Infinity loss of power

[cruisestitch]

Complete loss of electrical power is also something that they have a safety drill for. I have been on board during a couple of these drills. All the lights go off, all the elevators stop, etc. etc. They walk around to make sure that all the emergency path lighting systems work, as well as checking other back up systems.

 

It would be interesting to know more details about this electrical problem. Did the emergency path lighting systems come on, were they still able to make announcements (they should have been able to). And so forth.

[Guernseycruiser]

I'm not sure if this has already been posted so ignore if it has. We are on Infinity and we lost all power leaving Le Havre two nights ago. We left port at 9pm and didn't make it through the heads before all the power went out and we were dead in the water.

 

We had a tug on each side keeping us from drifting into the shipping lane. The ships officers handled it well and power started being restored after about 20 minutes and it took about 90 minutes for everything to be up and running and the ship moving under its own power.

 

A little excitement and I'm just pleased it happened when we were still close and not in the middle of the ocean somewhere.

I presume this is why the Infinity did not arrive in Guernsey yesterday. Such a shane, we were looking forward to seeing her. It was a nice sunny day, with calm waters, perfect for tendering. Looking forward to seeing her a few times over the next few months, all being well.

[Celebrity Cruises]

Hi all,

 

There was a brief power outage during the evening. Announcements were made and power was quickly restored for hotel services followed by propulsion power a few minutes later. The emergency generator was used temporarily until power was fully restored on the ship.

 

Hope this helps!

[Christine Frances]

Thank you Celebrity!

[boogs]

I remember a Celebrity ship a few years ago losing all power and drifting onto the rocks in, I think it was, Santorini! Have a feeling it was the Millennium. I know someone who was on the bridge at the time and since he is still with the Company, it had to be a technical error and not human. It was glossed-over as are all these things. Ships cannot go dead in the water we are told........really?:D:D Just adds to the excitement of cruising I suppose.

 

Really? Imagine that! A Celebrity ship loses power and drifts onto rocks and no one has ever heard of this event. Not one of the 2,000 passengers on board has ever spoken of it. No word about the ship hitting the rocks, no word on the damage, no word on the repairs, no word on anything. That is quite an accomplishment, keeping that huge secret with all those scared, unhappy passengers who had their cruise ruined eager to complain here on Cruise Critic.

 

Not one word from anyone. Absolutely amazing! :rolleyes:

Edited May 15, 2014 by boogs

[Christine Frances]

Really? Imagine that! A Celebrity ship loses power and drifts onto rocks and no one has ever heard of this event. Not one of the 2,000 passengers on board has ever spoken of it. No word about the ship hitting the rocks, no word on the damage, no word on the repairs, no word on anything. That is quite an accomplishment, keeping that huge secret with all those scared, unhappy passengers who had their cruise ruined eager to complain here on Cruise Critic.

 

Not one word from anyone. Absolutely amazing! :rolleyes:

 

Maybe this one! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS_Sea_Diamond

[fortinweb]

Maybe this one! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS_Sea_Diamond

 

I was thinking about that same incident. This one matches best what he claims to remember. Too bad the poster took it upon himself to fabricate critical aspects of the story to try to make a point of the big, bad Celebrity has been "glossing" things over. This incident was very well publicized at the time and NOT glossed over. Unfortunately, two people died when that ship sank. Contrary to the poster's claims, no Celebrity ship has ever sunk, so he is just posting incorrect and irresponsible information.

 

If you don't know what the heck you are talking about, don't make stuff up! :mad:

Edited May 15, 2014 by fortinweb

[Hapytocruise]

Good to know. Next cruise I will pack a flashlight.

[Kathie13]

Good to know. Next cruise I will pack a flashlight.

 

 

A flashlight, a Swiss Army knife & a roll of duct tape. Never leave home without them!!

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

[Lsimon]

If it lost ALL power, that's something new...akin to the carnival problem with a single point of failure. If a pod (or pods) stopped, then it's limited to the main engines...still a problem but a different problem. Hopefully the ship's electric power which comes from a separate engine did not fail as well....that would be very troublesome......

 

Please post details if you find out what happened.

 

From what I've learned on the ships my understanding is that:

 

Everything on the ship runs on electricity. There are different types of generator engines (at least two) that run the turbines to generate electricity on M class ships - the original gas turbines and diesel generators installed a couple years back. The electricity generated by these is used both for running the propulsion electric engines in the pods and also for powering the ship's other systems down to the light in your cabin's bathroom. So there isn't really a "main engine" nor a separate engines for propulsion vs. other electrical uses. I think the number of engines, and which ones they run, vary depending on the propulsion needs of the ship. For example they might just run the diesel engine when docked at port but might run both turbines and turn the diesel off when traveling at full speed.

