Veendam Propulsion Failure

[AryMay]

On the Veendam now and just arrived on Grand Cayman. Captain has announced the ship has had a propulsion failure. 
 

We have 4 large tender boats and a tug pushing up against the side of the ship. The Veendam is on emergency power and we have been told to not use elevators. 
 

Might be an interesting day...
 

 

[ger_77]

It's a good thing you got to Grand Cayman; at least you can disembark and enjoy the island while they fix the problem.  Please keep us posted!

 

Smooth Sailing!  🙂🙂🙂

[Krazy Kruizers]

Hope they get the propulsion problem fixed quickly.

 

That would be a problem for -- no elevators.

[puppycanducruise]

Thanks for the info.

Hope they get things working soon.

[GlennG]

1 hour ago, AryMay said:

On the Veendam now and just arrived on Grand Cayman. Captain has announced the ship has had a propulsion failure. 
 

We have 4 large tender boats and a tug pushing up against the side of the ship. The Veendam is on emergency power and we have been told to not use elevators. 
 

Might be an interesting day...
 

 

This isn't good news.  I've been spending some time researching the recent reviews of the Veendam, and it appears as though this particular ship has had more than its share of problems.  With the recent dry dock repairs and renovation, I thought that the Veendam would become a more favourable alternative for us in the Caribbean.  (My wife and I are not huge fans of the large, new ships in the Holland America fleet.)  As a bare minimum, my wife needs reliable  access to elevators that actually work.  Please keep us posted on the response to this troubling problem.

[AryMay]

We have tendered to shore. Before we left the captain announced that part of the power had been restored. Sorry I’m not technical enough to give more details.

 

There was no AC running when we left the ship and it was getting a little muggy. 
 

Will try and give an update later today. 

[puppycanducruise]

Thanks for the info.

Enjoy your day in port.

[RuthC]

Oh, that is a tough situation for everyone. No A/C is bad enough for everyone. No elevators leaves disabled people stuck on whatever deck they happened to be on. What about lights? Were they off for a while; hopefully they are back on if they did. You have no idea what dark is until you are in an inside cabin when the power is out. 
Even toilets wouldn't flush when the power is off! 

Hope this is fixed quickly. 

[DeeniEncinitas]

OMGOSH! 
As stated I am glad you are able to get off ship! I am very concerned with the fellow passengers who need access to those elevators and are stuck on the floor they are on!! I hope there is crew members checking to help out them on the floors.

AC not working? Hope situation is resolved soon.

Denise😊

[leerathje]

OH MY!!  Hope propulsion is repaired by the time you get back from your excursion.  Good luck!

 

[Copper10-8]

In the case of a power failure, and I do not believe that's the case on Veendam per the OP's - and her captain's - report, the emergency generator (the one that is regularly tested) is supposed to kick in for lighting as well as for those elevators designated as "emergency elevators" - hoping Chengk75 jumps in here to 'splain more

 

All the best to VEDM's crew, read engineers, no doubt working the problem hard, and to her passengers

[kazu]

thanks for the updates.  I hope all is restored quickly and easily for you.

 

Have a great day in port and fingers crossed that all is working well when you get back on board.

[Krazy Kruizers]

4 hours ago, AryMay said:

We have tendered to shore. Before we left the captain announced that part of the power had been restored. Sorry I’m not technical enough to give more details.

 

There was no AC running when we left the ship and it was getting a little muggy. 
 

Will try and give an update later today. 

 

Thank you for your update.

[AryMay]

We are back on board and everything seems normal. Our room is cool and toilet flushes (which was our first indication that we had a problem this morning. ) 

 

Other than the issue this morning, the cruise has been great. We are doing B2B so have another week and a half of escape  from the Minnesota cold and snow! 

[kazu]

18 minutes ago, AryMay said:

We are back on board and everything seems normal. Our room is cool and toilet flushes (which was our first indication that we had a problem this morning. ) 

 

Other than the issue this morning, the cruise has been great. We are doing B2B so have another week and a half of escape  from the Minnesota cold and snow! 

 

Good news!  Thanks for the update 🙂 

 

Glad you are enjoying the cruise and hope your remaining week and a 1/2 is wonderful.

 

The snow is here 😞 

[RuthC]

Thanks for the update. What a relief that all is well again. 

[ski ww]

Good thing it happened in port & not at sea.

[SilvertoGold]

A ship is a ship, problems will crop up.  Possibly an automatic power shut-down to avoid a much more serious problem.  Been there and experienced that and never found it worth the fuss, outrage and panic some pax indulge in. 

 

Op: thanks for all the info.  Enjoy your continuing cruise!! Lovely ship!

[jenp123]

They announced the propulsion issue as said above and then the 2nd announcement mentioned the power failure.  Toilets and a/c were not working.  We were told not to take the elevators but many people were still using them.  Lighting in cabin was fine.  The dining room was only serving cold items and scrambled eggs during the outage.  All was restored in less than 2 hrs and tendering was up and running as soon as the main systems came back online.  Crew did an excellent job and staff cabin kept everyone up to date.

[ozcruizer]

A similar thing happened when we were on the Volendam in 2012.  The lights and aircon went off and we were in the middle of the ocean with no land in sight.  We were without power for an hour and the ship did a 180 degree turn.  Fortunately the problem was fixed and we were on our way to Singapore with no further issues.

[cruisemom42]

2 hours ago, SilvertoGold said:

A ship is a ship, problems will crop up.  Possibly an automatic power shut-down to avoid a much more serious problem.  Been there and experienced that and never found it worth the fuss, outrage and panic some pax indulge in. 

 

Op: thanks for all the info.  Enjoy your continuing cruise!! Lovely ship!

 

This seems a bit cavalier. A loss of propulsion can be quite serious indeed. Just look at Viking Sky a few months ago. Or the experience my parents had onboard the Rotterdam when she was dead in the water for 3 hours going through the remnants of a hurricane in the Atlantic. There was a lot of damage and some serious injuries, if I recall.

 

 

[RetesGirl3]

On another note, how are you enjoying the Veendam? Pros and cons?  We are sailing her in a few weeks. Any tips you can provide, would be greatly appreciated.

enjoy the rest of your back to back!

Jane

[mommyz]

Ugh...but glad to hear it's working again.  Hopefully it's not a long term issue.  We are on Veendam in December.  Would love to hear more about the ship.

Have a great trip.

[SilvertoGold]

1 hour ago, cruisemom42 said:

 

This seems a bit cavalier. A loss of propulsion can be quite serious indeed. Just look at Viking Sky a few months ago. Or the experience my parents had onboard the Rotterdam when she was dead in the water for 3 hours going through the remnants of a hurricane in the Atlantic. There was a lot of damage and some serious injuries, if I recall.

 

 

 

A tug was in attendance, tenders were down.

 

In the circumstances you note, certainly a bad situation.  The one described on this thread, I think not.

[cruisemom42]

3 minutes ago, SilvertoGold said:

 

A tug was in attendance, tenders were down.

 

In the circumstances you note, certainly a bad situation.  The one described on this thread, I think not.

 

With this modification of what you previously posted, I can somewhat agree. Somewhat. Those big ships can cause a great deal of damage to both themselves and other ships or docks even when tugs are available, under some conditions....  

 

And by the way, did anyone hear about the Celebrity Xpedition running aground earlier this week at Galapagos due to a loss of power: