Aos doa

[luv2cruiserccl]

I will not venture a guess as to why there will not be towel animals for the current cruise. However, you are under the common misconception about the ship's power plant and propulsion systems. The ship has several diesel engines that drive generators that generate electricity. This electricity is connected to a bus, or distribution grid similar to the "grid" on land, so the electricity is available wherever needed, hotel or propulsion. The fact that the ship has problems with the propulsion motors does not reflect a problem with generating electricity. The diesel generators are not "laboring", nor even are the propulsion motors, the propulsion motors have been stopped, and without the available horsepower from these stopped motors, the ship cannot make speed. The ship has 6 generators, and only one is needed to power all hotel functions, so the laundry will not be affected. Other than the engine department, no other department would be affected by these propulsion problems, so "normal maintenance" will not be affected.

 

From what I have ever heard u are correct engines just turn to make power thru generators at end of engines and pods etc are all electric driven thru motors so they only turn on whats needed for power. Just like when in port pods are not needed but ship still has power. Maybe they are so busy with luggage and hotel operations that towel animals are not a worry. I know my kids love the towel animals and would really miss them its special to them.

 

 

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[Folk Singer]

Totally agree .....they desire that much. They are probally finding out more here then from royal them selfs. Hopefully some of the people waiting to board will post here.

 

 

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lots of information here.

[Folk Singer]

Morning all I looked first thing this morning on marine traffic and seen aos still in port I hope they provide all onboard some better information today and yesturday in san juan and the texas oil and port closed seemed like a train wrench in the public relations dept. I truly hope u can sail and not have any more problems.

 

 

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agree whole heartily.

[Familygoboston]

Silly Question: How does a propulsion problem affect hotel operations? Are the room stewards so busy fixing the propeller that they don't have time to make towel animals? I would think that with a couple thousand unhappy customers, they would ask other parts of their staff to go the extra mile to make sure that people find something to be happy about.

 

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I knew that what Chief said was true (separate power systems), so I wondered about this too...here are my ideas:

 

they had to off load a few room stewards to open some crew cabins for more engineers and mechanics???

 

they are looking to make a few bucks back on a bad situation, a little less laundry is a little more cash on a cruise that is already bleeding profit??

[chengkp75]

I don't think they would have taken crew off to make room for technicians. Generally, additional technicians are placed in guest cabins, as the crew are all needed for emergency duties as well as their normal duties. My guess is that it is a drydock preparation thing, with the housekeeping staff needed to perform the additional work (storing things, moving things from areas due for refurbishment, etc) that would normally be done in the time spent doing the towel animals. This might have been decided before the propulsion problems cropped up. Recent changes to international regulations on crew work/rest hours (the Manila Convention, or MLC 2000) may be driving this, in that the lines cannot dump the additional time required to make ready for the shipyard on the crew without compensation or compensatory rest periods.

[Ocean Boy]

This whole mess reminds me of a couple of years ago when a storm was barreling down on San Juan and they had a ship (Serenade I believe) leave port early. Plenty of passengers arrived at the port to find the gates closed, no information available, and no communication from RCI.

 

One measure of a company is not how they perform when thigs go right but how they perform when things go wrong. RCI does not seem to be learning from history. And as the saying goes... those who forget about history are doomed to repeat it. Writing as someone who really likes the RCI product, I am very disappointed with their performance on this issue.

[colesc15]

Silly Question: How does a propulsion problem affect hotel operations? Are the room stewards so busy fixing the propeller that they don't have time to make towel animals? I would think that with a couple thousand unhappy customers, they would ask other parts of their staff to go the extra mile to make sure that people find something to be happy about.

 

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My guess is the no towel animal thing is because of the towel shortage.. on our cruise last week, one day when we were floating around the ocean, they made an announcement that there was a shortage of pool towels and we would need to use our room towels at the pool if there weren't any pool towels available

[cruizinawayinva]

I'm not sure how exactly to attach a picture but the letter in our cabin says towel animals are off-duty this week due to limited access to their onboard bath areas. Royal Caribbean is upgrading their washing machines to become more environmentally friendly. They also left an instruction sheet on how to make your own towel animals.

[reallyitsmema]

Thanks for putting an end to this crazy speculation going on.

 

Hope you can still get a couple made for your little boys.

