Epic Interrupted

[PTAngel]

When will the Epic be leaving?  I don't even see any smoke from her smokestack.  Are they still working on her?

[BrianK1]

3 minutes ago, PTAngel said:

When will the Epic be leaving?  I don't even see any smoke from her smokestack.  Are they still working on her?

Tomorrow

[Kev_of_Ar]

1 minute ago, PTAngel said:

When will the Epic be leaving?  I don't even see any smoke from her smokestack.  Are they still working on her?

She is scheduled to leave tomorrow for a 5 day cruise back Sat to pic me up :

[PTAngel]

Doesn't that mean this cruise is being shorted 2 cruising days?  Will NCL pro-rate the fare?  I cruised 1 time on NCL & was perfectly satisfied (no complaints).  I would try them again & I don't think this incident has changed my mind.  My very first cruise ever was on RCL Grandeur OTS when we hit a rogue wave that cracked the jogging deck.  No one was hurt & they closed that deck & made temporary repairs while in homeport.  It didn't deter us from cruising & I now have 13 cruises under my belt.

[Cruz3r4life]

1 minute ago, Kev_of_Ar said:

She is scheduled to leave tomorrow for a 5 day cruise back Sat to pic me up :

 

Picking me up as well!  

 

So what's comical about the debacle the last week with the Epic for me is that I've been trying to do this itinerary for several years but hurricanes and their aftermath keep happening, so I found the sailing on the 23rd with air included for a super great deal in December and thought 'ha - it's before hurricane season' I'll have zero issues going...and then the last week happens.  I told my TA that if the sailing on the 23rd gets cancelled she is to refuse to book the Tortola/St. Thomas/GSC itinerary for me again because I'm obviously not meant to go there.   

[Iden583]

We had many more issues than just a disrupted cruise. I read back through a few pages and didn’t see much of these issues I went through posted so here is what we personally had gone through/seen on this cruise:

- 3 cancelled ports

- code bravo(fire) - due to employees throwing a battery at another employee

- San Juan no announcement of the crash or anything, only found out leaving the ship.

- getting told leaving San Juan that repairs were done and we’re on the way to Stirrup Cay which was then also cancelled the following day.

- sitting at dinner 9:45 pm Thursday on deck 6 there was what felt like a massive explosion violently shaking the entire restaurant scaring the sh*t out of everyone including the staff. Causing solid few mins of complete silence amongst everyone with a (***** is going on face) again including all staff legit waiting for an alarm or something. Then violent rumbling started shaking the whole place for the rest of the dinner. - went to ask what happened from guest services later and the next day to be told “wow really? This is the first report of that, we don’t know.” 

- disembarkation on deck 7 was absolutely PACKED across the entire deck for 2+ hours so much that they shut off the elevators from going to deck 7. No staff around for assistance. Just 2 employees who knew nothing, literally had only the same sheet of info as us guests were given for disembarkation. 

[Kev_of_Ar]

1 minute ago, PTAngel said:

Doesn't that mean this cruise is being shorted 2 cruising days?  Will NCL pro-rate the fare?  I cruised 1 time on NCL & was perfectly satisfied (no complaints).  I would try them again & I don't think this incident has changed my mind.  My very first cruise ever was on RCL Grandeur OTS when we hit a rogue wave that cracked the jogging deck.  No one was hurt & they closed that deck & made temporary repairs while in homeport.  It didn't deter us from cruising & I now have 13 cruises under my belt.

Everyone that was on this sailing had a choice this week.  go and get 50% refund and 50% credit on future cruise plus travel and hotel or a full refund.  I have seen comments both ways.  Most that cancelled didn't like the new 5 day route

[Kev_of_Ar]

5 minutes ago, Cruz3r4life said:

 

Picking me up as well!  

 

So what's comical about the debacle the last week with the Epic for me is that I've been trying to do this itinerary for several years but hurricanes and their aftermath keep happening, so I found the sailing on the 23rd with air included for a super great deal in December and thought 'ha - it's before hurricane season' I'll have zero issues going...and then the last week happens.  I told my TA that if the sailing on the 23rd gets cancelled she is to refuse to book the Tortola/St. Thomas/GSC itinerary for me again because I'm obviously not meant to go there.   

LOL I was on the Escape Jan 2018 that was supposed to do this route and got rerouted to western but was my 1st so was happy 🙂

 

[Kev_of_Ar]

6 minutes ago, Iden583 said:

We had many more issues than just a disrupted cruise. I read back through a few pages and didn’t see much of these issues I went through posted so here is what we personally had gone through/seen on this cruise:

- 3 cancelled ports

- code bravo(fire) - due to employees throwing a battery at another employee

- San Juan no announcement of the crash or anything, only found out leaving the ship.

