Prima lost power last night?

[COcruise]

Odd I haven’t seen anything about it, Prima lost power last night maybe 3 am? We knew because the emergency lights woke us up and wouldn’t turn off. Then all the lights in our cabin came on multiple times and we couldn’t shut them off. Called the concierge and they said the whole ship lost power. We made it to our next port so more curious than anything if anyone knows more. 

[Beer Belly]

Not surprised.

[dock]

@Beer Belly, why is that not surprising. 
Isn’t is a new ship? 

[Beer Belly]

2 minutes ago, dock said:

@Beer Belly, why is that not surprising. 
Isn’t is a new ship? 

Yes, new ship. When we sailed, no pool....had cracks, drained and getting repaired, one hot tub down, septic smell on pool deck, worker welding hull cracks when we were at port, and many mention extremely noisy cabins creaking and banging.....ship has issues already.

[dock]

Yikes! Booked for August for Iceland/ Norway for itinerary. Maybe I should rethink! 

[ontheweb]

2 minutes ago, dock said:

Yikes! Booked for August for Iceland/ Norway for itinerary. Maybe I should rethink! 

It's a wonderful ship, and that's a great itinerary (that we sailed this past August.) People seem to really enjoy criticizing this ship.  

[dock]

@ontheweb, thank you. 
Our first time with NCL, route is perfect for us so we’ve decided to keep the booking, as we have lots of time to make a change if necessary. Thanks, 
 

[ontheweb]

2 minutes ago, dock said:

@ontheweb, thank you. 
Our first time with NCL, route is perfect for us so we’ve decided to keep the booking, as we have lots of time to make a change if necessary. Thanks, 
 

You're welcome.

 

And here's the review on these boards that I wrote. I think it would be fair to say it is on the whole positive, but does say somethings negative. After all, nothing is perfect.

 

 

[Laszlo]

54 minutes ago, COcruise said:

Odd I haven’t seen anything about it, Prima lost power last night maybe 3 am? We knew because the emergency lights woke us up and wouldn’t turn off. Then all the lights in our cabin came on multiple times and we couldn’t shut them off. Called the concierge and they said the whole ship lost power. We made it to our next port so more curious than anything if anyone knows more. 

Hard to believe the entire ship lost power since they have multiple system, maybe lights / cabin power to your section

[COcruise]

16 minutes ago, ontheweb said:

It's a wonderful ship, and that's a great itinerary (that we sailed this past August.) People seem to really enjoy criticizing this ship.  

I agree. I was more curious and NCL didn’t say anything formally. Just a tad scary but I know there are backup generators etc.

 

We actually are enjoying this ship and the itinerary, except for the fact they move patio furniture around on the haven pool deck above us at 4 am and it’s quite loud. Lesson learned. Otherwise, it’s been great and we would cruise Prima again. 

[shof515]

most likely switching from one generator/motor to another one caused some issues like the loads on each circuit was not even

[Liljo22]

1 hour ago, Laszlo said:

Hard to believe the entire ship lost power since they have multiple system, maybe lights / cabin power to your section

It can happen.  On my Oasis cruise in December, we lost total power for about 6 minutes.  When the power came back on, you can see and smell smoke outside and we stopped moving for about 30 minutes.  

[UKstages]

1 hour ago, ontheweb said:

It's a wonderful ship, and that's a great itinerary (that we sailed this past August.) People seem to really enjoy criticizing this ship.  

many people sail the prima without experiencing any difficulty whatsoever. it’s possible. but a large number of people experience a hellish nightmare from which there is no escape.

 

here’s my review of the prima, which is equal parts praise and damnation…

 

 

[BirdTravels]

2 hours ago, COcruise said:

I agree. I was more curious and NCL didn’t say anything formally. Just a tad scary but I know there are backup generators etc.

 

We actually are enjoying this ship and the itinerary, except for the fact they move patio furniture around on the haven pool deck above us at 4 am and it’s quite loud. Lesson learned. Otherwise, it’s been great and we would cruise Prima again. 

It happens all the time on all cruise lines. Random technical issues. Why don’t you ask on the ship. 