 

Now this is just raw speculation on my part but the incident could have been at a time the ship was running on one of the engines when that engine malfunctioned and stopped and it took a short amount of time to start one of the other engines and resume operations.

Edited May 15, 2014 by Lsimon

[Big_G]

Of what I understand, Carnival change the power systems so that one power system at failure doesn't take out the other power system. The back up system IS the other system, not an additional system.

 

Burt

 

I don't believe Carnival has completed that project. They're still sailing with portable feel good generators strapped behind their fantails.

[sergeant655]

Didnt Infinity suffer A brief power outage back in January Or February. She deserves a trouble free cruise. Liftboat davit getting hit and the dreaded noro made life on Infinity hard for all over the last few months

[c-legs]

Really? Imagine that! A Celebrity ship loses power and drifts onto rocks and no one has ever heard of this event. Not one of the 2,000 passengers on board has ever spoken of it. No word about the ship hitting the rocks, no word on the damage, no word on the repairs, no word on anything. That is quite an accomplishment, keeping that huge secret with all those scared, unhappy passengers who had their cruise ruined eager to complain here on Cruise Critic.

 

Not one word from anyone. Absolutely amazing! :rolleyes:

Taking all the dramatics out of it....Millie, while anchored in Villefranche, drifted a weebit too close to some rocks closer to the surface than ''charted''. One of the pods got two blades badly knocked out of alignment, and bent .

She ultimately slowly made her way to Civitatecchia ( on bow thrusters and one azipod ) with guests on board , where she stayed for 3 days before balance of cruise was cancelled. Went to drydock. Got fixed.

Loss of enjoyment for the guests, loss of $$$$ for Celebrity, NO loss of life.NO loss of power. NO known loss of hotel power or services.

IIRC, this happenned summer '08 . And, yes, there was more than one thread over here about this issue.

 

Cheers

[boogs]

Taking all the dramatics out of it....Millie, while anchored in Villefranche, drifted a weebit too close to some rocks closer to the surface than ''charted''. One of the pods got two blades badly knocked out of alignment, and bent .

She ultimately slowly made her way to Civitatecchia ( on bow thrusters and one azipod ) with guests on board , where she stayed for 3 days before balance of cruise was cancelled. Went to drydock. Got fixed.

Loss of enjoyment for the guests, loss of $$$$ for Celebrity, NO loss of life.NO loss of power. NO known loss of hotel power or services.

IIRC, this happenned summer '08 . And, yes, there was more than one thread over here about this issue.

 

Cheers

 

Thanks for the reminder.

 

The incident you are referring to happened on July 2nd, 2007, not 2008. Three of the blades on the starboard azipod's propeller and one on the port azipod were damaged. The remainder of that cruise, which began in Barcelona on June 30, was officially cancelled on July 9th after divers determined it could not be repaired without dry docking. The next cruise was also cancelled. Both were 12 night cruises.

 

A totally different incident than the one claimed by the author of post #21. He claimed that the ship was near Santorini, not at Villefranche; that it lost all power and hit the rocks, not that it drifted onto unchartered rocks while at anchor; that it had to be a technical error and not human (it was due to human error by either the misreading of the charts, or someone's failure to include the rocks on the charts); that it was "glossed over as all these things are", not that it was reported in press releases and on several threads.

 

Clearly a case of posting false information for the sake of disparaging Celebrity.

Edited May 16, 2014 by boogs

[joandian]

I presume this is why the Infinity did not arrive in Guernsey yesterday. Such a shane, we were looking forward to seeing her. It was a nice sunny day, with calm waters, perfect for tendering. Looking forward to seeing her a few times over the next few months, all being well.

 

Guernsey wasn't on the Itinerary. We were in Cork yesterday.

 

I'm pleased someone from Celebrity posted but our cabin was directly up from where the tug was and I know that it took way more than a few minutes for the propulsion to come back online. I have video of that tug pushing us at least an hour after we lost power. Now of course there may be a delay in something happening after it's up? To answer a question, there was emergency lighting in the halls and the speakers were working.

[Beachdude]

I don't believe Carnival has completed that project. They're still sailing with portable feel good generators strapped behind their fantails.

 

Thank you

 

Burt

[DebbieMacG]

Guernsey wasn't on the Itinerary. We were in Cork yesterday.

 

I'm pleased someone from Celebrity posted but our cabin was directly up from where the tug was and I know that it took way more than a few minutes for the propulsion to come back online. I have video of that tug pushing us at least an hour after we lost power. Now of course there may be a delay in something happening after it's up? To answer a question, there was emergency lighting in the halls and the speakers were working.

