Would future CB cruises be canceled because of engine problems

[crazycruiselady]

My husband and I are booked on the CB for a Thanksgiving cruise. With all the engine and propulsion problems they're having, I'm starting to get worried that the ship won't be sea worthy. What happens if Princess decides to cancel the cruise? Has this happened in the past? We booked through Princess (air too) but stupidly did not get insurance. Do they refund your money, give you credit for a future cruise or what?

Hopefully I'm worrying about nothing.

I'm really looking forward to the cruise!:cool:

[chrysalis]

I don't think you should worry, but then again, my predictions of future events has been a bit rusty as of late.

 

Rest assured, Princess will not put you or any other passengers at risk.

[BruceMuzz]

ANY cruise ship sailing from a US Port must be certified as safe and seaworthy by the US Coast Guard.

Anytime a ship has a technical problem, the Coast Guard conducts an inspection and investigation to determine if the problem compromises the safety of the ship.

If the Coast Guard believes there is a safety issue,they will not allow passengers to embark.

[pungo3]

Cruiselines 'rarely' cancel a cruise. If they do, all of your money will be credited to a future cruise or refunded. Do not worry about that. I don't think you have anything to worry about at all. The ship will be seaworthy or it will not sail. Not sailing means losing lots of money so I'm sure Princess will find a way to keep it going. I hope you have a fabulous cruise.

[Toto2Kansas]

My husband and I are booked on the CB for a Thanksgiving cruise. With all the engine and propulsion problems they're having, I'm starting to get worried that the ship won't be sea worthy. What happens if Princess decides to cancel the cruise? Has this happened in the past? We booked through Princess (air too) but stupidly did not get insurance. Do they refund your money, give you credit for a future cruise or what?

Hopefully I'm worrying about nothing.

I'm really looking forward to the cruise!:cool:

 

I agree with the other posters here, but there is still time for you to buy insurance to cover other things that might arise. In these times, anyone who can not afford to loose all of what they paid for a vacation without hardship is just asking for problems not buying insurance. ;)

[dmackay46]

My husband and I are booked on the CB for a Thanksgiving cruise. With all the engine and propulsion problems they're having, I'm starting to get worried that the ship won't be sea worthy. What happens if Princess decides to cancel the cruise? Has this happened in the past? We booked through Princess (air too) but stupidly did not get insurance. Do they refund your money, give you credit for a future cruise or what?

Hopefully I'm worrying about nothing.

I'm really looking forward to the cruise!:cool:

 

Sorry...what is the CB?

[chrysalis]

Sorry...what is the CB?

 

Caribbean Princess

[Colo Cruiser]

Sorry...what is the CB?

 

 

These are 2 letter designations for each ship.

 

If it does not match the ship then the combo is already being used for another. :)

[paul929207]

If the engine problems are severe enough, Princess could be forced to cancel one or more cruises. However, they will do everyting possible to avoid this loss of revenue.

[dmackay46]

Caribbean Princess

 

 

Doh!, of course it is. Sorry!

[NeurosurgeryNP]

From Philip - another CCer on another thread about the recent issue:

 

 

It's amazing how naive the cruising public can be.

 

These power outages happen very frequently on ships. My ship is one of the newest in the world. We have brief blackouts about twice a month. They usually involve an overloaded power grid that "blows a fuse". Except on ships, they blow more than one fuse. Hundreds of breaker switches are tripped, the computers controlling the engines go down, and the engines stop. Then the engineers must go through a long process of resetting those hundreds of breakers, re-starting the computers, and re-starting the engines.

 

Most of the time, the passengers never even know it happened. Quite often it is in the middle of the night and everyone sleeps through it. Usually the emergency generators kick in immediately and no one notices any changes - even if it happens in the middle of the day. We rarely bother to tell passengers that anything has happened.

 

The airlines do the same thing. It is rare but not unheard of for a pilot to shut down an engine in flight for any number of reasons. But he would never announce it to the passengers.

 

Someone pointed out that they were lucky that the CB's blackout was in New York Harbor. WRONG. That's the worst place for it to happen. With so much ship traffic there, a ship without power cannot navigate and could possibly hit something.

 

The best place for this to happen - and the place where it happens most often - is out at sea. There are no navigation problems, the emergency generators keep everything operating nicely, and the engineers have plenty of time to reset all the breakers and re-start the engines.

 

It appears that many passengers missed their early flights that morning. But every time this happens on my ship, the loudest complainers are those who purchased early morning flights. When I point out that ALL the cruise lines warn passengers NOT to purchase early flights on debark day, the answer is always the same: "But I saved a lot of money on the earlier flight".

 

If somebody wants to gamble the cost of a flight to save a buck ,then go ahead. But if you are delayed and lose your money, you can't go back to cruise line and expect them to cover your losses.

 

 

 

Hopefully this will ease your mind? We are sailing on her in under three weeks and this definitely eased ours.

[Scooter-n-GB]

Once again, Philip is the educated voice of reason. Arguably the most knowledgeable, with regard to ship operations, on the entire board.

