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Azipod on the Pearl

TMLAalum

By TMLAalum,
in Norwegian Cruise Line

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time2cruise1

time2cruise1

Posted
Posted
I have a quick question: If the Pearl doesn't stop in Canada due to the azipod problem isn't that a violation of the Jones Act? Would NCL be fined?

 

It will stop there be it ever so brief. What was posted is the 8/24 sailing will have NO time to disembark in Victoria

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blackerbys17

blackerbys17

Posted
Posted
It will stop there be it ever so brief. What was posted is the 8/24 sailing will have NO time to disembark in Victoria

 

Oh I see. Thank you for clearing that up. So all it has to do is stop at Victoria to comply with the Jones Act yet it ned not disembark...

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lambchoplady

lambchoplady

Posted
Posted

I just have to share my recent conversation with DH with those of you who responded to my question about the Azipod. :) DH is an engineer by trade and knows a lot of things that I could care less about. So, this morning, armed with my new knowledge. I said "Do you know what an Azipod is?" several minutes later, when he stopped talking, I told him that one was broken on the Pearl. . . . another few minutes of chatter . . . Then he said, "Don't you remember when I showed it to you on our last cruise?" :confused: !!! That was back in 2005, and it was the Majesty - he has no idea what the name of the ship was, but he does remember the azipod!

 

ya gotta luv him!

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ohioNCLcruiser Great Review Rare

ohioNCLcruiser

Posted
Posted
I just have to share my recent conversation with DH with those of you who responded to my question about the Azipod. :) DH is an engineer by trade and knows a lot of things that I could care less about. So, this morning, armed with my new knowledge. I said "Do you know what an Azipod is?" several minutes later, when he stopped talking, I told him that one was broken on the Pearl. . . . another few minutes of chatter . . . Then he said, "Don't you remember when I showed it to you on our last cruise?" :confused: !!! That was back in 2005, and it was the Majesty - he has no idea what the name of the ship was, but he does remember the azipod!

 

ya gotta luv him!

 

The Majesty doesn't have azipods though, but I get what you meant :-)

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cruizinwithkids

cruizinwithkids

Posted
Posted
The Majesty doesn't have azipods though, but I get what you meant :-)

 

Do all the ships built since the Dawn have azipods? I remember the Dawn having problems. I don't remember anything about the Jewel ever having problems. I'm also pretty sure I've read about Celebrity ships having azipod problems.

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time2cruise1

time2cruise1

Posted
Posted
Do all the ships built since the Dawn have azipods? I remember the Dawn having problems. I don't remember anything about the Jewel ever having problems. I'm also pretty sure I've read about Celebrity ships having azipod problems.

 

They all do from the Star on. The Spirit does not. I also think I saw that the Pride of America does not either. The new F3s will not have them either.

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DAGVBSB

DAGVBSB

Posted
Posted
There are problems with this and those of us on the 8/24 sailing will have NO time to disembark in Victoria and a shortened time in Ketchikan because the Pearl has to travel more slowly to preserve the integrity of this apparatus which helps move the ship.

 

NCL has offered a full refund if passengers so choose or else a $50 per cabin credit.

 

Good thing NCL lost the battle over the PVSA and the Hawaii situation. But it is funny, NCL complains about the other ships making a "technical" stop with no disembarkation in Ensenada by the ships headed to Hawaii, but yet they are ok with doing it in Alaska. Just shows the hypocritical nature of NCL's executives.

 

Maybe with clueless Colin out, NCL will do better.

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Markandrews

Markandrews

Posted
Posted
I have a quick question: If the Pearl doesn't stop in Canada due to the azipod problem isn't that a violation of the Jones Act? Would NCL be fined?

 

If I remember correctly the Star skipped Fanning Island for a long time because of Azipod problems. NCL was fined.

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Markandrews

Markandrews

Posted
Posted
Do all the ships built since the Dawn have azipods? I remember the Dawn having problems. I don't remember anything about the Jewel ever having problems. I'm also pretty sure I've read about Celebrity ships having azipod problems.

 

The Jewel did have problems awhile back.

