Just off the PRIDE, WARNING about aft cabin shaking

[starfish216]

Just of the May 17 Pride sailing. We have been on over a dozen cruises on various ships, more than half have left out of NY/NJ ports so we are a little bit familiar with how you can feel the ship move going down the East coast.

 

We were in cabin 7259 on the Pride. We had calm seas the whole time so the ship did not move from wave action but we did feel a constant vibration in our cabin. Also the vibration was felt in the dining room, buffet area and serenity area. Our balcony door rattled most of the time and depending on the wind direction we had a whistling sound coming from the door. Yes, all this was annoying but it was not enough to ruin our cruise.

 

This sensation is a lot different than that of the ship pitching up/down or side to side. The horizon remained stable since the ocean was really calm. What we felt was just a vibration of the ship.

 

To give you some imagery - Imagine a car idling roughly or sitting on a couch and have someone sit next to you constantly bouncing there leg up and down on the floor, you can feel that vibration. This is what it was like in the cabin constantly. If the engines were on there was a vibration. You even felt it in the dining rooms where the water in the glasses had the appearance of simmering water.

 

I eventually got used to it..

 

Other than the vibration issue we had a great time.

Edited May 26, 2015 by starfish216

[jfried8]

Any updates on this? We are debating a Vista Suite on the 4th floor for an upcoming cruise.

[thomarvin]

Just off the Pride yesterday. We were in cabin 6252. We didn't feel any 'shaking" as described here. You could feel some vibration but it wasn't annoying and no worse than any other spot on the ship. I didn't get sick (which I have gotten at times) at all. It was a very smooth trip.

 

Nothing out of the ordinary in the MDR either (deck 2)

Edited June 8, 2015 by thomarvin

[keene state mom]

I also just got off the Pride is was very smooth sailing wonderful crew but the chair hog were in full force ....

[jfried8]

We booked Vista Suite 4237 for August! Hoping for a smooth ride!

[Surfwench]

Holy cow am I glad I came here.

 

I just checked our cruise to see about any upgrades (we are currently mid-ship in an extended balcony) and noticed that almost EVERY completely AFT extended balcony cabin is now available.

 

I thought this to be very strange and remembered a thread about shaking. I wonder if all of those lovely people swapped rooms? They definitely were not available before. :confused::confused:

 

I'm just flummoxed that people would read ONE extreme review and make decisions based on that.

 

Just off her sister ship, Legend, aft-extended balcony deck 5. Yes, you can hear the low hum of the engines. When leaving port there is some increased vibrations from the thrusters. BUT NOTHING CLOSE to what the OP experienced. When we have a choice, we book aft on every cruise.

 

The OPs related their experience as they perceived it. I'm guessing they don't have kids, dogs, and live in a bucolic rural paradise with no street traffic. :)

 

We experienced more noise forward during moderate seas. The waves make a dull hollow booming sound on the hull when they hit at a certain angle. We didn't mind that either, enhances the 'sailing' feeling.

 

Sailed with a friend two weeks ago who is very susceptible to motion sickness, (she booked far forward too). Go sit in the atrium lobby... least amount of motion on the ship, I discovered. She ended up going to the infirmary where they gave her Meclizine.... miracle drug. She enjoyed her cruise after that.

[jetta8300]

I'm just flummoxed that people would read ONE extreme review and make decisions based on that.

 

Just off her sister ship, Legend, aft-extended balcony deck 5. Yes, you can hear the low hum of the engines. When leaving port there is some increased vibrations from the thrusters. BUT NOTHING CLOSE to what the OP experienced. When we have a choice, we book aft on every cruise.

 

The OPs related their experience as they perceived it. I'm guessing they don't have kids, dogs, and live in a bucolic rural paradise with no street traffic. :)

 

We experienced more noise forward during moderate seas. The waves make a dull hollow booming sound on the hull when they hit at a certain angle. We didn't mind that either, enhances the 'sailing' feeling.

 

Sailed with a friend two weeks ago who is very susceptible to motion sickness, (she booked far forward too). Go sit in the atrium lobby... least amount of motion on the ship, I discovered. She ended up going to the infirmary where they gave her Meclizine.... miracle drug. She enjoyed her cruise after that.

