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Triumph Blackout Firsthand Account

notyours75

By notyours75,
in Carnival Cruise Lines

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CdrescherRBL152

CdrescherRBL152

Posted
Posted

Thanks for the first hand account. Without having been there hard to tell for sure. But sounds like an injector made had stuck. After a few minutes the computer would have shut down the system to prevent damage to the engine. changing an injector would have been a relitivly quick job. And the extra fuel that would have been pumped into the engine involed would account for the darker exhaust. And of course the fire doors are held open by electiric mangets so when power was lost they closed. And again without being there can't say for sure but a stuck injector would account for what happened.

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winddawn

winddawn

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The wife and I just returned from Galveston where we spent the last week on the Triumph. Overall a great week and I will write up a full review shortly. However I've been getting questions from friends/FB people about the incident which we referred to as "the blackout". I'm not going to tell you what exactly happened but I will recount our experience and what we saw. Overall it was pretty much a non-issue.

 

Around 3:30 the wife and I were up on the Lido deck by the after pool. The sound/feel of the engine stopped and we could feel the ship start to decelerate. An officer, maybe the captain, got on the intercom and announced something that sounded like it was in Italian. Someone in the crowd asked what he said and someone else said "He said they lost power". About that time I noticed the fire doors close to the elevator area. None of the carnival staff appeared all that concerned though the pizza chef closed up his shop. The bar staff continued to walk around and talk with guests. The ship began to vibrate as they deployed what someone said was the "thrust reversers" and the ship came to a dead stop rather quickly.

 

I went where I could see the smoke stack and thick brown smoke was billowing out both sides of the whale tale. It was much darker than normal exhaust. About this time the cruise director Jen came on the speaker and said they were having technical difficulties that caused a loss of power. (No kidding was a response I heard.)

 

The "captain" got on the speaker again called out "Alpha team to the incinerator room deck 0" and then repeated it. A few moments later he came back on a gave the crew further instructions on staging locations on Deck 0 and some things I could not understand. About this time I could smell fuel oil or diesel on the lido deck area. It did not smell burning to me nor was any smoke visible on the deck. However the whale tale continued to poor out brown smoke.

 

At this point I decided it was best to be in our cabin and pondered such questions as "What do you need to wear if you have to abandon ship?" Again a quick check of the crew showed them to be looking more annoyed than alarmed so I was ok with that. But I didn't want to be on deck in a swimsuit if things went south.

 

We we downstairs to our cabin in the aft of Deck 7. (An L shape 7419) Emergency power was on and the lighting strips on the floor were lit. All the fire doors were shut. I marveled at the people trying to summon the elevators. Our cabin was dark except for the emergency light and the fact that its a balcony cabin. Jen gave updates every 10 minutes or so. She assured us there was not a fire but smoke from the incinerator room. I could smell a faint smell of the fuel oil.

 

I was amused that during one of her announcements some kind of alarm klaxon was going off in the background and you could hear people talking excitedly in what I think was Italian while she urged everyone to be calm. I have no idea where she was exactly in the ship however. We poked our heads out of the balcony and it was like a prairie dog camp with everyone else sticking their heads out over the side and talking to each other. We had been traveling approx north and the wind/current began to blow us southeast.

 

On a positive note a big school of jellyfish came up next to the boat and we could watch them float around. Not something we would have seen otherwise.

 

After about 20 minutes in the cabin the ventilation system came back on. The lights/ventilation/sanitary system came on and off a few times. After about 1 hour from the start Jen announced that full power has been restored and they would be starting the propulsion system soon and would slowly come up to speed. After a few more minutes we could feel the engines again and the ship slowly came back around to the north and regained speed.

 

We then ventured around the ship and noticed that the power fluctuated a few more times and the emergency power came back on in the hallways. We avoided the elevators for a few hours. We went up to the secret deck 9 right above the bridge. Several bridge officers (one of which I believe was the captain) were standing around talking on the phone and to each other. They did not appear upset or stressed. The captain stopped and greeted us warmly as we walked by. The world then returned to normal and we continued on our way.

 

I spoke with several of the staff throughout the evening including our waitress. They did not act excited about it, just kind of like it was no big deal. I did see one lady about an hour later walking around the lido deck with her life jacket in hand. Way to be prepared.

 

As I said after that everything was fine, dinner was served on time and the shows went on. We arrived in Galveston this morning about 4:30 instead of the scheduled 8:30. Jen said it was because they wanted to beat the forecasted morning fog, however I suspect this was to get a few extra hours of repair time in.

 

So do we know for sure what happened? No but Jen talked about it at the show that night and she spoke about what a great crew they had on the Triumph and how hard the crew had worked to get everything back in order. My impression was that nothing really bad happened but that we might have come close to something really bad. At no time was anyone in any danger and if the hour adrift was the worse thing that happened to anyone then you had a great trip. As Jen said during one announcement, "Things happen at sea". We're not the least bit upset by it, we felt it was handled professionally. However if Carnival feels like they need to give us a do-over cruise to make up for it I'd be happy to submit a list of days we're available and we'd be more than happy to sail the Triumph again.

Welcome to Cruise Critic. Thank you for sharing your experiences with us.

