Carnival cruise Lines can't buy a break. Caribbean Princess broken in St Martin

Engine issue.

I was on her a few weeks ago... :eek:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1592386

Update. The ship limped back to San Juan and is tied up at the pier as of now. They weren't supposed to go back to San Juan until Sunday... :(

One report states:

all passengers will be able to stay onboard through Sunday and then resume your plans to return home. For those passengers continuing on through March 18 we will provide you with an update late tomorrow as to the full impact on our next voyage." Passengers were given a full refund.

I think I read that all the brands equal 100+ ships. In that large number stuff happens.

I think I read that all the brands equal 100+ ships. In that large number stuff happens.

I sat at the Engineers table recently on the Summit and to make a long story short was told that the Carnival line ships have fewer redundant systems than Celebrity ships.

In effect, they are built to a cheaper standard.

We were on the Caribbean Princess in January. I really feel for all of those people who have had their vacation cut short.

We were on the Caribbean Princess in January. I really feel for all of those people who have had their vacation cut short.

News just in... not only did the poor people on this weeks cruise have their plans ruined, apparently the next two cruises are now officially cancelled!:eek:

The ship will be out for three weeks at least...

guess my shares of CCL are taking a slide...

edit... go figure... CCL is up today....

Wow...

What is that old saying "Bad News comes in 3s"

This has been one-a-month for the last 3 months for Carnival Corp...

Costa Concordia = January 13th

Costa Allegra = February 27th

Caribbean Princess = March 12th

They've had more than their "fair share" of bad luck... just imagine not only how much revenue they've lost by having 3 ships out of commission (either partly or completely) PLUS having to make FULL Refunds to about 7000+ Pax onboard, PLUS other costs for compensation (flight arrangements)...

PLUS, PLUS, PLUS... tons of other items (towing charges, repairs, legal fees, bookings cancelled / altered etc) what a bleak picture for this company's bottom line

Cheers!

Not too bad a deal for the passengers, since they receive a free vacation, albeit not at all the ports which they wished to visit.

I sat at the Engineers table recently on the Summit and to make a long story short was told that the Carnival line ships have fewer redundant systems than Celebrity ships.

 

In effect, they are built to a cheaper standard.

Yes Carnival line is cheap ships-that is why I will not do a short cruise on Carnival-all old ships for the shorter cruises which are in rough shape. However the corporation is different from the line. I think HAL has some of the best ships of the mainstream lines. Princess ships are nice overall, but I like Celebrity better.

But you are right, between the Costa disaster, another Costa ship having problems, that Carnival ship last week messing up and now Caribbean Princess; it does seem they are having a lot of problems. It is a good thing our next cruise is Celebrity. LOL! We came close to booking Ruby Princess instead too!

Not too bad a deal for the passengers, since they receive a free vacation, albeit not at all the ports which they wished to visit.

Not the next two cruises worth... they will get their costs refunded, but they aren't letting anyone aboard once the crop aboard now leave until the engine's fixed...

Not the next two cruises worth... they will get their costs refunded, but they aren't letting anyone aboard once the crop aboard now leave until the engine's fixed...

Maybe with money refunded they can book a great last minute deal. RCI has two ships from San Juan. Celebrity has one there also. If nothing else- a week in San Juan would not be bad. There is a lot to see and also great beaches there.

I am pretty sure not only will their money be refunded but they will get at least 50% off a future cruise.

I think I read that all the brands equal 100+ ships. In that large number stuff happens.

Yes, it does. And most of it isn't news worthy.

Yes Carnival line is cheap ships-that is why I will not do a short cruise on Carnival-all old ships for the shorter cruises which are in rough shape. However the corporation is different from the line. I think HAL has some of the best ships of the mainstream lines. Princess ships are nice overall, but I like Celebrity better.

 

But you are right, between the Costa disaster, another Costa ship having problems, that Carnival ship last week messing up and now Caribbean Princess; it does seem they are having a lot of problems. It is a good thing our next cruise is Celebrity. LOL! We came close to booking Ruby Princess instead too!

The Ruby Princess is a great ship. You couldn't have gone wrong with that choice.

We actually have the Caribbean Princess booked for July in British Isles with a great itinerary. I am relieved that the problems are happening now and not three months from now. I am not crazy about booking older ships on any line.

The Ruby Princess is a great ship. You couldn't have gone wrong with that choice.

 

We actually have the Caribbean Princess booked for July in British Isles with a great itinerary. I am relieved that the problems are happening now and not three months from now. I am not crazy about booking older ships on any line.

No, we made the right decision, the Princess cruise has not gone down in price, the Solstice went down so much we went from 4 people sharing an oceanivew to 2 balcony staterooms, 2 of us in each room. Plus my hubby and I have a spa balcony stateroom now. (when we booked between airfare and cruise cost-it was only $500 a person more for Ruby Princess) If we had stayed with Princess we would still be 4 in a cabin.

We were a little uncomfortable going to Greece right now. (we had also looked at the Equinox-Ruby Princess had all the ports of the Equinox, plus all the Italy ports of Solstice) We hope that we can do this some time in the future and hopefully the economy in Greece will be better when we do go-so no fear of riots, transportation strikes, etc.

We were on the Caribbean Princess back in 2006-western Caribbean. She was a nice ship-of course back then she was only 2 years old.

No, we made the right decision, the Princess cruise has not gone down in price, the Solstice went down so much we went from 4 people sharing an oceanivew to 2 balcony staterooms, 2 of us in each room. Plus my hubby and I have a spa balcony stateroom now. (when we booked between airfare and cruise cost-it was only $500 a person more for Ruby Princess) If we had stayed with Princess we would still be 4 in a cabin.