 

And I am absolutely "flummoxed" that you would presume to tell me what I did and did not experience. Especially comparing it to a completely different ship.

 

Um... I have a 1 year old child. I have a dog. I have a cat. I live in the city. We sleep with a SOUND MACHINE ON to drown out the noise from the loud video monitor that is also on from my son's room. We hardly sleep in silence. I would rather have slept in my son's room during a bout with the flu with the dog barking all night long, than spend another night in that cabin.

 

Hear the "low hum of the engines"? hahahahaha!!!!! Try sitting on a couch with a kid jumping on the couch next to you. And then the couch jerking you awake with a violent jolt every few minutes, and then the couch and every other fixture in the room squeaking along with the jumping. Then you may experience something close to what we did.

 

This is not my opinion, this is FACT. That's exactly what it felt like. I would not presume to tell someone else who experienced total silence, that they did not experience silence. They were the ones that were there. If you experienced silence, good for you. But I was on a different ship, in a different room. You were not there with me.

 

I will repeat again, when the thrusters were moving THERE WAS NO CHANGE IN VIBRATION. The vibration was just as strong the entire trip. Even when the ship was idling in port. It was stronger a few nights, but again, no more strong than normal when pulling in to port. I will also repeat again, this was absolutely NOT a vibrating SOUND. This was a shaking feeling with no sound at all, except for the fixtures in the room. but the shaking itself had no sound, or else we just couldn't hear it over the rattling fixtures.

 

To point out the actual dull hollow sound of the waves is hilarious. Yeah we heard that too. NOTHING compared to what was going on in our cabin. Try having your glasses vibrating off of the bar and then tell me it's my "perception." Also, it is not just my review. In case you hadn't noticed, the majority of the posters on here had experienced something similar. We are NOT prone to motion sickness. We were NOT sick from the waves and the motion of the ship. We were ONLY sick in our cabin and in the dining room. And the boat was ROCKING. We were sick from the extreme shaking. We felt like it was mixing brains around also the food in our stomach.

 

I did receive a call from Carnival about a week after starting this thread, about the survey I filled out. I had a very lenghly conversation with the woman on the phone and she said she had talked to multiple other cruisers who had complained about the exact same thing. She said there is always "vibration complaints" from Pride passengers but had a few more than normal. I also told her about the wedges they had put in the ceiling in multiple places to calm the rattling, and she had me send her a pictures we took of these wedges. So someone else had tried to do something about the noise.

 

I appreciate another poster describing their experience as a car roughly idling or someone bouncing their leg up and down next to you on the couch. But I can tell you our experience was rougher than that. I would have been happy to sleep in an idling car. This was something different. So I know I've said it enough times, but this CAN happen. Maybe not every cruise? Maybe it's possible something was off with the ship? I don't know. I'm not here to say that it WILL happen to everyone at all. I'm just saying that it happened to us and obviously others have had this happen as well (experienced cruisers I might add) so it's POSSIBLE. But you could not give me a free cruise in that cabin. I would not take it.

Edited June 8, 2015 by jetta8300

[Lurkyloo]

I'm just flummoxed that people would read ONE extreme review and make decisions based on that.

 

Just off her sister ship, Legend, aft-extended balcony deck 5. Yes, you can hear the low hum of the engines. When leaving port there is some increased vibrations from the thrusters. BUT NOTHING CLOSE to what the OP experienced. When we have a choice, we book aft on every cruise.

 

The OPs related their experience as they perceived it. I'm guessing they don't have kids, dogs, and live in a bucolic rural paradise with no street traffic. :)

 

We experienced more noise forward during moderate seas. The waves make a dull hollow booming sound on the hull when they hit at a certain angle. We didn't mind that either, enhances the 'sailing' feeling.

 

Sailed with a friend two weeks ago who is very susceptible to motion sickness, (she booked far forward too). Go sit in the atrium lobby... least amount of motion on the ship, I discovered. She ended up going to the infirmary where they gave her Meclizine.... miracle drug. She enjoyed her cruise after that.

