Triumph Blackout Firsthand Account

[shelle007]

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

 

I was also on the cruise and the 8 minutes is probably referring to the time that the electricity was out until the time the backup came on. It was probably about that long.

[shelle007]

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?"

 

Lovejoy was a hoot! I don't think much bothers him. He was our bartender during ATD and I asked him what cologne he was wearing the night of the blackout because he smelled fabulous. He told me the brand name and then proceeded to tell my husband how to use it. It was pretty funny stuff. lol

[BallFour4]

Amused how the other thread OP called for a scrapping of the Triumph. We sailed a 4 day trip in December and had a blast. The Triumph was clean, food was good and loved Marcello filling in for Jen Baxter. We will see Jen again soon!

 

Spring Break 2005 the Splendour of the Seas encountered the same problem between Cozumel and Galveston. We were on tthe 5 nighter when a high pressure line blew in the engine room and a small fire was extinguished. It never made the press. Watching the sunrise and arrival in port at 10:00am was really nice for a change, but I'm sure tough on those that had flights.

 

Thanks for your information OP.

 

 

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Edited February 2, 2014 by BallFour4

[CruisinCrow]

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

 

Thanks! When we heard the page, I thought it was an medical emergency. I guess I'm glad I didn't know it was the fire team.

[shelle007]

Jenn Baxter, the CD explained over the PA that some wires melted together and caused the power outage and when the power went down the ventilator fans in the incinerator room failed which caused smoke to back up. As soon as the problem was fixed, she said it would take time to slowly power back up the engines so we could be on our way. Like the original poster said it took just a little over an hour and we were back to cruising again.

 

We were in our room in 7268 with some friends having a little get together when the power went out. We all stepped out on the balcony to have a look when Jenn said the smoke was not a fire and not to panic. We did see smoke coming out of the whale tail but it was darker and more dense looking than usual. We spoke to others who were also on their balconies but we never left our room until later after the engines fired up and the ship began moving again. Everything went well after that and at least in my mind, Carnival handled things well. I wouldn't hesitate to get back on the Triumph at all.

 

I agree with the other poster that said the early arrival at Galveston probably had more to do with the blackout incident than the usual fog issues they have there all the time. Hopefully they checked things over after our arrival and made sure all was well before the next cruise departed.

[Debhar]

We were on the Breeze beside the Triumph in Cozumel on Thursday. It was nice to see her again, we were on her in 2002, brought back many fond family memories. Thanks for the firsthand account. We had terribly rough seas Thursday night then some clouds and rain on Friday until around 2:00 pm. But still an overall wonderful cruise.

[notyours75]

We were on the Breeze beside the Triumph in Cozumel on Thursday. It was nice to see her again, we were on her in 2002, brought back many fond family memories. Thanks for the firsthand account. We had terribly rough seas Thursday night then some clouds and rain on Friday until around 2:00 pm. But still an overall wonderful cruise.

 

We all enjoyed eyeballing the Breeze. We had rough seas Wed night from Progresso and Thursday night but woke up to sunshine and calm seas on Friday. Like you this was our first Carnival cruise in over 10 years and I was concerned about some of the reviews I had been reading about the ship and the line in general. There were some things we missed but there were also several new things we discovered that more than made up for it. I am working on a full review.

 

Again this was a very minor incident in the week. We had a very enjoyable cruise and almost everyone I saw, young/old, rich/poor, singles or groups were having a blast. The bachelorette party group was very entertaining the whole week. They by all accounts had a very good time. Maybe we are just very easy going and don't get worked up about too much.

 

I would have gladly stayed on board and gone again if we could.

[Sue Do-Over]

The smoke from the whale-tail would have been darker, and more dense, if the ship was stopped. While underway, the wind carries the smoke away more quickly. It would take real billows of thick, black smoke for me to be convinced there was a serious fire below decks.

 

We've heard the Alpha team call -- it is definitely the fire-response team, who are working in different parts of the ship otherwise, probably in maintenance or engineering.

 

We've also heard Bravo team and Delta team; but crew would not admit which means missing child, missing adult, fight in the nightclub, medical emergency, theft/casino issue, etc. Each would have a different, specially trained team respond.