 

We were a little uncomfortable going to Greece right now. (we had also looked at the Equinox-Ruby Princess had all the ports of the Equinox, plus all the Italy ports of Solstice) We hope that we can do this some time in the future and hopefully the economy in Greece will be better when we do go-so no fear of riots, transportation strikes, etc.

 

We were on the Caribbean Princess back in 2006-western Caribbean. She was a nice ship-of course back then she was only 2 years old.

Now when we switched from one stateroom to 2-that did run our fares up $500 a person-but heck it is worth missing Greece for the comfort of having two bathrooms for the 4 of us, plus hubby and I now have privacy.

We were on the Caribbean Princess back in 2006-western Caribbean. She was a nice ship-of course back then she was only 2 years old.

I am not crazy about going on the Caribbean Princess. The Crown Princess did the same itinerary last year and I view the Caribbean as a step down from that class. We do like the itinerary and that's why we booked it. It's not cheap and Princes has the very small balcony rooms. We do need a change of pace from Princess. We'd love to do a Solstice class ship. But for the Baltics itinerary out of Amsterdam, the Constellation is the only choice - another older ship. Oh well.

I have read that some of the Princess cruisers have switched over to the Summit. This could be a good opportunity for Celebrity to win over some new converts.

Some affected passengers have rebooked on Constellation, departing 24 March. That sailing is now completely sold out it seems.

I sat at the Engineers table recently on the Summit and to make a long story short was told that the Carnival line ships have fewer redundant systems than Celebrity ships.

 

In effect, they are built to a cheaper standard.

Really??? Don't the Summit engineers remember all the azipod probelems Celebrity encountered a few years ago? Talk about delayed/ cancelled cruises! Especially on the Summit.

When the wind blows------

You want to be in masonry or studs ??

Or other stated------ a mobile home or Anything else ?? :rolleyes:

Really??? Don't the Summit engineers remember all the azipod probelems Celebrity encountered a few years ago? Talk about delayed/ cancelled cruises! Especially on the Summit.

Wow... I guess you're going to come out against air bags too because of early failures... :rolleyes:

The pod is here to stay, it is as superior a technology as ABS breaks are to straignt drum brakes....

I may be wrong, but do they make large cruise ships without a pod (insert name brand here) anymore?

(Wait I know of at least one... Princess Cruises announces some new technical details about its latest cruise ships and in a surprise move will not be using Pod Propulsion." ) Hey, I guess it's cheaper! I'm still sailing on her though!!

http://boksamarinedesign.com/2012/03/pods-are-driving-change-in-the-marine-industry/

http://www.bairdmaritime.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=87&catid=77&Itemid=74

http://www.skipsrevyen.no/artikler/artikler-3-2011/136018.html

Lastly about pod, the pod helps cruise operators cut down on fuel consumption and reduce a ships carbon footprint. That is if fuel consumption is important to anyone. :rolleyes:

The main point at the dinner engineers table chat was redundancy.... what happened with a generator failure on that Carnival ship off Mexico would not have effected a Celebrity ship in the same nasty way. Heck, the elevators only have one set of buttons on a Carnival ship... always two on "X"

Wow... I guess you're going to come out against air bags too because of early failures... :rolleyes:

 

The pod is here to stay, it is as superior a technology as ABS breaks are to straignt drum brakes....

 

I may be wrong, but do they make large cruise ships without a pod (insert name brand here) anymore?

 

(Wait I know of at least one... Princess Cruises announces some new technical details about its latest cruise ships and in a surprise move will not be using Pod Propulsion." ) Hey, I guess it's cheaper! I'm still sailing on her though!!

 

If I am not mistaken NCL's Epic did not go with pods as well as the Concordia class ships, which Carnival Splendor (spam cruise) is of that class are conventional propulsion.

 

I believe that most of the pod problems were associated with the Rolls Royce versions of the azipod, which were used on Celebrity's ships. The good news is they finally figured out what was making the RR pods fail. You're probably correct, the initial installation of conventional propulsion is probably cheaper and it gets the job done:)!

Some affected passengers have rebooked on Constellation, departing 24 March. That sailing is now completely sold out it seems.

I loved the Connie. I have been on both ships-although the CP was a nice ship, I liked the Connie better. Those PAX will have a good time and should not be disappointed.

Just think-movie under the stars or a therapy pool. I take the therapy pool myself!

My last cruise was on the Caribbean Princess. Bummer!

I am not crazy about going on the Caribbean Princess. The Crown Princess did the same itinerary last year and I view the Caribbean as a step down from that class. We do like the itinerary and that's why we booked it. It's not cheap and Princes has the very small balcony rooms. We do need a change of pace from Princess. We'd love to do a Solstice class ship. But for the Baltics itinerary out of Amsterdam, the Constellation is the only choice - another older ship. Oh well.

I was on CP in 2006 and the Connie in 2007. The CP was around 2 years old when I sailed her and the Connie was around 5 years old when I sailed her. The Connie is only a couple of years older than CP. I still liked the Connie better. She has beautiful glass elevators -the end elevator faces the outside so you see the ocean as you ride the elevator. The centrum/atruim area on the Connie is also much more beautiful-and the big plus, is a 1000 less PAX on the Connie so disembarking at port is not as crowded.

Another thing, if I was doing the Baltic I would go for the heated therapy pool that is covered at all times over the open pools on CP.

I know Princess cruises are more expensive-just like RCI cruises. If you notice when cruises fares first come out-all the fares are similar, but for the most part Princess and RCI cruises do not come down in price, or at least not as much (some of the shorter RCI cruises will-but not usually the 7 day or longer)

Now, this is just my two cents and how I feel. We all have different like sand dislikes.

Honestly thoguh, between those two ships, although I like the Connie better, if the CP had a a port or two different, that I preferred over the Connie's offerings,I would go for CP.