Power Failure

[tgptmp]

Our power went out--due to a snowstorm yesterday. It got me thinking--has anyone ever been on a cruise ship that experienced a power failure?

 

What happened?

How long were you without power?

Did anyone panic?

How did the cruise line handle it?

[Alliezona09]

I was on the Carnival Conquest in Oct 2009 and the power went out for about 30 seconds~ have no idea why, of course they aren't going to tell you either~ but ALL power was out~even engines shut down~ we happened to be in our cabin at the time and opened the door for light as the hallway has emergency lights and everyone was just standing around with confused looks on their faces~ came back on and stayed on for the rest of the cruise~ I heard of no one freaking out and the cruise line did come on the intercom and let us know that "they were working on it...etc etc.."

[kasijab]

Our power went out--due to a snowstorm yesterday. It got me thinking--has anyone ever been on a cruise ship that experienced a power failure?

 

What happened?

How long were you without power?

Did anyone panic?

How did the cruise line handle it?

We were on Costa in March 2009 and just leaving port when the ship lost ALL power ...it took them about 4-5 hours for the tugs to push us back into port (Dom Rep) ....all lifts were out, no food able to be cooked etc for the full day. They did eventually put on free transfer to a beach with a bbq for those who wanted to go ... but they didn't even offer free bottles of water...you still had to pay for them if you wanted a drink!! There was virtually no information from the bridge ...and what there was told us nothing...all reps disappeared ...They did eventually get us back under way about 12 hours later, with a very limited restaurant menu that evening! It sort of spoiled the holiday for a couple of days waiting for it to happen again !! No apology from Costa though ...they didn't even respond to a letter of complaint ..though I suppose they got loads of them :)

[soozles]

I was on the Carnival Liberty this past December, it was around midnight, and I was walking past the casino when the lights go out, the slots turn off, etc. but only in that portion of the ship. Just ahead was the area with the shops that looks down onto the atrium, and the lights were on in that section. The funny thing was that there was a jazz band playing at that time right by the bar in the casino area, and even when the lights went out, they just kept playing. All I could think of was "Titanic" and the band still playing as the ship was sinking.

 

The lights came back on, and there was some confusion in the casino, since a bunch of people probably lost any money they had won in the slot machines, and all that kind of stuff. It didn't last very long, maybe about 30 seconds, and there was no mention of it by anyone on the ship. My sister was in the cabin and didn't even know anything had happened.

[mbh02]

My DH and I were on a fairly new Norweign Cruise ship years ago when we lost all power to the ship minutes before leaving the pier in Miami. The emergency lights did not come on, and there wasn't any air flowing in the rooms or hallways. It was dead silent. I was in my room at the time and had plenty of light coming in through my balcony doors so I continued to unpack and settle in. The power came back on about 30 minutes later. There were only two bad things as a result of this power failure....1) a ship can get uncomfortably warm in 30 minutes without ventilation...2) because we lost power during our timeslot to leave the harbor, we were moved to the end of the line for cruise ships leaving the pier. Must of had a new man down in the engine rooms that day? Ha-ha. Despite our delayed departure from Maimi we had no further power problems and had a wonderful vacation.

[Pennyscandy]

Our first cruise in 1978 to Bermuda. I was in the cabin reading, DH making a donation in the casino when the power went out. And the engines cut off. I got dressed in my best pants suit since I was sure we were going to abandon ship. DH made it down to our cabin in a hurry, he knew I would be scared. It was out for about 10-15 minutes. DH had to find his way to the stairs and we were near the bottom of the ship with only a port hole. The emergency lights in the hall were the only things on. The lights came back on just after DH got to our cabin and they restarted the engines shortly after that. DH was an engineer and tried to explain how something like that could happen, but I was sure it had something to do with the Bermuda Triangle.

[jcraig10]

We were on the Princess (I forget which ship now) in March 2003 and the power went out while we were between Costa Rica & Panama. It was out for about 2 hours. The people I was with kept joking that it was the pirates! lol.

[Cruisebehindthescenes]

I am a former crew member and I was working on the NCL Dawn in 2009 when it lost all power the morning after leaving St. Kitts with 2 sea days before arriving in Miami. Oddly enough, it happened on Black Friday during our Thanksgiving Cruise. We called it the "Break of Dawn." If you are not familiar with the story - http://www.wsvn.com/news/articles/local/MI137605/

 

The whole experience was something else and I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemies.. lets just say that a cruise ship in the Caribbean without air conditioning is not very pleasant.

 

I have a blog where I write articles about what goes on behind the scenes, and the Break of Dawn is definitely on my list to write about, the link is below in my signature.. check it out if you like!

 

I will definitely post the link when I write that blog entry!

[MrsNancyG]

LOL No, not on the cruise, but I've got suuuuch a story to tell you! Get a drink, I'll wait...

 

OK, so the family and I took a 15 day cruise over the Christmas/New Year holiday some years back. It was awesome and we had a great time. Debarkation day comes, now things start to go really wrong. A little backstory: since it was the holidays and everyone on our street decorates their homes with lights, we did so also and we put them on a timer out in the garage of the house. We also had our housekeeper come in before we came home to get the house fresh and ready for our return as well as pick up perishables to save us that stop enroute home. However, since she is a bit flighty, we gave our neighbors the housekey and told her to pick it up from them when she came.

