Carib Princess ENGINE Update?

[seaventurer]

Any news regarding the engine repairs/problems status from pax (i) on board or (ii) ones who just returned???? Sailing next Saturday.

 

Thanks!

[tigers]

According the Princess website, she's at sea bound for Princess Cays. I would presume from that bit of info that they got everything squared away.

 

http://www.princess.com/bridgecams/caribbean_bridge_cam.html

[kroozking]

I hope it is fixed. We'll be on CP in a couple of weeks.

[Lillykat]

Any news regarding the engine repairs/problems status from pax (i) on board or (ii) ones who just returned???? Sailing next Saturday.

 

Thanks!

 

We hope it is fixed and won't affect our sailing either. We are are sailing with you - there are a lot of CC'ers on this cruise.

[noboat4u]

:confused: We just came off of that sailing, we could not make it Princess Cay. My DH was awake at 2-3 am, we were in a vista suite at the very back of the boat, he heard 2 loud bangs and he said it sounded like an engine siezed or the shaft of the engine. This was as we were going into St.Martin. When we returned from our excursion, there was no electricity and no elevators so we had to climb up to the 9th floor, ok for us, not ok for others. we were late leaving port, according to Princess they were doing routine testing of the turning equipment, turns out they needed to see if they could infact turn the boat around. We then were only running on 4 engines instead of 6 (my husband is an electrician and knows about this stuff). We also could see much less wake than before, dead give away if you were on the back of the boat. They waited a whole day to tell us what happened, and that we could only go a top speed of 14 knots instead of 25 (usually the top speed). They did give us a tiny credit of 100 per person, but this did stink. They also told everyone that there would be a full day of entertainment since we had another sea day (day 5 by now) and then they closed the best pool for maintenance ( the one with MUTS) this really ticked me off! oF ALL THINGS TO CLOSE WHY THIS POOL!!!! Then we got 3-4 different story's why the pool was closed. I think they are not allowed to tell the passengers the truth. we were one of the last groups off the ship, don't know if they fixed the problem, I know we had to be pulled into port by tugs, never saw that before. I do hope they fixed the problem, it was a big one. I was on Princesses site just now and they are suppossed to be in Princess Cay, but the web cam does not show it. Hope that helps a little with your question.:(

[crusdiva]

:confused: We just came off of that sailing, we could not make it Princess Cay. My DH was awake at 2-3 am, we were in a vista suite at the very back of the boat, he heard 2 loud bangs and he said it sounded like an engine siezed or the shaft of the engine. This was as we were going into St.Martin. When we returned from our excursion, there was no electricity and no elevators so we had to climb up to the 9th floor, ok for us, not ok for others. we were late leaving port, according to Princess they were doing routine testing of the turning equipment, turns out they needed to see if they could infact turn the boat around. We then were only running on 4 engines instead of 6 (my husband is an electrician and knows about this stuff). We also could see much less wake than before, dead give away if you were on the back of the boat. They waited a whole day to tell us what happened, and that we could only go a top speed of 14 knots instead of 25 (usually the top speed). They did give us a tiny credit of 100 per person, but this did stink. They also told everyone that there would be a full day of entertainment since we had another sea day (day 5 by now) and then they closed the best pool for maintenance ( the one with MUTS) this really ticked me off! oF ALL THINGS TO CLOSE WHY THIS POOL!!!! Then we got 3-4 different story's why the pool was closed. I think they are not allowed to tell the passengers the truth. we were one of the last groups off the ship, don't know if they fixed the problem, I know we had to be pulled into port by tugs, never saw that before. I do hope they fixed the problem, it was a big one. I was on Princesses site just now and they are suppossed to be in Princess Cay, but the web cam does not show it. Hope that helps a little with your question.:(

Sorry for the problems on your cruise, it looks like they are at Princess Cays today. It will say that I think this credit was VERY generous...and it sounds like Princess has been listening...DH and I missed 3 islands (Maui, Kauai and Christmas Island) on a 2001 Hawaii to Tahiti cruise and we got $150 pp towards a FUTURE cruise. And yes, we were disappointed but felt that Princess was doing it's best to keep us safe and happy. We also used our future credit to pre-book another cruise onboard.

[Captain Rhone]

noboat4u, the Caribbean Princess' top speed is only 23.3 knots or 26.8 mph.

