate all of the information provided by you all - unfortunately product descriptions do not really tell us if things are old school or digital so I guess it will be trial and error and taking a few options to be covered but sticking to older products if possible.