Edited March 24, 2014 by reallyitsmema

[sr71pav]

I will not venture a guess as to why there will not be towel animals for the current cruise. However, you are under the common misconception about the ship's power plant and propulsion systems. The ship has several diesel engines that drive generators that generate electricity. This electricity is connected to a bus, or distribution grid similar to the "grid" on land, so the electricity is available wherever needed, hotel or propulsion. The fact that the ship has problems with the propulsion motors does not reflect a problem with generating electricity. The diesel generators are not "laboring", nor even are the propulsion motors, the propulsion motors have been stopped, and without the available horsepower from these stopped motors, the ship cannot make speed. The ship has 6 generators, and only one is needed to power all hotel functions, so the laundry will not be affected. Other than the engine department, no other department would be affected by these propulsion problems, so "normal maintenance" will not be affected.

 

I had thought that, with the azipod systems being electric drive rather than mechanical, it would all tie back to the same diesel electric systems. Is that not the case?

 

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[vivianmarie244]

I'm on board now. The letter we received said the fixipod was broken and it would take at least 24 hours to repair. So we would not sail until sometime tonight. Actual time will be announced later today. We will miss Barbados tomorrow and will resume our itinerary Wednesday. A $250 onboard credit will be added to our account. If not used, we will be refunded the balance at the end of the cruise. Of course, all RCCL excursions for Barbados will be refunded as a credit to our onboard account.

 

As for the towel animals, the letter in the stateroom said it was due to new washing machines being installed to become more environmentally friendly. They provided a how-to flyer on how to make towel animals in the cabin. There is also supposed to be an onboard demonstration at some point.

 

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Edited March 24, 2014 by vivianmarie244

[megr1125]

I'm not sure how exactly to attach a picture but the letter in our cabin says towel animals are off-duty this week due to limited access to their onboard bath areas. Royal Caribbean is upgrading their washing machines to become more environmentally friendly. They also left an instruction sheet on how to make your own towel animals.

 

 

well...making them is fun...even moreso after a few frozen thinggies...

 

Sent from my Galaxy S3, somewhere in the galaxy

[chengkp75]

I had thought that, with the azipod systems being electric drive rather than mechanical, it would all tie back to the same diesel electric systems. Is that not the case?

 

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Yes, but if one or two azipod motors are out of service, that does not affect the generation of electrical power, any more than if your washing machine and dryer at home were out of service, it would not affect your local power utility. The 6 diesel generators are all connected together electrically, so any no one generator is designated specifically to propulsion or hotel. The 6 generators on Adventure are capable of generating a total of 75.6Mw of power, and the 3 azipods, if all were running at full load would only require 52.2Mw. There is plenty of reserve power for hotel functions and maintenance.

[Ocean Boy]

There are towels for people to make their own animals but no towels for the cabin attndents to make them? I hope the next letter delivered is not the instructions for how to make your own bed.

[chengkp75]

I'm on board now. The letter we received said the fixipod was broken and it would take at least 24 hours to repair. So we would not sail until sometime tonight. Actual time will be announced later today. We will miss Barbados tomorrow and will resume our itinerary Wednesday. A $250 onboard credit will be added to our account. If not used, we will be refunded the balance at the end of the cruise. Of course, all RCCL excursions for Barbados will be refunded as a credit to our onboard account.

 

As for the towel animals, the letter in the stateroom said it was due to new washing machines being installed to become more environmentally friendly. They provided a how-to flyer on how to make towel animals in the cabin. There is also supposed to be an onboard demonstration at some point.

 

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Yes, if they are renewing laundry equipment, they will be progressively taking machines out of service, disconnecting them, and moving them (if possible) to prepare for the renewal in the shipyard. Frequently, it requires cutting out the side of the ship to install/remove these large laundry machines.

 

Vivianmarie, could you confirm that all of the problems are with the center fixipod? (not to intrude on your vacation time, just professionally curious). The tug escort into port and while docking would indicate that one of the steerable pods was also out of commission, as this is standard in US ports when the second method of steering fails.

[Holidayhopes]

This whole mess reminds me of a couple of years ago when a storm was barreling down on San Juan and they had a ship (Serenade I believe) leave port early. Plenty of passengers arrived at the port to find the gates closed, no information available, and no communication from RCI.

 

One measure of a company is not how they perform when thigs go right but how they perform when things go wrong. RCI does not seem to be learning from history. And as the saying goes... those who forget about history are doomed to repeat it. Writing as someone who really likes the RCI product, I am very disappointed with their performance on this issue.

 

We found this out on our recent Star Flyer cruise in Cuba.

[cruizinawayinva]

There are towels for people to make their own animals but no towels for the cabin attndents to make them? I hope the next letter delivered is not the instructions for how to make your own bed.