 

That is reassuring, thanks! We are aft extended balcony deck 4 on the Legend this September to Hawaii - since is sister ship to Pride, I was a bit concerned, especially since I have heard the Pacific crossing to Hawaii can be a bit rough at times. I have been aft before and was fine, but was on Royal Caribbean ship, had some concern when people said Spirit Class had vibrations problems (Have been on Spirit and Pride, but mid ship and no problems).

 

I am still going to bring my bonine and take it just in case, better safe than sorry, but now not so concerned - at any rate it will still be a marvelous cruise even if we are rocking a rolling a bit :D.

 

In defense of the OP, it might have been a rougher than normal sailing, or the engines or thrusters or whatever might have been acting up a bit - or as you said, some people have less tolerance for that kind of thing. But your post has made me feel a bit more at ease about Spirit Class afts, and the Legend afts in particular so thanks for chiming in! ;)

[EdmundXXIII]

Bummer experience, OP!

 

I sailed the Pride in 2011, and was aft. Definitely felt some vibrations but nothing as bad as what you experienced. That said, I've heard a LOT of people complain about this problem on the Pride, and it sounds like some rooms are worse than others.

 

I had assumed there was some minor mechanical problem contributing to worse than normal shaking at the aft, but Pride was just dry docked so presumably they'd have fixed anything that was wrong... Maybe just has to do with the design of the ship.

[SurferJoe57]

Just off the Pride (31 May-7 June); our fourth Pride cruise and the first since the upgrades last Fall.

We've had Vista suites on two prior cruises (those are the 'wrap around aft') cabins on Deck 5, as well as a smaller 6th Deck aft cabin; however, this time we were in a Grand Suite (Cabin 6217; midships) adjacent to our two grown daughters.

By way of reference, we also took the Miracle on it's "mildly disabled" cruise from Vancouver to Hawaii last September. The Miracle is a Spirit-class ship, identical in construction (at the time) to the Pride.

I'll additionally note I spent 31 years in the Marine Corps, quite a bit of that at sea both as an embarked troop and as a cargo officer on several large transports.

----

The Pride has an issue with vibration that isn't quite normal. While the Spirit-classes are long skinny hulls which are inherently prone to 'snapping' back to full upright in rolling seas (like Navy destroyers) as opposed to the wider (post-Panamax) hulls of the Conquest class, the vibration is speed related. It does seem as though the additional weight topside from the new pool, etc., might have caused some stability issues, but I think as other posters have noted, there's possibly something with the Azipods. For those unfamiliar, the Pride (like almost all modern cruise ships) has 'pods' with electrical motors driving 'puller' propellers - which are akin to outboard motors. There's no long propeller shaft running from an interior engine room - the 'engine room' is a collection of electrical generators. The Azipods allow for far greater maneuverability but apparently have bearing races which are prone to premature wear. The Miracle was obliged to keep it's speed under 20 kts during our Pacific transit to avoid bearing failure (as recommended by the Azipod manufacturer); and I'll note that when the Pride kept it's speed below 18 kts (we had to cancel our Half Moon Cay visit due to weather, and instead made the transit to Freeport at roughly 11 kts), we had minimal to no vibration issues whatsoever. When speed got above 22 kts, the famous aft dining room water-glass bouncing occurred as noted.

I don't believe the Azipods were serviced during the past yard period - certainly a lot of surface rust wasn't attended to. It appears the only work done was the topside addition of the pool, Guy's and the Blue Iguana, with interior redecorating (Alchemy and Red Frog).

I would recommend that anyone booking who is prone to issues book a midship cabin though.

Edited June 9, 2015 by SurferJoe57

[TravelE]

I've cruised on the Legend twice and Pride once. The Legend does not have the vibration issue that I experienced on the Pride. It's horrible! It happened at sea and in port. It must be a bunch of loose screws or bolts!

 

And you can't avoid it if you like to eat in the dining room.

Edited June 9, 2015 by TravelE

[SurferJoe57]

Just off her sister ship, Legend, aft-extended balcony deck 5. Yes, you can hear the low hum of the engines.

I suspect the Pride has a uniquely bad issue as compared to the other Spirit classes. If someone's handy at digging into maintenance reports online, perhaps they could find out the mean time between failure of the particular set of Azipods fitted to the Spirit classes, and when the bearings are actually being overhauled.