[Pam in CA]

My guess is that they closed the pool because while power was off, the pools might have become contaminated. There are pumps that continuously clean and filter the water they'd have to close the pools until everything is clean. At my condo last summer, someone's kid left a little "package" behind and the pool had to be closed for a week while they decontaminated the pool.

 

Sorry you missed Princess Cays. $100/pp sounds like a very reasonable compensation for a sea day.

[carltonda]

Just back from yesterdays CB arrival in Port Everglades.

 

As we had Princess Air late PM departure from MIA, we did not leave the ship until late

 

From 11.00 for around 45 minutes she was on reduced power while tests were carried out. The elevators did not work, most of the lighting was off (except emergency lights) and the a/c in cabins and public rooms was aslo off.

 

Hopefully she's now working OK

 

Best wishes

[cruzbabe]

Well I hope that they get her all fixed up. She is such a pretty ship and my DS and I are sooooo lokoking forward to our cruise.

 

Last November, we missed Princess Cays due to hurricane damage and in March we missed Gand Cayman due to rought seas (couldn't tender). Except for Cozumel, the Western itenarary would be all brand-new for us.

[ho]

Any update fron anyone on the CB?

Please.

 

Thanks

[marlinmike]

I had my Garmin GPSMAP 76CS on most of the trip and I can tell you they didn't reduce speed until they made the announcement while we were dining on Thursday night. I assumed something was up when they did that 360 just outside of St Thomas right after dropping off the pilot, but they took it right up to full speed.

Most of the time we were cruising around 26 - 28 mph (I assumed the variance had to do with tidal flow, wind, etc). Once the announcement was made the speed was reduced to about 20 mph. Friday morning my GPS was calculating our ETA at about 8:00 am Saturday morning and I noticed we kicked it up to about 22 Friday evening.

I can assure you that even if we were traveling at full speed, which we were capable to doing because we did for quite awhile, if there was ANYTHING suspect about the propulsion system, this big boy would have a full tug escort into that tight harbor. I’ve seen tugs on the side of the ship on standby when using the side thrusters to make sure it doesn’t “over thrust” and end up in the living rooms on those multi-million dollar homes.

I think it was more a situation whereby they observed something wrong in the electrical system in or coming out of St. Thomas and decided tried to fix it while in route to and from St. Martin, then finally deciding to pay out the $100 per person fee, plus reimburse the Bahama port fee and reduce the speed to save on equipment. It probably took from St. Thomas (Tuesday) to Thursday night to get that decision cleared through California. It cost them a lot of money, the $100 fees, the excursions booked (cabanas, banana rides, etc), the souvenirs on the beach, etc.

 

Just for kicks, I’ll download my GPS tracking and double check my memory on this and if it differs, I’ll let you know.

Marlin

[ho]

Thanks Marlinmike,

 

It sounds like Princess was much more fair and honest then some other lines that have had problems. CELEBRITY!!

[SF]

I also agree that $100.00 compensation is fair. Last time we missed Princess Cays we received nothing. Hopefully someone on board now will post to let us know if the problem was fixed as we have family cruising in about two weeks.

[noboat4u]

I had my Garmin GPSMAP 76CS on most of the trip and I can tell you they didn't reduce speed until they made the announcement while we were dining on Thursday night. I assumed something was up when they did that 360 just outside of St Thomas right after dropping off the pilot, but they took it right up to full speed.

Most of the time we were cruising around 26 - 28 mph (I assumed the variance had to do with tidal flow, wind, etc). Once the announcement was made the speed was reduced to about 20 mph. Friday morning my GPS was calculating our ETA at about 8:00 am Saturday morning and I noticed we kicked it up to about 22 Friday evening.

I can assure you that even if we were traveling at full speed, which we were capable to doing because we did for quite awhile, if there was ANYTHING suspect about the propulsion system, this big boy would have a full tug escort into that tight harbor. I’ve seen tugs on the side of the ship on standby when using the side thrusters to make sure it doesn’t “over thrust” and end up in the living rooms on those multi-million dollar homes.

