Liberty engine issue

[sweettara]

so sorry that yall had to miss Jamaica we were gonna sail on liberty april 6 but had to cancel maybe that's a good thing I did that

[Russ Lomas]

We are currently on the liberty of the seas, February 23rd sailing out of Fort Lauderdale .. Yesterday it was announced that they are experiencing Engine problems and are now at a reduced speed ..because of this reduce speed they had to cancel the port stop in Ocho Rios Jamaica and continue on right to Fort Lauderdale in order to arrive home on Saturday. So a total of 3 sea days and only one port .. For our inconvenience they are issuing a credit to the onboard account an average of $100 for inside state room 200 for balcony. Let's just say there's a lot of unhappy people on board. I just wanted to give some people a heads up in case they were on the next cruise for the ship because it might not be fixed in time

 

Sorry to hear you missed a port on such a short trip. Now if it was me and I missed Jamaica and was offered on OBC instead, I would be grinning like a Cheshire cat because I always stay on the ship when we port in Jamaica anyways and it would just be extra cash back in my pocket.

[ryano]

I realize mechanical things break but this is getting ridiculous.

 

I have first timer friends going on this ship in a few weeks to celebrate an anniversary. i have been talking Royal Caribbean and Freedom class ships up to them big time. Now they cant even cancel their cruise :(

[Cindy]

I believe the dry dock will take place in January 2016. The last cruise before dry dock appears to leave on Jan 3, and the first cruise after appears to leave on Feb 7.

 

But that is a very long time to have the ship run with reduced speed. I wonder if they will bring her for a short dry dock just to fix the issue?

 

I don't think they could safely run the Liberty for any length of time without a repair. She's going to be sailing out of NJ this summer. There are some mighty long distances to cover on those itineraries -- in the Atlantic to boot.

[sauvichick]

You are so right Cindy. A five night cruise is short enough.

[Wildcatfish]

Liberty has a 2 day "repositioning" cruise scheduled May 5-6 with no passengers. I wonder if they might work in a quick fix and/or drydock around this time.

[bilyclub]

The question is ......is it a pod, screw, electrical, or actual engine problem ?

[topnole]

I'd take $200 to miss Jamaica all day long. Could be a lot worse IMO.

[Big_G]

Right on cue now that the Allure and Freedom OBC/No OBC threads are gone. :D

[A&L_Ont]

Bigger O no, I get off the oasis Saturday and get on the liberty....

 

jc

 

JC, how has the flowriding been? Hopefully great.

 

If Bogdan is on Oasis tell him that Andrew and Lisa from Canada say hello. He might still be on break but he thought he was returning to Oasis or maybe Allure. We hope to see him on Allure in a few weeks.

[kruzerci]

You've got to be kidding me. How does this keep happening?!

[woolfman72]

I hope everything goes ok for the rest of your trip. I am on the liberty in a few weeks. So looking forward to this vacation , I sure hope they get fixed whatever needs to be fixed. :o

[MinnesotaMommy]

I sure hope they get this resolved as we are on Liberty at the end of March. Our only other cruise was on Adventure last year when it had propellor issues. If we have another cruise with issues I don't think my family will ever want to cruise again!

[Judee]

Arrrr.. I've been living vicariously through my son and daughter-in-law who are onboard the Liberty. Tracking them using **********.com which showed the ship in Ochos for the day. So much for that web site (bs).

[rubrrick]

The question is ......is it a pod, screw, electrical, or actual engine problem ?

 

thank you for looking logically at what areas of the propulsion system might have mechanical problems.

 

These ships run with 5 or 6 engines running, to turn electrical power into propulsion, via electrical generators.

 

It sounds like a bearing problem on a pod, but only time will tell.

 

Rick

[allydown]

From what we've been told they are down an engine (maybe 2) and it means that the ship can only go so fast .. They have engineers meeting the ship in fll to identify the problem .. There are some back to back cruisers on this ship right now and they have been told that "royal Caribbean does not know when it will be fixed at this time "

[hales1284]

Liberty has six engines which put out 17,000HP each. They could have an engine issue however it's unlikely multiple failures occurred at once unless it's electrical. It's more likely another pod issue has come up forcing them to shut one down. If it's the center fixed pod and they determine a dry dock is necessary to fix the issue more than likely the propeller will be removed to reduce drag and liberty will continue on at reduced speed. Explorer sailed out of NJ without its fixed pod for months and I was just on the southern nine day run without any issues. For those of you sailing on Liberty soon just hope it's not of the azipods (rotating ones) because if one of those has an issue they likely will send it to dry dock for a repair.

[payitforward]

As much as I appreciate people sharing their knowledge of the pods, propellers and other systems with us, it still doesn't help. Until the engineers assess the situation, everything is speculation. Unfortunately, we have to wait until she gets back to Fort Lauderdale to find out what kind of problem it really is. (It's going to be a LONG couple of days!)

 

I'm just hoping and praying it's something they can fix quickly. I have 27 people on her on March 9th, and a lot of them are first-time cruisers.

[Desertbelle]

Liberty has a 2 day "repositioning" cruise scheduled May 5-6 with no passengers. I wonder if they might work in a quick fix and/or drydock around this time.

A dry dock can't be done in 2 days. It takes way longer than 2 days to get to the dry dock facility, get the ship out of the water, fix it, get it back in the water, and then sail back to where they are supposed to be. These things take a long time to both plan and execute.