[ontheweb]

1 hour ago, UKstages said:

many people sail the prima without experiencing any difficulty whatsoever. it’s possible. but a large number of people experience a hellish nightmare from which there is no escape.

 

here’s my review of the prima, which is equal parts praise and damnation…

 

 

JMHO, but I think "a large number of people experience a hellish nightmare from which there is no escape" is an overstatement. I do feel for you that you had major problems, but I think a "large number"  is not really true.

[UKstages]

i say that based on the large number of highly critical responses for the ship i see on cruise critic and on social media. you didn’t see that sort of thing for the bliss, by comparison. i wrote a fair and highly favorable review of the ship in many regards. but I also noted significant flaws which affect many passengers.
 

say what you will about what constitutes a “large number,” but the fact remains that what ails the prima are things that are not unique to one cabin, one passenger’s journey or a one-off situation. the flaws are - generally speaking - hardwired into the ship’s design and ecosystem and they affect, yes, a large number of passengers trip after trip. 

[chengkp75]

3 hours ago, Laszlo said:

Hard to believe the entire ship lost power since they have multiple system, maybe lights / cabin power to your section

There really aren't multiple systems.  All of the generators, however many are on line together, all connect to one main switchboard (think of your local power grid).

2 hours ago, shof515 said:

most likely switching from one generator/motor to another one caused some issues like the loads on each circuit was not even

Nope.  When switching generators, the new one comes online, balances the load with the other generators online, then shifts load from the one to be taken off, to the rest that will remain on, and only then is the one to be taken off line disconnected and stopped.

1 hour ago, BirdTravels said:

It happens all the time on all cruise lines. Random technical issues. Why don’t you ask on the ship. 

Wouldn't say "all the time", but it is not uncommon.

 

The most likely cause of a total loss of power, what is called a "blackout", would be a stuck fuel pump on one of the diesels that are online.  This would limit the load that generator could produce, and likely slow the diesel to the point where it would come off line from safety features, placing too much load on the remaining diesels, which would then disconnect on safeties.  An alarm on a running generator will start another generator (they are always on standby), but this will take a minute or two, during which the ship is without power.

 

Now, once the ship's main power is lost, the emergency generator will start, and supply power to limited parts of the ship (steering, navigation equipment, automation, about 1 in 4 lights around the ship, bilge pumps, etc).  This takes about 45 seconds to happen, and sometimes the main generator that has been started gets online and generating power before the emergency generator can.

[Laszlo]

17 minutes ago, chengkp75 said:

There really aren't multiple systems.  All of the generators, however many are on line together, all connect to one main switchboard (think of your local power grid).

he most likely cause of a total loss of power, what is called a "blackout", would be a stuck fuel pump on one of the diesels that are online.  This would limit the load that generator could produce, and likely slow the diesel to the point where it would come off line from safety features, placing too much load on the remaining diesels, which would then disconnect on safeties.  An alarm on a running generator will start another generator (they are always on standby), but this will take a minute or two, during which the ship is without power.

 

Multiple systems was a bad term to use, interesting about loosing a generator, I would have thought and though wrong each gen say their are 4 of them each power 25% of the ship so the would never be overloaded. 

[COcruise]

18 minutes ago, chengkp75 said:

There really aren't multiple systems.  All of the generators, however many are on line together, all connect to one main switchboard (think of your local power grid).

Nope.  When switching generators, the new one comes online, balances the load with the other generators online, then shifts load from the one to be taken off, to the rest that will remain on, and only then is the one to be taken off line disconnected and stopped.

Wouldn't say "all the time", but it is not uncommon.

 

The most likely cause of a total loss of power, what is called a "blackout", would be a stuck fuel pump on one of the diesels that are online.  This would limit the load that generator could produce, and likely slow the diesel to the point where it would come off line from safety features, placing too much load on the remaining diesels, which would then disconnect on safeties.  An alarm on a running generator will start another generator (they are always on standby), but this will take a minute or two, during which the ship is without power.

 

Now, once the ship's main power is lost, the emergency generator will start, and supply power to limited parts of the ship (steering, navigation equipment, automation, about 1 in 4 lights around the ship, bilge pumps, etc).  This takes about 45 seconds to happen, and sometimes the main generator that has been started gets online and generating power before the emergency generator can.