Additionally, if there's anyone out in CC-Land who's taken the Miracle since it's Azipods were recently overhauled, let us know what the vibration (or lack thereof) is like.

 

We all realize that Carnival can't make money off a dry-docked ship, but catastrophic bearing failure at sea would be another Triumph - level disaster.

[Carbri]

I'll additionally note I spent 31 years in the Marine Corps, quite a bit of that at sea both as an embarked troop and as a cargo officer on several large transports.

 

 

surferJoe thank you so much for your post. I find this information useful and interesting for anyone that cruises. I for one remember reading somewhere about the "pods" but you explained it very understandably. Always good to see a post from someone so knowledgeable. Thank you !

[Sweet Dutch Girl]

I don't understand what all the fuss is about. The OP related their experiences on an aft cabin of a particular cruise ship. Why is it so important for some others to "prove" that their observations couldn't be true, didn't happen, "never in my favorite cabin on my favorite class of ship". The OP is not "over sensitive", hallucinating, making things up to destroy a cruise lines reputation, etc. They are relating their experiences and bringing an issue to the forefront to give other cruisers some information that may be of value to them.

 

I, for one, wouldn't travel on lower decks, at the front or rear of a ship, in an inside cabin, near an elevator lobby. All places I have had rooms and wouldn't do it again....and these choices aren't just limited to Carnival. Am I disparaging Carnival...absolutely not.

[jetta8300]

Just off the Pride (31 May-7 June); our fourth Pride cruise and the first since the upgrades last Fall.

We've had Vista suites on two prior cruises (those are the 'wrap around aft') cabins on Deck 5, as well as a smaller 6th Deck aft cabin; however, this time we were in a Grand Suite (Cabin 6217; midships) adjacent to our two grown daughters.

By way of reference, we also took the Miracle on it's "mildly disabled" cruise from Vancouver to Hawaii last September. The Miracle is a Spirit-class ship, identical in construction (at the time) to the Pride.

I'll additionally note I spent 31 years in the Marine Corps, quite a bit of that at sea both as an embarked troop and as a cargo officer on several large transports.

----

The Pride has an issue with vibration that isn't quite normal. While the Spirit-classes are long skinny hulls which are inherently prone to 'snapping' back to full upright in rolling seas (like Navy destroyers) as opposed to the wider (post-Panamax) hulls of the Conquest class, the vibration is speed related. It does seem as though the additional weight topside from the new pool, etc., might have caused some stability issues, but I think as other posters have noted, there's possibly something with the Azipods. For those unfamiliar, the Pride (like almost all modern cruise ships) has 'pods' with electrical motors driving 'puller' propellers - which are akin to outboard motors. There's no long propeller shaft running from an interior engine room - the 'engine room' is a collection of electrical generators. The Azipods allow for far greater maneuverability but apparently have bearing races which are prone to premature wear. The Miracle was obliged to keep it's speed under 20 kts during our Pacific transit to avoid bearing failure (as recommended by the Azipod manufacturer); and I'll note that when the Pride kept it's speed below 18 kts (we had to cancel our Half Moon Cay visit due to weather, and instead made the transit to Freeport at roughly 11 kts), we had minimal to no vibration issues whatsoever. When speed got above 22 kts, the famous aft dining room water-glass bouncing occurred as noted.

I don't believe the Azipods were serviced during the past yard period - certainly a lot of surface rust wasn't attended to. It appears the only work done was the topside addition of the pool, Guy's and the Blue Iguana, with interior redecorating (Alchemy and Red Frog).

I would recommend that anyone booking who is prone to issues book a midship cabin though.

 

Thank you for your info! Even though it was definitely vibrating at least as bad as the "thruster" situation constantly, we did notice how much worse it become when going fast. Especially the last night home. That night in particular, we had to get up every few hours to move the balcony chairs back further away from rattling against our window. The shaking was actually moving the chairs like an old 1960's vibrating football game. The chairs would start rattling against the window, and then we'd move them away. Then we'd have to move them away again a few hours later when they returned. Ugh:cool:

 

It is also good to know that the water glasses were moving in the dining room on your trip as well. So having a full bar of those glasses was very annoying until we had the steward remove them the next night. If we would have had a mid-ship cabin, it would have been a minor irritation in the trip, only experienced in the dining room. But dealing with it 24/7 was just terrible.