- getting told leaving San Juan that repairs were done and we’re on the way to Stirrup Cay which was then also cancelled the following day.

- sitting at dinner 9:45 pm Thursday on deck 6 there was what felt like a massive explosion violently shaking the entire restaurant scaring the sh*t out of everyone including the staff. Causing solid few mins of complete silence amongst everyone with a (***** is going on face) again including all staff legit waiting for an alarm or something. Then violent rumbling started shaking the whole place for the rest of the dinner. - went to ask what happened from guest services later and the next day to be told “wow really? This is the first report of that, we don’t know.” 

- disembarkation on deck 7 was absolutely PACKED across the entire deck for 2+ hours so much that they shut off the elevators from going to deck 7. No staff around for assistance. Just 2 employees who knew nothing, literally had only the same sheet of info as us guests were given for disembarkation. 

Wow this is the 1st time I have heard about the explosion on this trip I am sorry that happened to you.   Wow just Wow!

[kismet618]

11 minutes ago, Iden583 said:

We had many more issues than just a disrupted cruise. I read back through a few pages and didn’t see much of these issues I went through posted so here is what we personally had gone through/seen on this cruise:

- 3 cancelled ports

- code bravo(fire) - due to employees throwing a battery at another employee

- San Juan no announcement of the crash or anything, only found out leaving the ship.

- getting told leaving San Juan that repairs were done and we’re on the way to Stirrup Cay which was then also cancelled the following day.

- sitting at dinner 9:45 pm Thursday on deck 6 there was what felt like a massive explosion violently shaking the entire restaurant scaring the sh*t out of everyone including the staff. Causing solid few mins of complete silence amongst everyone with a (***** is going on face) again including all staff legit waiting for an alarm or something. Then violent rumbling started shaking the whole place for the rest of the dinner. - went to ask what happened from guest services later and the next day to be told “wow really? This is the first report of that, we don’t know.” 

- disembarkation on deck 7 was absolutely PACKED across the entire deck for 2+ hours so much that they shut off the elevators from going to deck 7. No staff around for assistance. Just 2 employees who knew nothing, literally had only the same sheet of info as us guests were given for disembarkation. 

I would be happy to use your free cruise if you don’t wish to sail NCL again....And FYI...thankfully no explosions 😊

Edited February 17, 2019 by kismet618

[Cruz3r4life]

4 minutes ago, Kev_of_Ar said:

LOL I was on the Escape Jan 2018 that was supposed to do this route and got rerouted to western but was my 1st so was happy 🙂

 

 

This will be my 13th cruise overall, so in 12 cruises only 3 have been a non-Western Caribbean itinerary, I've been there done/that.  I'm a born and raised Texan, well a 7-day cruise out of Texas can only go so far so it was always Western Caribbean, NCL used to call it Texaribbean.   The Western Caribbean is beautiful however I'm ready for some different ports. 

[Kev_of_Ar]

2 minutes ago, Cruz3r4life said:

 

This will be my 13th cruise overall, so in 12 cruises only 3 have been a non-Western Caribbean itinerary, I've been there done/that.  I'm a born and raised Texan, well a 7-day cruise out of Texas can only go so far so it was always Western Caribbean, NCL used to call it Texaribbean.   The Western Caribbean is beautiful however I'm ready for some different ports. 

I can understand that for sure. Like I said it was my 1st and I met my love on it and in April when she came to visit we booked this one on the 23rd.  We almost booked the 9th and didn't because she had bowling tourneys that she didn't wanna miss or we would have just gotten back

[Iden583]

Yea it was late in the day so not many were at the restaurant itself, but I’ve been surprised myself to have only seen one group who heard it who wasn’t at the restaurant 

[biomedbob]

29 minutes ago, kismet618 said:

I would be happy to use your free cruise if you don’t wish to sail NCL again....And FYI...thankfully no explosions 😊

 

Put me down too!  biomedbob59@yahoo.com

[tlm48]

13 hours ago, Kev_of_Ar said:

Wow this is the 1st time I have heard about the explosion on this trip I am sorry that happened to you.   Wow just Wow!

Code bravo was scary! Your locked in! These steel walls come across and your really locked in. No emergency drill ever mentioned this procedure 

[Reader0108598]

Just want to thank everyone for posting and keeping us up to date. Wish you all very happy future cruises! :)

 

[chengkp75]

32 minutes ago, tlm48 said:

Code bravo was scary! Your locked in! These steel walls come across and your really locked in. No emergency drill ever mentioned this procedure 

Uh, no.  Those doors are able to be opened at any time, if you have to get out of the space.  If the fire is on one side or the other of your space, then only one set of fire doors will close, and you can exit the other way.  Crew will direct you and open the doors when it is safe to transit passengers through.