 

I think it is instructions to take home and make them with your own towels at home. ;)

[vivianmarie244]

Yes, if they are renewing laundry equipment, they will be progressively taking machines out of service, disconnecting them, and moving them (if possible) to prepare for the renewal in the shipyard. Frequently, it requires cutting out the side of the ship to install/remove these large laundry machines.

 

Vivianmarie, could you confirm that all of the problems are with the center fixipod? (not to intrude on your vacation time, just professionally curious). The tug escort into port and while docking would indicate that one of the steerable pods was also out of commission, as this is standard in US ports when the second method of steering fails.

 

They didn't say anything other than it was due to a mechanical issue with the ship's fixipod.

 

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Edited March 24, 2014 by vivianmarie244

[colesc15]

I think I'll be composing my email to them today.. Should I just send it to the email address they give as the "contact us" section on their website?

[erniebert]

I would CC any email to Adam Goldstein as well

[luv2cruiserccl]

I would CC any email to Adam Goldstein as well

 

Cc a link to all the threads on cruisecritic and all the comments and how many people have viewed! Lol jk

 

 

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[RoyalCarib4us]

Vivianmarie, could you confirm that all of the problems are with the center fixipod? (not to intrude on your vacation time, just professionally curious). The tug escort into port and while docking would indicate that one of the steerable pods was also out of commission, as this is standard in US ports when the second method of steering fails.

 

Left AOS yesterday....in less than lay-mans terms, the center prop was the problem. We traveled 1.3 to keep the center prop from turning (?)because the prop turning was causing issues with the shaft and oil leaking. We could travel with the two side props but the center prop needed to be repaired or removed.

 

New captain was due yesterday - is it Captain Ron??

[colesc15]

Is there an actual email address I can send to? When I click on contact us, it just brings me to a page to fill out and put my "comments" in the little box below? Is there an actual email address and also an email address to CC Adam Goldstein in on it as well, versus' just doing the "contact us"?

[chengkp75]

Vivianmarie, could you confirm that all of the problems are with the center fixipod? (not to intrude on your vacation time, just professionally curious). The tug escort into port and while docking would indicate that one of the steerable pods was also out of commission, as this is standard in US ports when the second method of steering fails.

 

Left AOS yesterday....in less than lay-mans terms, the center prop was the problem. We traveled 1.3 to keep the center prop from turning (?)because the prop turning was causing issues with the shaft and oil leaking. We could travel with the two side props but the center prop needed to be repaired or removed.

 

New captain was due yesterday - is it Captain Ron??

 

Thanks;

 

This gives me a better picture of what happened. The propeller shaft seal failed on the center fixipod (the original oil leak in St. Kitts). This seal failure would lead to actions to minimize oil loss to the sea, and these actions could cause water ingress to the pod bearings. Normally a pod that is out of action is allowed to free-wheel to reduce drag, but this free-wheeling requires good lubrication of the pod bearing. If significant water entered the lubrication system, these bearings could overheat, causing more damage to the pod, which is what appears to happen (someone posted about a burning smell). So they keep the ship speed down to prevent the damaged pod from turning, and now they are working on either getting the lubrication system to where they can allow the prop to turn without leaking to sea (not likely), or locking the shaft from turning (which would cause a tremendous amount of drag). I think Radiance had the blades removed from a damaged pod for about a year, so they may be doing this to reduce drag.

[mo&fran]

Left AOS yesterday....in less than lay-mans terms, the center prop was the problem. We traveled 1.3 to keep the center prop from turning (?)because the prop turning was causing issues with the shaft and oil leaking. We could travel with the two side props but the center prop needed to be repaired or removed.

 

New captain was due yesterday - is it Captain Ron??

 

Thanks;

 

This gives me a better picture of what happened. The propeller shaft seal failed on the center fixipod (the original oil leak in St. Kitts). This seal failure would lead to actions to minimize oil loss to the sea, and these actions could cause water ingress to the pod bearings. Normally a pod that is out of action is allowed to free-wheel to reduce drag, but this free-wheeling requires good lubrication of the pod bearing. If significant water entered the lubrication system, these bearings could overheat, causing more damage to the pod, which is what appears to happen (someone posted about a burning smell). So they keep the ship speed down to prevent the damaged pod from turning, and now they are working on either getting the lubrication system to where they can allow the prop to turn without leaking to sea (not likely), or locking the shaft from turning (which would cause a tremendous amount of drag). I think Radiance had the blades removed from a damaged pod for about a year, so they may be doing this to reduce drag.

I believe Radiance class only has two azipods. Wouldn't removing a prop be problematic?