Edited June 9, 2015 by jetta8300

[SurferJoe57]

I don't understand what all the fuss is about. The OP related their experiences on an aft cabin of a particular cruise ship.

I think...for those that have sailed the Pride before, it's worse than it was then.

For those that have sailed other hull/azipod designs, it's worse than those.

The ONLY thing I can compare the level of the Pride's vibration to is the USS Tripoli (and her sister ships, the Guadalcanal, etc), an old LPH from the early '60s. Those ships were dubbed "McNamara Specials," as they were bad designs subjected to repeated budget cuts while in the final design phases. They all had permanent lists to one side (eg, lopsided), vibrated like crazy, and broke down constantly. (The original design called for four steam boilers, two screws; they were built with two boilers and one screw).

[BigRed93]

Just on Pride last week. I think the vibration felt the same as always. Did not notice on serenity, or on deck 2 MDR. We were about halfway back, so not near windows. Felt more when we went to brunch on deck 3, but that was last sea day, so full speed. Our cabin was behind/next to aft elevators on 8. No excessive vibration or noise. Forward there was nothing unless you sat in the upper

Decks of theatre. Then there was a mechanical noise that was annoying. May have been a/c, which must have been going full force. That ship was cold everywhere. And I don't get cold

Normally.

 

 

Sent using the Cruise Critic forums app

[SurferJoe57]

Just on Pride last week. I think the vibration felt the same as always. Did not notice on serenity, or on deck 2 MDR.

No difference from prior Pride cruises? We seemed to think so, but it wasn't horribly worse.

I saw a parallel thread over in the HAL boards about a vibration issue; a poster said he actually talked to some Marine engineers brought on board to look at weight redistribution/ballasting as one of their ships has a harmonics issue (sympathetic vibrations not unlike what you get from tonewoods in a guitar).

[jetta8300]

Just on Pride last week. I think the vibration felt the same as always. Did not notice on serenity, or on deck 2 MDR. We were about halfway back, so not near windows. Felt more when we went to brunch on deck 3, but that was last sea day, so full speed. Our cabin was behind/next to aft elevators on 8. No excessive vibration or noise. Forward there was nothing unless you sat in the upper

Decks of theatre. Then there was a mechanical noise that was annoying. May have been a/c, which must have been going full force. That ship was cold everywhere. And I don't get cold

Normally.

 

 

Sent using the Cruise Critic forums app

 

Just an FYI I would acknowledge there was a huge difference between the cabins by the aft elevators more towards the middle of the boat, and those cabins in the very aft of the ship. A BIG difference.

[Cruise, J.D.]

Thanks for the report OP. Actual personal reports are the info that makes Cruise Critic a great resource.

[Baatman]

We did discuss it with both Guest Services and our room steward.

 

The first evening we tracked down our room steward to ask if this was normal, and if it would hopefully get better. His response was basically, "haha (laughing at us) yes, back of boat shake. You pick back of boat you get shake and motion from ocean. You pick front of boat you get motion from ocean. You pick middle you get none. You will shake whole time. Next time pick middle of ship, K?" Haha.

 

 

 

 

.

 

Well, at least it was an interesting response, even if it didn't help you at all.

[jerseyjjs]

Had cabin 8234 on BOTH the Pride (out of Balt.) and Miracle (out of NYC). Didn't feel any vibration that we'd consider excessive in any way.

[jfried8]

I'll be in 4237 on an August cruise....I'll report back to everyone how it went. We are psyched!!!

[jetta8300]

Well, at least it was an interesting response, even if it didn't help you at all.

 

Haha yes! We LOVED our room steward. He was really nice. But just said he got that question every cruise. We couldn't have asked for a better steward and he was hilarious!

[allentownahoy]

For those with real engineering or maritime experience- do you think there is any more risk sailing on the Pride in terms of azipod failure or anything else that could lead to being stranded at sea than any other cruise ship. I am booked on her for 21 days in Jan./Feb and do not want to be making any headlines.

Thanks in advance for any thoughts.