I think it was more a situation whereby they observed something wrong in the electrical system in or coming out of St. Thomas and decided tried to fix it while in route to and from St. Martin, then finally deciding to pay out the $100 per person fee, plus reimburse the Bahama port fee and reduce the speed to save on equipment. It probably took from St. Thomas (Tuesday) to Thursday night to get that decision cleared through California. It cost them a lot of money, the $100 fees, the excursions booked (cabanas, banana rides, etc), the souvenirs on the beach, etc.

 

Just for kicks, I’ll download my GPS tracking and double check my memory on this and if it differs, I’ll let you know.

Marlin

Hi Mike,

My DH is an elec. eng. so he knew right away and spoke to one of the officers who agreed with him on the QT. Like I said, he heard it happen before we got to St. Martin, and the tugs were pushing the back of the boat into Fort Lauderdale:) :) , so I do hope it is fixed and all is well, hope to see you again on a future sailing, take care.

[newfimom]

When we were in E730 two weeks ago, in the middle of the night we felt a large vibration. It actually woke us up. Also, the cabin became very warm, like someone cut the power back. I wonder if this was the start of the engine problem.

 

I am glad to hear that Princess took care of their guests. $100 is a very nice offering as well as reinbursing the port charges. That is a big loss for them.

 

I am also glad to hear that everyone enjoyed themselves.

 

Happy Cruising.

 

Fran

newfimom

[JimB58]

I talked with a member of the Engineering Crew on Friday night, he said that during an engine start up drill, a fairly new engineer did the wrong proceedure and blew one of the "Electrical Panels". Whiched forced some rerouting of electrical power to the public areas (A/C, elevators, pools, etc.) additionally because of the rerouting they could not start one of engines. This reduced the ships overall power ability, thus decisions at times had to made to reduce propulsion inlue of passenger comfort. Since it was raining all day at Princess Cays on Friday fortunatly for us the loss wasn't as great. Technicians we standing by in Ft. Laud. with a new panel ready to install as soon as we berthed on Saturday and all would be full power for the next cruise.

[SRQfireman]

I beleive Princess does payroll deductions on things like that :) I think that new employee will be light in the pocket book for sometime ...lol

$100 compensation is very good.... I mean VERY GOOD for missing Princess Cays!

[spongerob]

Thanks, Jim, for an informed and researched answer. It's nice to have something more than speculation (even well-intentioned speculation) to work with.

[noboat4u]

Thanks, Jim, for an informed and researched answer. It's nice to have something more than speculation (even well-intentioned speculation) to work with.

Well, as I said before My husband heard it happen and it happened on Wednesday morning, not friday, anyway I may not know the proper terms, but according to him it is the same thing, I guess it all depends on what you know and who you talk to, I am a nurse not an engineer like my DH. Take it for what it is worth, just trying to inform people and answer questions from someone who was there at the time.

[spongerob]

Sorry, I wasn't being critical. Problems such as a failed engine would be catastrophic and could not be fixed in a short time, and would be the cause for serious concern. A relatively minor issue with a panel is not in the same league. We rarely are privileged to get such good and detailed information, to put any further concerns about the condition of the ship to rest.

[ddsdoc]

I beleive Princess does payroll deductions on things like that :) I think that new employee will be light in the pocket book for sometime ...lol

$100 compensation is very good.... I mean VERY GOOD for missing Princess Cays![/quote so what does that come to??? $100 times say approx 3,000 people equals $300,000...I don't know the salary of these employees but i hope they let him take it out over many years:D :D :D of course, assuming he is still gainfully employed!!!!

[noboat4u]

I beleive Princess does payroll deductions on things like that :) I think that new employee will be light in the pocket book for sometime ...lol

$100 compensation is very good.... I mean VERY GOOD for missing Princess Cays![/quote so what does that come to??? $100 times say approx 3,000 people equals $300,000...I don't know the salary of these employees but i hope they let him take it out over many years:D :D :D of course, assuming he is still gainfully employed!!!!

The way the bars were filled that day I am sure they made that money back and I am sure that they are insured against things like that happening, I sure hope that they did not dock anyones pay.

[TorontoTL]

I believe that the $100 OBC is great for missing Princess Cays. In my Jan 05 cruise we missed Princess Cays because of rough seas and thus only had two stops on a seven day cruise. We were only refunded the port taxes and not offered anything else for the missed port. I'd be very happy with the $100 OBC.

[cruzbabe]

JimB58,

 

Thanks for the update. I feel better now.