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Grand Princess on Fire

etoile

By etoile,
in Princess Cruises

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divamom2

divamom2

Posted
Posted
Your T.A. feeding you a lot of merde.

 

:o apparently so. It would appear she doesn't know Princess well, which is odd since she recommended them.

 

Oh well - doesn't much matter as long as I get to sail on Saturday.

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whale-watcher

whale-watcher

Posted
Posted
Yeah lol, maybe find a new TA. That is one of the most ridiculous things I have ever heard. It is no fault of your own.

Princess has all of their ships sailing constantly, they dont have any spare ones laying around.

these days even airlines often don't have extra aircraft available...
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jules79

jules79

Posted
Posted
We are also on the Grand this Saturday. And we also have a useless TA.

 

Does anyone know how to get more information on the ship's condition and plans for next week?

 

 

I spoke to princess again today and they say the ship is fine...there was an issue but it was resolved.

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jules79

jules79

Posted
Posted

We don't know if it was even the turbos....its obvious that usatoday is making this sound worse than it actually was....I'm telling you that they keep saying the boat was fixed in grand cayman and it was only a minor issue. I know Princess would down play this, but I also think that if it was an issue that could jeopardize the next cruise then we (the ones leaving on her april 4th) would know. I mean its less than three days away and people are already heading to Ft. Lauderdale and Princess knows that. I think they know they would have a lot of pissed off people if they did that.

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natnat8465

natnat8465

Posted
Posted
Just quoting what my TA said:

 

"

What the cruise lines will do is have the ship repaired, if it is not ready in time, they will have another Princess ship put into its place.

 

I will keep an eye out and see if we hear of anything else."

 

All I can do is go with what I am told.......



:rolleyes:

 

I told my DH about this and he asked if that ship was called the Spare Princess. lol.

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GKCruisers

GKCruisers

Posted
Posted

If Princess has another ship sitting around waiting to be called to the rescue then they have to be the dumbest bunch in the world. Can you imagine having many, many millions of dollars tied up in a ship that was not being utilized?

 

I posted this reply on the roll call a few hours ago:

"My TA called Princess today and told me that everything is a go. There are repairs to be done in Fort Lauderdale but they expect they will be done in time. Having worked in the shipbuilding industry (submarines) I can imagine that they have the material ready and staged, personnel available and briefed, engineering paperwork prepared and reviewed and a schedule prepared down to the hour (or less) so that they will be able to hit the ground running. They have too much money and PR riding on something like this to screw it up. That does not mean there is a guarantee that all will go well. Remember Murphy's Law."

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SeaTeacher

SeaTeacher

Posted
Posted

Hi Folks! Yes I am live aboard the Grand Princess. It is my first cruise without Fuzzzy, so there is definitely an empty place in my heart. But, I am doing this cruise with a terrific friend and we are having a wonderful time.

As for the “incident” (that’s how the CD referred to it): It really wasn’t a big deal to the average passenger. Yes the crew did start running when the fire alarm sounded in the public spaces. Some inexperienced crew members told a few passengers to go back to their cabins and get their life jackets. But, the general alarm never sounded. In fact, within a couple minutes of the short fire alarm, the staff captain was on the intercom letting everyone know the situation was under control. Just a few minutes later, he came back and announced all crew members should “stand down and resume their normal duties.”

There were only two outward indicators of the problem. I was told by a passenger that one section of the ship lost power for about 1 minute. But the big indicator of a problem was large billowing clouds of black smoke coming out of the funnel. The smoke stopped after several minutes. We were dead in the water just minutes after we had departed from Ocho Rios. I would estimate we sat there for about and hour or a little more. Just as we got underway again, the captain announced we would arrive in Grand Cayman at least two hours late because we had only five of six engines working. When I woke up the next morning, we were pulling into port but only a little more than one hour late.

During my scuba dive, one of my fellow divers said he had been using his portable GPS to track the speed of the ship. We were doing about 14 knots after the engine fire. But, during the night they were able to kick it up to 19.6 knots – a normal cruising speed.

On Wednesday we had drinks with one of the assistant cruise directors and she remarked the engineering staff “finally finished repairing the engine, poor dears.” I don’t think future cruises will face cancelation.

In my mind, this incident was less disruptive to passengers than a similar problem I experienced when I was on the Sun Princess last summer when smoke was spotted in a passenger corridor at 3am. Engine rooms are well equipped to handle fires. I never felt afraid. In fact, I just took a nap.

