Caribbean Princess Propulsion Problems

March 13, 2012

Princess Cruise Ship Delayed Due to Propulsion Issues

(4:30 p.m. EDT) -- An issue with the propulsion motor on Caribbean Princess will likely impact the remainder of the ship's current itinerary, according to a statement from Princess Cruises.

As a result of reduced speeds caused by the problem, the ship arrived more than four hours late for its scheduled call on St. Maarten on Monday, and it will stay there until the situation is fully evaluated by the line's technical team.

Princess has not yet released an updated schedule for the seven-night Southern Caribbean voyage, but a few folks on the Cruise Critic message boards have said the ship is still in port.

"We are currently on the Caribbean princess, at this point we have been told to be on board by 6:00pm for departure at 7," says said BCFamily. "We have been told that they have significant damage to the port side propulsion engine and that they will have a revised itinerary later this afternoon."

Additionally, several boards members booked on subsequent sailings and are wondering whether the necessary repairs will affect them. "We are boarding this coming Sunday," says decibel123. "Does that mean our cruise could be cancelled? We are flying out from Montreal and did our own air transportation. Would Princess reimburse our flight?"

Issues like these beg questions of what, if anything, the line will offer in the way of compensation. Join the discussion here, and stay tuned for more information as it becomes available.

--by Ashley Kosciolek, Copy Editor

From the comments below this article -

We were on the Caribbean Princess last month and there were propulsion problems then. We were supposed to leave one port at 5:00pm and didn't leave until shortly before midnight because of the propulsion problem. I'm surprised the (continuous?) propulsion problem is just now hitting the news.

This sounds like a continuous propulsion problem.

What are your thoughts on the matter of repairs? Do you think cruise lines are allowing sufficient time to repair problems, such as this, asap?

Before someone states the obvious that this ship is not in Australia, and this is an Australian thread, I raised the matter, for comment, because I think it is a real issue for Aussies and Kiwis who have to fly so far long haul to join overseas cruises.

Comment from HAL thread, "More Cruise Ship Trouble" -

These reports make me wonder if the cruise lines have all been cutting back on preventative maintenance programs or extending the replacement intervals of certain components in order to cut expenses.

So far Statendam, Caribbean Princess, and Allegra have reported engine failures of one sort or another. Makes one wonder if there will be more. Power/propulsion failures at sea are extemely dangerous.

The industry keeps telling us how safe cruising is and how much they are committed to 'safety'. What they don't seem to be telling us is how much they are budgeting to increase safety across their respectives lines or how much more they plan to spend on preventative maitenance issues. I hope that their collective renewed efforts includes more than the cost of the PR campaigns and advertising space.

iancal; Yesterday at 12:20 AM.

Before someone states the obvious that this ship is not in Australia, and this is an Australian thread, I raised the matter, for comment, because I think it is a real issue for Aussies and Kiwis who have to fly so far long haul to join overseas cruises.

And thank you for doing so. It reinforces the need for Au/NZers to check their travel insurance and make sure they are covered for such an event.

We tend to be too trusting in our easy world down here.

It would be terrible to travel all that distance and then have something like this happen, but we must all be aware that it can happen and prepared to cope with it , if it does.

Must be bad . They have now cancelled 2 cruises.

http://www.cruisecritic.com/news/news.cfm?ID=4781

Yes, sounds bad with two future cruises cancelled. The necessary repairs will tentatively be completed in time for the ship's April 1 sailing from San Juan.

In response to Princess's denial that there had been propulsion problems on previous cruises -

Princess representatives should talk to the captain. It was he who ANNOUNCED OVER THE PA that our delays (on the 1/29-2/5 sailing) were due to propulsion problems.

http://www.cruisecritic.co.uk/news/news.cfm?ID=4781