 

First, hubby left us on the sidewalk and went to bring the car around to pick us up and collect the luggage. The port was packed as I'm sure you can imagine and the traffic in front of the sidewalk was NUTS. Anyway, finally see hubby in our car and he pulls up to the curb and opens the door and WHAM, a taxi crushes the open door. We're now thinking that the gods are telling us to get back on that ship but quick. But since we didn't have tickets, well, no choice but to deal.

 

We get that dealt with and manage to close the drivers side door securely enough for freeway travel and begin coming home. After an hour and a half drive we get home and push the garage door opener and up comes the door. But something is weird, there is dark fluid making its way down the gentle slope of the garage. We pull in partway and get out of the car and are hit with a horrific stench...rotten meat. What the....?! And its the fluid that has that stench. We look at eachother and look at our freezer and just know this is NOT going to be good. Hubby gathers his courage and opens the freezer door and yep, you got it, the dang thing was off and everything in there was rotting away.

 

OK, so now we have a crushed car door and a garage freezer filled with rotting meats, sauces and soups. We get our luggage in the house and hubby and kids deal with the mess outside as I try start to pull something together for dinner. But there's something not right in the kitchen too! There are several funny looking white crawly things squirming their way around the kitchen floor. There is also a note from the housekeeper for me to call her no matter what time we get in.

 

I kill the things I see on the floor as I call her. Sure nuff she tells me she came in the week after we left for the major cleaning and found that some lights in the house weren't working properly so she told the neighbor who checks and finds that the automatic lights for the house shorted out a circuit and the reset button needed to be pushed, which he did. (However, we later found out he only pushed ONE of the buttons, so hence the garage freezer never got re-turned-on.) Also she tells me she thinks something died under the stove...yep...you got it...TRIPLE PLAY all we need now is famine and we're well on the way to the four horsemen!

 

Needless to say, we then, more than ever, wished we'd never gotten off of that ship!

[Cruisebehindthescenes]

Check out my blog for my the first post in a series about when the Norwegian Dawn lost power at sea in 2009, I was a crew member on the ship at the time.

 

http://cruisebehindthescenes.com/?p=291

[tomko2]

LOL No, not on the cruise, but I've got suuuuch a story to tell you! Get a drink, I'll wait...

 

OK, so the family and I took a 15 day cruise over the Christmas/New Year holiday some years back. It was awesome and we had a great time. Debarkation day comes, now things start to go really wrong. A little backstory: since it was the holidays and everyone on our street decorates their homes with lights, we did so also and we put them on a timer out in the garage of the house. We also had our housekeeper come in before we came home to get the house fresh and ready for our return as well as pick up perishables to save us that stop enroute home. However, since she is a bit flighty, we gave our neighbors the housekey and told her to pick it up from them when she came.

 

First, hubby left us on the sidewalk and went to bring the car around to pick us up and collect the luggage. The port was packed as I'm sure you can imagine and the traffic in front of the sidewalk was NUTS. Anyway, finally see hubby in our car and he pulls up to the curb and opens the door and WHAM, a taxi crushes the open door. We're now thinking that the gods are telling us to get back on that ship but quick. But since we didn't have tickets, well, no choice but to deal.

 

We get that dealt with and manage to close the drivers side door securely enough for freeway travel and begin coming home. After an hour and a half drive we get home and push the garage door opener and up comes the door. But something is weird, there is dark fluid making its way down the gentle slope of the garage. We pull in partway and get out of the car and are hit with a horrific stench...rotten meat. What the....?! And its the fluid that has that stench. We look at eachother and look at our freezer and just know this is NOT going to be good. Hubby gathers his courage and opens the freezer door and yep, you got it, the dang thing was off and everything in there was rotting away.

 

OK, so now we have a crushed car door and a garage freezer filled with rotting meats, sauces and soups. We get our luggage in the house and hubby and kids deal with the mess outside as I try start to pull something together for dinner. But there's something not right in the kitchen too! There are several funny looking white crawly things squirming their way around the kitchen floor. There is also a note from the housekeeper for me to call her no matter what time we get in.

 

I kill the things I see on the floor as I call her. Sure nuff she tells me she came in the week after we left for the major cleaning and found that some lights in the house weren't working properly so she told the neighbor who checks and finds that the automatic lights for the house shorted out a circuit and the reset button needed to be pushed, which he did. (However, we later found out he only pushed ONE of the buttons, so hence the garage freezer never got re-turned-on.) Also she tells me she thinks something died under the stove...yep...you got it...TRIPLE PLAY all we need now is famine and we're well on the way to the four horsemen!

 

Needless to say, we then, more than ever, wished we'd never gotten off of that ship!

 

:eek:After looking around I would have gone to the phone booked a room at a lovely hotel nearby, called a cleaning company to come in and sterilize everything, left the keys under the mat for them and headed to the hotel with the family.

 

Loved your story.

Kathy:)