I’ll write and post a more thorough review when I return to Seattle.

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FamilyGuy1010

FamilyGuy1010

Posted
Posted

Hi:

 

I too, was on this sailing. I happened to be on my balcony when the smoke began. I took photos. Anyway, while initially unnerving, especially to hear the alarm sound (one long tone, not the GES). However, as described earlier, the staff captain informed us the problem was with an engine and under control. So I went in and dressed for dinner!

 

Anyway, the ship burns bunker grade fuel (thicker than diesel). Any writing of exactly what happened would be pure speculation, as we weren't told. However, seeing some of these old diesel trucks and cars spewing thick black smoke, I can understand how a ship's engine might do the same.

 

After Grand Cayman, the ship was back to full speed again. We were traveling over 23 knots on Thursday. So all is well.

 

Regards,

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kywildcatfanone

kywildcatfanone

Posted
Posted
Hi Folks! Yes I am live aboard the Grand Princess. It is my first cruise without Fuzzzy, so there is definitely an empty place in my heart. But, I am doing this cruise with a terrific friend and we are having a wonderful time.

As for the “incident” (that’s how the CD referred to it): It really wasn’t a big deal to the average passenger. Yes the crew did start running when the fire alarm sounded in the public spaces. Some inexperienced crew members told a few passengers to go back to their cabins and get their life jackets. But, the general alarm never sounded. In fact, within a couple minutes of the short fire alarm, the staff captain was on the intercom letting everyone know the situation was under control. Just a few minutes later, he came back and announced all crew members should “stand down and resume their normal duties.”

There were only two outward indicators of the problem. I was told by a passenger that one section of the ship lost power for about 1 minute. But the big indicator of a problem was large billowing clouds of black smoke coming out of the funnel. The smoke stopped after several minutes. We were dead in the water just minutes after we had departed from Ocho Rios. I would estimate we sat there for about and hour or a little more. Just as we got underway again, the captain announced we would arrive in Grand Cayman at least two hours late because we had only five of six engines working. When I woke up the next morning, we were pulling into port but only a little more than one hour late.

During my scuba dive, one of my fellow divers said he had been using his portable GPS to track the speed of the ship. We were doing about 14 knots after the engine fire. But, during the night they were able to kick it up to 19.6 knots – a normal cruising speed.

On Wednesday we had drinks with one of the assistant cruise directors and she remarked the engineering staff “finally finished repairing the engine, poor dears.” I don’t think future cruises will face cancelation.

 

I’ll write and post a more thorough review when I return to Seattle.

 

SeaTeacher's quote is accurate. Up on Deck 14, after the alarm was over and things started returning to normal, one of the crew did use the word "fire" about an engine, but then said that it was all under control, then the announcements began to be made ship wide over the PA. I don't know if there was ever a "fire", but after Grand Cayman, everything seemed fine. I posted a picture from Deck 15 shortly after the black smoke started to spew on my mini-review in another thread.

 

Thanks,

 

Mike

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kywildcatfanone

kywildcatfanone

Posted
Posted
YIKES! That looks pretty scary. I'd have been scared if that was me! Funnels aren't supposed to do that! :eek:

 

Actually I don't recall hearing any unusual noises until the alarm started sounding. It wasn't the GES signal, but a long (seemed like a minute) horn sound. Like I said in my review post, the crew on deck with us at the time didn't seem to know what the sound was for either. It wasn't until their two way radios went off that they postponed the demo they were doing and left the pool area. That's when I noticed the black smoke rolling out of the stack.

It was a few minutes later when the crew returned to the pool and announced that something had happened in the engine room, and a few minutes later before the PA announcement. There was no explosion or anything like that. I took about 4 pictures of the smoke clouds, but the one I posted was the best one.

 

Mike

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8summersoff

8summersoff

Posted
Posted

I was on the Grand Princess, sitting on the pool deck when there was a loud noise and a cloud of black smoke. It was kind of funny because the crew kind of looked at each other wondering if it was a drill or not. About 30 minutes later the captain made a short announcement that one of the engines had sustained some damage but there wasn't any emergency. We did arrive into GC at 9:45 and some excursions had to be amended or canceled. No big. But the ship was never engulfed in smoke, not even close to it. So don't believe everything you read!

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