 

:)

[Sandytoes]

Don't worry Princess will not cancel your cruise because of the mechanical problems.

If that was the case, they would have canceled a long time ago. :rolleyes:

 

Princess is pushing the CB to the limit.

Up until the dry-dock date.

 

Enjoy your cruise.

 

My husband and I are booked on the CB for a Thanksgiving cruise. With all the engine and propulsion problems they're having, I'm starting to get worried that the ship won't be sea worthy. What happens if Princess decides to cancel the cruise? Has this happened in the past? We booked through Princess (air too) but stupidly did not get insurance. Do they refund your money, give you credit for a future cruise or what?

Hopefully I'm worrying about nothing.

I'm really looking forward to the cruise!:cool:

[Getts]

When is drydock? Wanted to book for January but it's unavailable for 2 weeks.

[spongerob]

It's scheduled for 2 weeks in January.

[jhannah]

I agree that cruises are rarely cancelled. If there's an engine problem, the ship will just slow down. On another line last year, a ship continued sailing with one azipod operating at fractional power. Sometimes this meant that a port had to be cancelled for the ship to get back to its embarkation city on time. Sometimes it means cutting port visits short to allow sufficient time to get to the next one.

[willysgrandma]

When is drydock? Wanted to book for January but it's unavailable for 2 weeks.

 

The ship is going into drydock for three weeks in January, which is why it is showing as unavailable.

 

The ship is sea worthy. I was on the Oct. 28 cruise in which they lost propulsion coming back into NY Harbor. While ended up arriving in port and getting off the ship very late, the ship was fixed and went back out the same day. If it were unsafe, the Captain would never have taken a chance and gone out again. Apparently the fix could not have been that serious if they were able to turn around and go out the same day.

 

Don't worry, I'm sure she will be sailing just fine. But this is a perfect example why travel insurance is important. Many people missed their flights when we were late in arriving and if they bought their own air, they were on their own. I can't tell you how many passengers I heard complaining because their airline charged them $100 per ticket change fees to schedule a later flight and Princess wasn't helping them out. Insurance may have helped them recover those charges. Many people think travel insurance is only if you are old or have health problems. It helps out in situations like this.

[drakes2]

Drydock for the CB is the first 3 weeks in January. We're on the sailing immediately after (Jan 25th). Hopefully, everything will be on schedule for this sailing, otherwise I'll be scrambling to look for another cruise. We were booked on the Star when it caught fire and literally had one week to book another cruise. My TA actually put one on hold for me until we got the go ahead from Princess. The Star was out of commission for several months.

When is drydock? Wanted to book for January but it's unavailable for 2 weeks.

[CruisinManiac]

Just researching this ship for a February cruise. What happened to the CB?

 

Also, what will be done in dry dock?

[NeurosurgeryNP]

Just researching this ship for a February cruise. What happened to the CB?

 

Also, what will be done in dry dock?

She has a generator down that can only be replaced during drydock. They have to cut a hole the size of a school bus in the hull to revove other engine/generator in the way and to remove and replace the defective one. So her max cruising speed is reduced to somewhere around 20 knots instead of 22 (which ships rarely go at their max speed anyway). Sunday, apparently, there was a fuse/electrical outage which was fixed and she sailed again that evening.

 

As for the drydock - they will replace the generator that is down. They are going to retrofit the ship with things the other grand class ships have - the Sanctuary adult only relaxation area, Vines, Crown Grill in palce of Sterlings steak house, and moving the casino and making more windowless suites where the casino is now. There may be more changes, but that is what I can recall for now.

[the_dylaness]

I don't think you should worry, but then again, my predictions of future events has been a bit rusty as of late.

 

Rest assured, Princess will not put you or any other passengers at risk.

 

Now that I'm 15 days from sailing on CB (on a cruise I booked nearly 500 days out!) I think the worst thing Princess could do to put me at risk is cancel it--- consider my mental health here, folks! ;)

[NeurosurgeryNP]

Now that I'm 15 days from sailing on CB (on a cruise I booked nearly 500 days out!) I think the worst thing Princess could do to put me at risk is cancel it--- consider my mental health here, folks! ;)

I am with you here!

[willysgrandma]

She has a generator down that can only be replaced during drydock. They have to cut a hole the size of a school bus in the hull to revove other engine/generator in the way and to remove and replace the defective one. So her max cruising speed is reduced to somewhere around 20 knots instead of 22 (which ships rarely go at their max speed anyway). Sunday, apparently, there was a fuse/electrical outage which was fixed and she sailed again that evening.

 

As for the drydock - they will replace the generator that is down. They are going to retrofit the ship with things the other grand class ships have - the Sanctuary adult only relaxation area, Vines, Crown Grill in palce of Sterlings steak house, and moving the casino and making more windowless suites where the casino is now. There may be more changes, but that is what I can recall for now.

 

 

They are also adding a International Cafe. I sure missed that on this ship!