 

The worst engine trouble cruise I have been on was several years ago on the Dawn Princess. We were the first cruise after a dry dock and they didn't inform us until AFTER final payment that the new engines were going to need a "breaking in period" and wouldn't be able to go full speed....our 10 day cruise and our 7 ports were reduced to 3 half-day ports and a lot of sea days. Princess gave us $100 across the board....didn't matter if you were in an inside cabin or suite. They lost my business forever after that!!

[Clarea]

I've been told by someone on board that 3 of the 6 engines are out right now. That would make it a generator problem, not a pod problem.

[backsbanny]

Bad news looks like liberty is going for drydock if there is a generator problem lets hope they dont need to cancel any sailings

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[chengkp75]

Saw this pop up yesterday, but was travelling, and couldn't respond till now.

 

I'll address posts in the order they were made;

 

Madison81: No disrespect to your husband at all, but until you've been on lots of ships for lots of time, and then specifically one ship for lots of time, you cannot tell whether a vibration is normal or not. Every ship's hull has a resonant frequency which is where vibrations will naturally be accentuated. This can vary with the draft and trim of the ship at the time. This natural frequency of vibration is generated by the passage of the propeller blades and water against the hull. This can be affected by sea condition, propeller speed, and water depth, and every ship will have a few conditions where the propeller speed is just right to induce quite a lot of vibration into the hull, and this is quite normal. As you mentioned, when the ship is "accelerating", it will pass through these bands of frequency, and the Captain and engineers are aware of them, and will try to minimize the time the ship spends in these bands. The more common failure of these pod propulsion units is with the thrust bearing, which will not be accompanied by vibration, vibration in a ship's propulsion is more commonly associated with a damaged propeller blade.

 

Oftheseascruiser: Probably not, unless this significantly affects revenue, as I believe the Oasis went nearly a year on two pods.

 

Allydown: they very likely have stopped for a while, in order to get someone down into the pod for inspection. You cannot enter a pod while underway.

 

Cindy: Liberty needs to make 18 knots for the NJ to Bermuda run, and the Freedom was making much more than that with a free-wheeling fixipod. If they pull the blades from the damaged pod, they should make this easily.

 

Wildcatfish: Two days is not enough time. First you have to get an "appointment" for the dock, then it takes 8-12 hours just to position the ship and pump the dock dry (and repeat to refloat), and a pod repair generally takes 5-7 days.

 

hales1284: While you are quite correct that a fixipod is less of an issue than an azipod, even if one azipod is down, they may not send her for docking right away, even if they could schedule the dock (the Freeport docks are usually booked solid nearly a year in advance). Loss of one azipod is no different in terms of speed than a fixipod, but because one of the redundant steering methods is out of commission, it will generally require tugs for docking, and the USCG will require a tug escort from the sea buoy to the dock in case of failure of the remaining steering (azipod).

 

From what I see, the 4 night to Cozumel is likely doable, maybe loss of an hour in port, as is the 5 night Cozumel and Belize. The Labadee and Ocho Rios 5 night might require a bit more rescheduling, or a change in routing.

[xpcdoojk]

JC, how has the flowriding been? Hopefully great.

 

If Bogdan is on Oasis tell him that Andrew and Lisa from Canada say hello. He might still be on break but he thought he was returning to Oasis or maybe Allure. We hope to see him on Allure in a few weeks.

 

It has been great. I did a great job of picking a week without Brazilians and Costa Ricans on holiday. There have been a few families from Vermont and New Hampshire. I think if you have to go with kids on Spring Break, you can't beat Vermont and New Hampshire for low numbers.

 

I am number 3 on the charts this week. We have Pezz at number 1 and a 19 year old from Vermont, Cody, at 1A, then me at a distant number 3. Then number 4 is even further distant. I don't know Bogdan by name, but I do not believe he is on board, as I have met most of the flowrider staff.

 

jc

[fish6]

I don't think they could safely run the Liberty for any length of time without a repair. She's going to be sailing out of NJ this summer. There are some mighty long distances to cover on those itineraries -- in the Atlantic to boot.

 

Totally agree! How would the ship make it to Bermuda with reduced speeds? It is already only 2 days in Bermuda which is not long enough in my opinion....I wish they would bring back the 7 day sailings like they had on Explorer a few years ago. We sailed on Freedom with those engine problems in December and I can tell you it was no picnic. :(

[A&L_Ont]

It has been great. I did a great job of picking a week without Brazilians and Costa Ricans on holiday. There have been a few families from Vermont and New Hampshire. I think if you have to go with kids on Spring Break, you can't beat Vermont and New Hampshire for low numbers.

 

I am number 3 on the charts this week. We have Pezz at number 1 and a 19 year old from Vermont, Cody, at 1A, then me at a distant number 3. Then number 4 is even further distant. I don't know Bogdan by name, but I do not believe he is on board, as I have met most of the flowrider staff.

 

jc

 

Sounds lke you picked a great week all the way through. What is a Pezz? I get the rest. If they do the BOB as a round robin like in November and 1 and 1A face each other you might be surprised where you fall in. I guess the folks from Vermont and NH are all skiing or boarding for their breaks. Bogdan might be there or not. We have sailed with the rest of them too, but we have sailed with him the most, 3 times in the last 2 years.

 

Hopefully Liberty will not let you down and you have anther great cruise. It is safe to assume it has a flowrider. ;) Hopefully they don't have to turn the power down there.

 

If you have a chance go to the Flow Show. The have changed it and there are some hilarious moments. Have a good last day on Oasis and enjoy Liberty.