 

I read it as propulsion came back a few minutes after hotel services, not that it came back immediately :)

 

Is the ship noro free now? We board in two weeks :)

[Biker19]

 

Now this is just raw speculation on my part but the incident could have been at a time the ship was running on one of the engines when that engine malfunctioned and stopped and it took a short amount of time to start one of the other engines and resume operations.

 

Without more facts this is probably the best explanation.

 

If anyone gets to level 1 on the ship, you'll see an entire spare engine (same as the one used on the Boeing 747). So even if everything went out, they can replace the entire engine (about 1/2 day).

 

Don't bother asking the staff onboard for facts. When I did (was on the TA that just ended on 5/12) about the 5 hr delay leaving Miami, I was given a totaly BS answer - in front of everyone in the theater (during a talk about the ship).

 

Code red ended in phases, but was fully lifted (crew allowed to mingle with guests) once we left Halifax - 5 days into the cruise.

Edited May 16, 2014 by kemenyg

[fortinweb]

If anyone gets to level 1 on the ship, you'll see an entire spare engine (same as the one used on the Boeing 747). So even if everything went out, they can replace the entire engine (about 1/2 day).

 

I know quite a bit about how these ships are built. Even have Celebrity's DVD on the Reflection's construction, which is quite fascinating.

 

They DO NOT have a spare engine to be used as a replacement. A cruise ship typically has two or more diesel engines, each driving a generator to supply electrical power to the ship. Even the azipods are electric motors, and not driven directly from the engines. They start up more of the engines as the demand increases.

 

Some, but not all cruise ships, also have a gas turbine, similar to those used on helicopters and propeller driven passenger planes (not like on the 747!). These provide mainly electrical power for lighting, pumps, etc. They are often used while in port due to lower emissions being generated. They are not as efficient under the heavy load required for propulsion, and are expensive to run.

 

Don't bother asking the staff onboard for facts. When I did (was on the TA that just ended on 5/12) about the 5 hr delay leaving Miami, I was given a totaly BS answer - in front of everyone in the theater (during a talk about the ship).

 

If you ask them about a "replacement" engine, of course they will not answer you. There is no such thing on board. The answer was not BS - the questions was! :D

Edited May 16, 2014 by fortinweb

[ghstudio]

The infinity has been carrying a spare turbine engine in their boarding lobby on deck 1 (maybe deck 2) for over six months now. It's sitting right there. Not sure if they could install it, or they carry it just in case it's needed for a shipyard to install. It's hard to miss seeing it...it's pretty big :) :)

[fortinweb]

The infinity has been carrying a spare turbine engine in their boarding lobby on deck 1 (maybe deck 2) for over six months now. It's sitting right there. Not sure if they could install it, or they carry it just in case it's needed for a shipyard to install. It's hard to miss seeing it...it's pretty big :) :)

 

In the spirit of posting accurate information, I need to make a correction to post #44. Further research on Infiniti indicated that I had provided incorrect information about her power plant. I had mixed up the power plant designs between the M and S class ships.

 

Infiniti boasts a COGAS power plant of two gas turbines and a steam turbine providing up to 60 Megawatts for the electric systems and two 19 MW Rolls-Royce/Alstom MerMaid azimuth thrusters for propulsion. In 2007, she was refitted with the addition of a diesel engine as a fuel-saving measure. The ship can run on any combination of the gas turbines or diesel. In port, she generates electrical power from the diesel.

 

None of the S-class ships have gas turbines, however. These ships have four Wärtsilä 16V45CR diesel engines generating 67 Megawatts of electrical power.

 

Sorry for the misinformation and confusion it may have caused.

Edited May 16, 2014 by fortinweb

[Photo_Traveler]

The infinity has been carrying a spare turbine engine in their boarding lobby on deck 1 (maybe deck 2) for over six months now. It's sitting right there. Not sure if they could install it, or they carry it just in case it's needed for a shipyard to install. It's hard to miss seeing it...it's pretty big :) :)

 

I've a photo of it. It's in a very large plastic box marked "GTS Millennium" .

[Christine Frances]

OT here for a bit. I what MV stands for but I've always wondered what "GTS" means. Can anyone tell me?

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

[fortinweb]

OT here for a bit. I what MV stands for but I've always wondered what "GTS" means. Can anyone tell me?

 

It means Gas Turbine Ship. Here are two Wiki pages that may help:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_prefix

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:GTS

Edited May 17, 2014 by fortinweb

[Lsimon]

OT here for a bit. I what MV stands for but I've always wondered what "GTS" means. Can anyone tell me?

 

Gas Turbine Ship = GTS

The M class ships used to have GTS in their name (i.e. GTS Millennium) but the GTS was removed from the official name a few years back. The use of GTS is similar to the old designation SS in ship names which stood for Steam Ship. Also found this wiki on sip prefixes: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_prefix

Edited May 16, 2014 by Lsimon