Journey Loses Power

[chessbriar]

I'm wondering if/when this information will be release publicly

 

Last night Journey suffered a blackout, engines stopped and the ship went black.

 

I hope it was human error. I have a friend on board who was in their cabin at the time. They could not find the door to check the hall. I'll see if I can find out more. They have power now.

[California Native]

I've been on 2 total blackouts

1. Radiance of the Seas 6 months ago in March. It was the 1st time I heard the Captain get on the pa system and call Echo Echo Echo this is not a drill, all officers report immediatly

2. Dawn Princess about 5 years ago

both were a bit scary. It doesn't seem like it would be, but it is.

We always pack travel flashlights and/or

those stick and click lights, obviously you just don't stick them...and keep them in our night stand drawer

Maybe the next port, your friend can pick up a travel flashlight

[chessbriar]

We always pack travel flashlights and/or

those stick and click lights, obviously you just don't stick them...and keep them in our night stand drawer

 

Maybe the next port, your friend can pick up a travel flashlight

Good advice. I had never thought of this until I read about the blackout

[chessbriar]

Update, The power first went out for a couple minutes, came back on, then out again for over an hour

[cindilouwho]

If that happened at night, I would run up to the top deck and watch the most beautiful display of night stars.

 

Did this happen in the Bermuda Triangle ;) ?

[chessbriar]

No, they are in the Med.

 

When everything is dark, finding the deck could be very difficult to find the deck. Pitch black, you have no idea where anything is and you are probably more likely to fall down the steps than find the steps up to the top deck. Plus if everyone trieds to make it up to the deck, so many people walking around likely to get injured running into someone you can't see.

 

If you are lucky you would have a balcony.

[roberts2005]

No emergency lights in the halls?

[fowlisbabe]

I've been on 2 total blackouts

 

1. Radiance of the Seas 6 months ago in March. It was the 1st time I heard the Captain get on the pa system and call Echo Echo Echo this is not a drill, all officers report immediatly

 

2. Dawn Princess about 5 years ago

 

both were a bit scary. It doesn't seem like it would be, but it is.

 

We always pack travel flashlights and/or

those stick and click lights, obviously you just don't stick them...and keep them in our night stand drawer

 

Maybe the next port, your friend can pick up a travel flashlight

 

We were on New Zealand to Australia cruise on Millennium Nov/Dec 2008 and suffered a complete blackout on our last night while docked in Sydney. We had my phone which has a back up light so we could manage ok. Biggest problem was no running water/toilet facilities but we did survive. Think most passengers were asleep as it was pretty late on, but the cruise director made an announcement at around 2am and no doubt woke everybody up or they would probably have been none the wiser!

 

It was off I think for a couple of hours but we managed to pass the time ok by having a couple of wee nightcaps and a good blether.

 

We weren't worried at all as we were docked but it would have been a different story if we were out at sea.

[Andy]

Hi Everyone !

 

We've had this happen, thankfully for very short periods. We always carry a couple of small flashlights, just in case.

 

Hopefully, everything is back to normal now. I will see if I can find out anything further.

[gosport11]

Dont the ships have emergency lighting?

[Andy]

Dont the ships have emergency lighting?

 

Hi Gosport !

 

They do have emergency lighting, so that's why any report of total darkness is unusual. Of course, anything is possible, if there were multiple system failures.

[chessbriar]

I don't know about emergency lights on the ship, I was just told the ship went pitch black. Hopefully, X will give a press release on this and we'll know more

[MightyQuinn]

We once had a total black-out in the middle of the nite aboard a HAL ship in the Caribbean. We were awakened by a loud thumping noise followed by eerie silence. Then lotsa rumbling that reverberaed thru our room. And utter darkness that lasted a few hours. We were cruising newbies at the time & thought it was quite scary.

[California Native]

Hi!

If they are in a inside or even outside cabin with limited lighting it would be hard to navigate INSIDE the cabin

When the Radiance had a total blackout..we were in Cabo San Lucas during the middle of the day.

My mom and I stayed onboard since we had been there many times so we were having lunch in the buffet

It was amazing how dark the buffet area became even though there are floor to cieling windows practically surrounding you.

The emergency lighting did kick in around the ship though.

K.

[chessbriar]

Pitch black in rooms, halls had minimal lighting

[Xport]

And can report that the information reported above is essentially correct and that the crew response was extraordinary...

 

The ship lost power for the first time shortly after we left Portofino for Livorno; the outage lasted for a few minutes... I was at dinner and, within a moment of the failure, there was emergency lighting in the Main Dining Room and service continued...

 

By my best estimate the second outage occurred about ninety minutes later and, once again, emergency lighting--albeit quite subdued relative to the norm--kicked in immediately where needed in the common areas [oddly enough, Mosaic seemingly was unaffected]... That outage lasted about an hour...

 

It's my understanding that staterooms--though surely not corridors--were completely dark... And the ship's engines, air conditioning system, elevators, toilets, etc all ceased to function for a time...

 

I'm no engineer but, if I understood it right, the problem was traced to a plumbing-type failure in a system that preheats the ship's oil; that caused water to leak into/contaminate the ship's fuel supply... We switched over to an auxiliary diesel power system that restored full functionality to all of the ship's systems, we arrived in Livorno on time on Friday morning, and--thus far--all has been functioning perfectly [at least from a guest perspective] since [it is now early Saturday morning; we are currently in route from Livorno to Bastia, Corsica]...

 

I have heard no guest complaints relative to the incidents... Kudos to the terrific Azamara staff for handling the issue so well and so professionally!

[JDGGG]

I am on this cruise as well and Xport's account of the event is entirely accurrate. I was most impressed about how the captain didn't try to beat around the bush and tell us exactly what was going on. It was strange just sitting in the Med with no power but never felt in danger. Yes the emergency lighting system was fully functional so the halls and public areas were lit.

[suec12]

Were people stuck in the elevators? My daughter always worries about this in Europe as many of them are a bit funky. She likes to take the stairs on the ship anyways but I don't think I'll mention the incident to her......

[TackyTourist]

When we were on Journey 8/29-9/12 they had several plumbing related issues. One night the port side from 7th deck and below were without water/toilets. Folks were using the public restrooms. Don't recall how long that lasted, I think for most of the night. On another day I recall seeing maintence people with plungers in hand and working on several bathrooms.

 

Perhaps something finally gave out. One of the ships officers mentioned that both ships will be going in to dry dock soon for a week or two for updates.

[CarlsbadSally]

Had the same experience on Holland America Ryndam a few years ago in Tampa harbor and again the next day offshore. It happened during dinner, and those who had late seating were served cold sandwiches around the ship. Lesson learned was to take a flashlight and battery operated nightlights.

[150edmiston]

Were people stuck in the elevators? My daughter always worries about this in Europe as many of them are a bit funky. She likes to take the stairs on the ship anyways but I don't think I'll mention the incident to her......

 

Suec12, what should happen, even if there is a total power out, is that the elevators should drop to either the bottom floor or a designated floor and the doors should power open by themselves via a battery back-up. This eliminates anyone being trapped during a fire etc. but you are correct as to some being 'funky'. Some countries don't observe the same obligations as the US or UK, legal or otherwise.

 

Emergency light failure should never ever happen. These are part of essential life preservation systems, like fire alarms, sprinklers etc. and should be backed up by independent generators that will kick in during emergency situations.

 

The bedside torch is a good idea, but you can rest easy if there is ever a serious problem.

 

David