 

Code Adam is a missing child alert -- named for Adam Walsh, the child who was kidnapped and murdered in the 80's. His dad did America's Most Wanted. Code Adam is a national program, like Amber Alerts, that outlines specific steps most retail stores follow when a child is reported missing.

[Pine Bluff]

I was also on the cruise and the 8 minutes is probably referring to the time that the electricity was out until the time the backup came on. It was probably about that long.

 

To me, that would be disingenous. Why not report the facts. They will eventully come up. They shouldn't always have to be corrected in their press releases.

[cantwait4cruise]

....and this is why I always have a little flashlight attached to my lanyard.

 

 

I am in a wheelchair and I carry a small pack on the back and I have a little flashlight that stays in the front pocket along with hand sanitizer, just in case LOL

[Mysticks1]

The smoke from the whale-tail would have been darker, and more dense, if the ship was stopped. While underway, the wind carries the smoke away more quickly. It would take real billows of thick, black smoke for me to be convinced there was a serious fire below decks.

 

We've heard the Alpha team call -- it is definitely the fire-response team, who are working in different parts of the ship otherwise, probably in maintenance or engineering.

 

We've also heard Bravo team and Delta team; but crew would not admit which means missing child, missing adult, fight in the nightclub, medical emergency, theft/casino issue, etc. Each would have a different, specially trained team respond.

 

Code Adam is a missing child alert -- named for Adam Walsh, the child who was kidnapped and murdered in the 80's. His dad did America's Most Wanted. Code Adam is a national program, like Amber Alerts, that outlines specific steps most retail stores follow when a child is reported missing.

 

If you search YouTube for videos of ship collisions there is one showing a Carnival ship hitting a RCI ship while pulling away from the dock, I believe in Cozumel. It was due to high winds. In that video you can clearly hear them announce "Tango Tango Tango" and give an area so I assume that has something to do with collision with another ship or object.

[Georgiagolfer]

To me, that would be disingenous. Why not report the facts. They will eventully come up. They shouldn't always have to be corrected in their press releases.

 

Give it up, surely you can find something better to comment against your despised CCL, especially since those on the ship during the event agree with CCL.

[5Hawkeyes]

Give it up, surely you can find something better to comment against your despised CCL, especially since those on the ship during the event agree with CCL.

 

Thank you:) It's like their life mission to put Carnival down!!!

[douglinc@msn.com]

It's nice to hear this report from someone that was actually there than to here the onesided report from CNN or MSNBC

 

Doug

[Smart Arsenal Fan]

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.

 

 

Well, yeah, but still....

 

(any Adam Carolla fans out there? ;))

[Tutankhamen]

Well, yeah, but still....

 

(any Adam Carolla fans out there? ;))

 

Love my Mangria!

[Tutankhamen]

Love my Mangria!

[Smart Arsenal Fan]

Love my Mangria!

 

Yes! Awesome idea... counts as wine, yes?

[Tutankhamen]

Yes! Awesome idea... counts as wine, yes?

 

Absolutely!

[AmandaBlue]

Thanks for your very detailed account!

 

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk

[nitro2448]

To me, that would be disingenous. Why not report the facts. They will eventully come up. They shouldn't always have to be corrected in their press releases.

 

 

What part are they lying about ?

[nitro2448]

Thank you OP for a first hand detailed account of the situation.

[IGGY63]

Great first hand review. Much appreciated.....

[notyours75]

What part are they lying about ?

 

I think some people are viewing the statement from Carnival that the outage was 8 minutes versus the entire length of the incident which was around an hour.

 

I think they are being truthful, power was completely out for about 8 minutes. After that systems, lights, etc started coming back up. However we noticed that some systems would come back on then quit after a few minutes so there was some up/down. It was around an hour for everything to be back to full power and the propulsion to start up again. In that time the bow went from facing roughly north to nearly SSE. You could see the wake trail from our room plus the angle of the sunlight changing.

[EZ4]

So the power was down for 8 minutes and the ship was dead in the water for an hour or so. Two different, but related events, with their own timelines. Carnival isn't lying. The passengers aren't lying. They're just talking about different things.