 

I think the battery incident was most likely throwing a battery into the incinerator shredder, which will make short work of a AA battery, and which has frequently caused a spark that ignites the shredded paper/cardboard in the incinerator silo, but which can at times be covered over and only smolders for hours until it reaches sufficient oxygen again, and bursts into flames.

 

The explosion and vibration (I'm assuming this was in the aft restaurant?) sounds like a power rectifier for the port propulsion motor exploded (it happens, not often), and then the motor was running on improper current (varying due to loss of one rectifier), and causing the shaft and propeller to vibrate until it was shut down, and the other shaft slowed to lessen vibrations caused by only one screw running.  The explosion would have been under the deck 5 galley, just forward of Manhattan Room.

[Reader0108598]

48 minutes ago, chengkp75 said:

Uh, no.  Those doors are able to be opened at any time, if you have to get out of the space.  If the fire is on one side or the other of your space, then only one set of fire doors will close, and you can exit the other way.  Crew will direct you and open the doors when it is safe to transit passengers through.

 

I think the battery incident was most likely throwing a battery into the incinerator shredder, which will make short work of a AA battery, and which has frequently caused a spark that ignites the shredded paper/cardboard in the incinerator silo, but which can at times be covered over and only smolders for hours until it reaches sufficient oxygen again, and bursts into flames.

 

The explosion and vibration (I'm assuming this was in the aft restaurant?) sounds like a power rectifier for the port propulsion motor exploded (it happens, not often), and then the motor was running on improper current (varying due to loss of one rectifier), and causing the shaft and propeller to vibrate until it was shut down, and the other shaft slowed to lessen vibrations caused by only one screw running.  The explosion would have been under the deck 5 galley, just forward of Manhattan Room.

So appreciate your knowledge ...TY you for posting ! 🙂 have a great day!

 

Edited February 18, 2019 by Reader0108598

[ssmea03]

1 hour ago, chengkp75 said:

The explosion and vibration (I'm assuming this was in the aft restaurant?) sounds like a power rectifier for the port propulsion motor exploded (it happens, not often), and then the motor was running on improper current (varying due to loss of one rectifier), and causing the shaft and propeller to vibrate until it was shut down, and the other shaft slowed to lessen vibrations caused by only one screw running.  

My wife just read me your reply and it piqued my interest. Does the ship have DC propulsion motors then, and is this common. I assumed ships with electric propulsion used high voltage 3 phase AC motors controlled by massive freq drives.

At a risk of answering my own question I suppose rectifiers could be an integral part of a massive HV freq drive.

[pehlibaar]

So is the Epic on schedule to leave today? All repairs done? 

[Clay Clayton]

Just spoke to VaGirl who is onboard (they were doing a b2b) and she says they are still scheduled to leave this afternoon in the shortened and changed cruise. Only ports are Private Island and Nassau. 

[MMJMM]

I was on the Epic last week. Canceling the port calls was very unfortunate especially for those headed to weddings. However guest operations were normal the whole time. The Code Bravo lasted about five minutes. I was told it was a small incinerator fire but there were lots of rumors. The rumors about cruise members fighting are rumors. Nobody knows what happened. The collision in San Juan was a big nothing. It was sensationalized by a passenger on another ship taking that video. Nobody on board even knew it happened. This is the first I’ve heard about an explosion near the dining room. That didn’t happen.

 

The biggest complaint I have is that we were 12 hours late getting back to Port Canaveral. Since everyone missed their flight they let us stay on board another night. That meant we had to disembark and get back on for some stupid reason. That process was a mess. It took two hours to walk everybody through customs and the parking lot. 

 

The usual number of people wanted their money back and were rude about it. I’ll take the 100% credit. NCL did the best they could. Stuff happens. 

[Outerdog]

4 minutes ago, MMJMM said:

The collision in San Juan was a big nothing. It was sensationalized by a passenger on another ship taking that video. Nobody on board even knew it happened.

 

I don't know about that. The crash significantly damaged dolphin moorings at the pier. Plenty of people can be seen on their balconies observing the incident.

 

The damage to the ship was relatively minor, okay, but I wouldn't categorize the incident as "a big nothing".

[MMJMM]

The moorings were destroyed. But it was like an elephant stepping on a mouse . Nobody on board even noticed until we got off. I talked to the Coast Guard on the pier. It’s a joint CG/NTSB investigation but just some superficial damage to the ship. 

 

What i cant figure out is why the CG let us leave San Juan with engine problems. Whatever. 

[Outerdog]

Yeah, those people out on their balconies surely didn't notice the dolphins being destroyed.

 

¯\_(ツ)_/¯