Wow thank you. Great explanation! Sounds like what happened, only a few lights came on for maybe 5 or 10 min and everything else was out (who knows exact timing, very sleepy and so bright it woke up the kiddo) then all lights came on and off several times and couldn’t be shut off for a bit. I asked a few employees but they all just said ship lost power and it hadn’t happened before. I was just curious/nosey (lol) 

[chengkp75]

10 minutes ago, Laszlo said:

Multiple systems was a bad term to use, interesting about loosing a generator, I would have thought and though wrong each gen say their are 4 of them each power 25% of the ship so the would never be overloaded. 

The problem with that is what happens to that 25% of the ship when that engine needs maintenance (and minor maintenance starts at happening every 250 hours)?  Ships like the Prima, that have 5 diesel generators, are designed to be able to produce full power to the propulsion, even with one of the diesel generators down for maintenance (this is far more difficult with the ships that only have 4 generators).  This is useful, as the engines are required to be torn down for complete overhaul every 12,000 hours (about every 2 years), and this overhaul takes about 3-4 weeks to complete.  So, many ships are sailing around with one engine torn down completely, unable to run, for weeks on end, and no passenger notices anything, because either the ship can still make full speed on the remaining generators, or the itinerary has been altered to allow for the maximum speed attainable on the remaining generators.

 

Multiple generators, and they typically represent two different sized generators on any ship, allows for "fine tuning" of the generating plant to meet the electrical demand of the ship.  If the ship needs to go full speed, it will run 4-5 generators, if it only needs to go 12 knots to get to the next port in time, they will only run 2-3, and having different capacity generators allows for even more fine tuning to account for things like weather (i.e. sometimes they would run 1 large and 2 small engines, sometimes 2 large and 1 small).  Diesel generators are most efficient when operating at 85% capacity, so matching capacity to demand is critical to efficiency.

[Laszlo]

55 minutes ago, chengkp75 said:

The problem with that is what happens to that 25% of the ship when that engine needs maintenance (and minor maintenance starts at happening every 250 hours)?  Ships like the Prima, that have 5 diesel generators, are designed to be able to produce full power to the propulsion, even with one of the diesel generators down for maintenance (this is far more difficult with the ships that only have 4 generators).  This is useful, as the engines are required to be torn down for complete overhaul every 12,000 hours (about every 2 years), and this overhaul takes about 3-4 weeks to complete.  So, many ships are sailing around with one engine torn down completely, unable to run, for weeks on end, and no passenger notices anything, because either the ship can still make full speed on the remaining generators, or the itinerary has been altered to allow for the maximum speed attainable on the remaining generators.

 

Multiple generators, and they typically represent two different sized generators on any ship, allows for "fine tuning" of the generating plant to meet the electrical demand of the ship.  If the ship needs to go full speed, it will run 4-5 generators, if it only needs to go 12 knots to get to the next port in time, they will only run 2-3, and having different capacity generators allows for even more fine tuning to account for things like weather (i.e. sometimes they would run 1 large and 2 small engines, sometimes 2 large and 1 small).  Diesel generators are most efficient when operating at 85% capacity, so matching capacity to demand is critical to efficiency.

Thank you for the information

[chengkp75]

And, I'll add that this kind of engine failure could happen to any ship at any time, new, or old.

[www3traveler]

Yes, just read about a smaller American Queen ship docked in Portland, Maine in the last few hours, in which a crew member was burned in some type of electrical Engine Room fire. I am not sure but I think this particular ship is just a few years old.

[CruiseMH]

3 hours ago, chengkp75 said:

There really aren't multiple systems.  All of the generators, however many are on line together, all connect to one main switchboard

 

Practically all modern ships do have two main switchboards.

For exactly that reason there is NEVER the situation of a total power loss for a longer period.

 

[destar]

7 hours ago, ontheweb said:

It's a wonderful ship, and that's a great itinerary (that we sailed this past August.) People seem to really enjoy criticizing this ship.  

100% correct, sailed on the Prima before, can't wait to sail on sister ship the Viva next March.