Not that Royal Caribbean is perfect, but...

[fergusonvt]

NCL had a few ships with azipod problems back in 2010. As these ships age I'm sure we will see issues occasionally on all lines. While recent issues made me a little hesitant to book another CCL cruse for next year I'm sure I have another cruise on them somewhere in my future. Our Feb. Cruise on the Valor was actually very nice. I'm an equal opportunity cruiser and plan on sailing all the major lines at least once.

 

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[broberts]

With limited information I have on the core of these ships, the design flaw is that the systems intended to provide some redundancy are sensitive to catastrophic failure. It will be interesting to see the results of the Triumph investigation, but surely total electrical failure should have been a concern to investigate on all ships from a particular design after Splendor.

 

It's hard to imagine a situation like a fuel oil fed engine room fire not causing catastrophic failure on a ship of the Triumph's vintage.

[broberts]

The Carnival Dream and Legend has problems this week. I'm beginning to wonder myself if it is not something wrong with the design, operation, and/or maintenance of Carnival ships. There must be a reason these are happening to Carnival but not other lines (even the ones owned by Carnival). I agree with OP. We won't sail Carnival again. Many times there have been sewage odors on the ships. Our last one, the Conquest, had this in the hall by the restrooms just behind the casino, and the smell was always there throughout the cruise. I've only had this once on RCI -- on the Voyager after the last cruise passengers deliberately flushed washcloths down the toilets, causing the system to clog. It took 3 days to get it all cleaned out and working, including shutting off the toilets at night. But RCI did fix the problem. Carnival never did, at least not on our cruises.

 

Sewage smells have been common place on a number of ships I've sailed including several operated by Royal Caribbean. In fact I recall one voyage, Jewel if I recall correctly, after which a couple in my group - staunch Royal Caribbean loyalists - refused to sail with that line because of the incredible stench in their suite and the staff's apparent unwillingness/inability to do anything to make their voyage more tolerable.

 

I bring this up simply to point out that all cruise lines have difficulties in this area, no one more than another in my experience.

 

The perception that Carnival ships are the only ones suffering from issues relies upon clumping all their recent problems together as if they shared a root cause, and then ignoring several incidents on other lines.

[3dog]

It's hard to imagine a situation like a fuel oil fed engine room fire not causing catastrophic failure on a ship of the Triumph's vintage.

 

Splendor was not that surprising as the fire burned much longer than it should have, so it was conceivable that it caused a catastrophic electrical failure. On Triumph, however, the fire was extinguished quickly, such that the damage should be less (one report that I seem to remember, but don't have a link, indicates that there is no serious damage to the engine).

 

In both fires, the forward engine room was totally untouched and (supposedly) the generators in those rooms were functional. On Splendor, as the report stated (and, unfortunately, from memory) the fire was severe enough that it also took out wiring and controls that could have made the generators in the forward room usable.

 

I'm looking forward as to why the short-lived fire caused total electrical failure, and if there may well be a design flaw in the systems intended to provide redundancy.

[Clarea]

Splendor was not that surprising as the fire burned much longer than it should have, so it was conceivable that it caused a catastrophic electrical failure. On Triumph, however, the fire was extinguished quickly, such that the damage should be less (one report that I seem to remember, but don't have a link, indicates that there is no serious damage to the engine).

 

In both fires, the forward engine room was totally untouched and (supposedly) the generators in those rooms were functional. On Splendor, as the report stated (and, unfortunately, from memory) the fire was severe enough that it also took out wiring and controls that could have made the generators in the forward room usable.

 

I'm looking forward as to why the short-lived fire caused total electrical failure, and if there may well be a design flaw in the systems intended to provide redundancy.

I read somewhere that they exhausted the CO2 fire suppression system to put out the fire, and were able to restart the generators, but could not for legal reasons because there would have been no fire suppression.

[3dog]

I read somewhere that they exhausted the CO2 fire suppression system to put out the fire, and were able to restart the generators, but could not for legal reasons because there would have been no fire suppression.

 

Best I have seen, this is only reported CC'ers, one who even insists that it was Halon. Triumph had CO2 and fog (water mist suppression). The latter allows for fire suppression before the room is evacuated, and using water (which is fairly abundant on a cruise ship). The initial reports indicated that the mist was deployed, and the fire was extinguished. As far as I can tell, it was unclear if the CO2 was deployed at all.

 

But assuming it was, the fire was extinguished quickly with the fog/CO2. If this depleted all the CO2, then either the crew misused the CO2 suppression by letting it deplete all the way, or again, there is failure in the redundancy, as there was only enough to suppress a fire in one engine room.

 

Something else to point out, there is lots of CO2 on a cruise ship, as it is used to dispense soda's and beer. I'm sure pax would be OK to not drink carbonated beverages so that they would have working toilets.

 

Edit: Some may remember the fire on Allure last year. This was reported to be totally suppressed with the fog only.

[Clarea]

...Something else to point out, there is lots of CO2 on a cruise ship, as it is used to dispense soda's and beer. I'm sure pax would be OK to not drink carbonated beverages so that they would have working toilets...

True enough, but I can't help but thing about Apollo 13 when they had to fit the square canisters in the round holders.;)

[broberts]

Splendor was not that surprising as the fire burned much longer than it should have, so it was conceivable that it caused a catastrophic electrical failure. On Triumph, however, the fire was extinguished quickly, such that the damage should be less (one report that I seem to remember, but don't have a link, indicates that there is no serious damage to the engine).

 

In both fires, the forward engine room was totally untouched and (supposedly) the generators in those rooms were functional. On Splendor, as the report stated (and, unfortunately, from memory) the fire was severe enough that it also took out wiring and controls that could have made the generators in the forward room usable.

 

I'm looking forward as to why the short-lived fire caused total electrical failure, and if there may well be a design flaw in the systems intended to provide redundancy.

 

There is at least one picture of the fire damaged engine room on Triumph, taken by CG or NTSB. The fire was apparently fueled by a leak in a pressurized fuel oil return line. While of short duration it appears to have been very intense. Hopefully the BMA/NTSB report will provide the facts lacking at this time. I think everyone is wondering why there was such a long lasting power outage.

[onyourtoes]

Either they are a bunch of masochists, or the situation wasn't as bad as we originally believed...

 

My personal opinion --- any time you have to poop in a bag, it's not as bad as originally believed - it's worse.