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gregg204

gregg204

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"She assured us there was not a fire but smoke from the incinerator room".

 

 

 

How stupid are people? You only get smoke from a fire, there is no other way of creating smoke. Why do Carnival keep on with the lies?

 

 

Really???? So every time I see people start there vehicles especially on cool mornings and I see smoke they're on fire? Wow, all this time I thought it was exhaust. And when the ships start up the engines to leave port I see this black smoke too. More fires? Give me a break.

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jks336

jks336

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I was on board and in the Lido hot tub when it happened. Announcements were hard to hear. The hot tub was still running the entire time and the blenders were working after about 10 minutes. I remained at the hot tub with a few other cruisers and we kept on drinking & soaking the sun up. Our waiter Lovejoy told us: "I'm no worried, mon. I have ice, and the blenders are good. What do you want to drink?"

 

:D I liked that

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gregg204

gregg204

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Everyone that was one the ship is stating over an hour. The clock on the ship must've stopped when the power went out. :p

 

I was on this cruise as well. Carnival is not lying. Full power was only down about 8 minutes. Thanks for writing this review and setting it straight before the story got out of hand.

 

 

Thanks Babsee, you are the 2nd person to confirm the 8 minutes. EZ you talked to "everyone" on that ship except babsee I guess. Its ok. I know I'd have a hard time interviewing all 2700+ passengers too. :D

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vols_159

vols_159

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That clearly conflicts with the 8 minute power outage that Carnival is stating.

 

 

Carnival probably said they were without power for 8 minutes while all the backups came on line and EM power was restored.. Main power was down for a longer period of time..

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loadpipes

loadpipes

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"She assured us there was not a fire but smoke from the incinerator room".

 

How stupid are people? You only get smoke from a fire, there is no other way of creating smoke. Why do Carnival keep on with the lies?

 

Really if was a stuck injector it would pump fuel into engine and cause it to smoke. If you know about diesel engine you would know this so i guess we arent that stupid as you might think.

I had had a turbo go bad on a diesel engine it look like the whole truck was on fire (which was a fire truck) but guess what no fire

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vols_159

vols_159

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"She assured us there was not a fire but smoke from the incinerator room".

 

How stupid are people? You only get smoke from a fire, there is no other way of creating smoke. Why do Carnival keep on with the lies?

 

 

You are wrong Electrical fires start smoking while getting hot.. Long before any "flame"

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Annie satx

Annie satx

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The only real bummer I experienced was the slot machines didn't function for hours!!!! Thank God I was not in an elevator. I saw the crew trying to pry the doors open to get ppl out. That was probably the worst anyone experienced during the Blackout (which was durng the day)

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Rena921

Rena921

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"She assured us there was not a fire but smoke from the incinerator room".

 

How stupid are people? You only get smoke from a fire, there is no other way of creating smoke. Why do Carnival keep on with the lies?

 

This was totally uncalled for. Anyone calling others stupid really shows their ignorance and immaturity. :mad:

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5Hawkeyes

5Hawkeyes

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Thanks for the honest and balanced review. Great to know first hand what some experienced. I'm sure others might have handled it differently, but I'm glad to hear you had a great time and it sounds like it was a non issue for you.

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buddha'smoo

buddha'smoo

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I would have been scared! Glad it turned out to be nothing bad.

 

What is "Alpha"? They did an Alpha page when we were on Victory two weeks ago but there was another page soon afterwards cancelling it.

 

It's a code for calling the fire team to a specific location, designed to keep the passengers unaware for unnecessary panic. They have them for all the various situations that make occur on board.

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eguiney

eguiney

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A very good description of the event. I also was on the cruise and at the rear pool area. We stayed up there and continued to have a few adult cocktails. BTW notyours75 we were in 7400. I will say that while the Triumph seems to be cursed, the crew did an excellent job. The situation was small but could have possibly gotten worse but the crew responded quickly and expertly. Some of the passengers not so much. One couple came back up to the pool area with their life vests

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notyours75

notyours75

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A very good description of the event. I also was on the cruise and at the rear pool area. We stayed up there and continued to have a few adult cocktails. BTW notyours75 we were in 7400. I will say that while the Triumph seems to be cursed, the crew did an excellent job. The situation was small but could have possibly gotten worse but the crew responded quickly and expertly. Some of the passengers not so much. One couple came back up to the pool area with their life vests

 

Yes I got a kick out of the various responses from people. Some would have stayed at the bar until the water over topped it, others were probably already down at the muster stations while others were punching the buttons on the elevators wondering why it was taking so long. One couple we talked to told us about how they made plans to jump from the lido deck and swim to one of the oil platforms. I asked them if they realized that the oil platform was probably 20 miles from us and if they had considered the fact that a jump from that height, even into water, would probably be fatal in and off itself. No they had not thought of either of those facts. There is a huge but subtle difference between sheep and lemmings.

 

When your out at sea you trust in the crew to do the right thing and take care of you. Our waitress told us later that evening with a laugh that she knew how to lower and drive the life boats so if it got bad she said to meet her at life boat 7 and we'd all make our escape. It was a memorable moment to a great week. Almost everyone I saw around the ship was having a good time before and after the blackout.

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