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Markandrews

Markandrews

Posted
Posted
We are on the repo cruise on 9/21...any info out there, as to how this

might effect us ?

We are spending a fortune for this trip and $50 OBC will not cut

it with us.

Please keep us all posted and informed...Thanks so much

 

I am also on this cruise and I hope we don't have to spend 19 days at sea to get to Miami on time.....Actually that might be ok.

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wrp96

wrp96

Posted
Posted
I think Celebrity had the most problems with their pods.

 

 

Absolutely. I know that Celebrity filed a lawsuit against the company that made their azipods - don't know if it is still pending or not.

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c-legs

c-legs

Posted
Posted

:eek: Good evening,

When those pods apparatus systems start exhibiting signs of problems, you're stuck for an eventual drydock to fix them. You can always ''baby '' the problem along by reducing the power output of the offending unit but that does not solve the problem, only masks it a bit. Once those radial thrust bearings start wearing prematurely ( the most prevalent source of the problems), there is no going back...you got to fix it.

It requires a drydock, for anywhere between 96-108 hours...this is a bullett a cruise line can not dodge .You can only ''go slow'' and ''ease the symptoms'' a bit for so long....time comes when you face the music , fix the stuff and resume normal scheduled operations.

Every line with ships so equipped has had some problems at some point in the past, with Celebrity's '' M '' class being the most noteworthy. The ultimate ''fix-it'' solution is unavoidable.

Every line has its own way of dealing with it...some a bit less ''up front '' than others....but itineraries have to be cancelled due to the drydock and its location. No way around that.

 

Sheeesh.....!!:o

 

Cheers

:rolleyes:

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salty dingo

salty dingo

Posted
Posted

With good planning, a slower journey can still be a good one. Maybe some ports need to change, but you still get there!

 

Also, the decks can get really windy at higher speeds, so a slower speed is more comfortable for people.

 

It's really not that bad, unless you are dead-set on a certain itinerary. It's probably a lot worse for the cruise line because they have to make adjustments they did not plan for, and deal with aggravated passengers.

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Frosting Master

Frosting Master

Posted
Posted

We are on the Pearl for the Sept 7th sailing, would the cruise line normally inform you of changes or do you just find out after you've boarded?

 

I looked all around the NCL website, but I didn't find the news area. Press releases, yes, but this didn't have this kind of information, just PR stuff. Is there a spot I'm missing?

 

Missing Victoria would never cause me to cancel a cruise, but I would like to keep up with things. You know, did it get worse, no effect, etc. I hope someone off that cruise gets on here quick!

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electricron

electricron

Posted
Posted
Does anyone know anything about electricron? He is an awesome poster when it comes to this technical stuff. I haven't seen him for a while.

 

I'm back, after a short stay in the hospital...Can't surf there or didn't feel like doing so......

 

Others have discussed the technical aspects well.

 

To add, the radial and thrust bearings are the most likely problem. These bearings aren't you typical ball bearings. Check out babbit radial bearings and Kingsbury thrust bearings.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babbitt_metal

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluid_bearing

 

Once they start to wear, with wear particles getting embedded into their soft babbits, eventually major maintenance is required. If they could open them up, sometimes just scrapping the babbits and flushing the oil lines well can fix the problem. But that's the major problem with azipods, you can't open them up to repair them quickly. You have to schedule a drydock to open them up. Which means by the time you get the ships into drydock, an expensive bearing replacement is usually required.

 

The motors in these azipods use higher voltages to make the motors smaller in size. Even so, they are huge motors. Because they use higher voltages, the bearings have to be insulated electrically to prevent pitting the bearings from stray electrical currents. Again, you have to open the bearings up to replace the insulation and scrape the bearings, which means a drydock too.

 

Whereas azipods are more efficent to run, they have proved to be more expensive to maintain. I would like to point out that NCL's new F3 class ships are not going to get azipods, and that's probably a good thing.

 

Anytime you can run rotating equipment constantly over several years between major overhauls, you're getting great service. Although we hear about azipod problems all the time, each problem ship is usually getting operating availablity easily over 90%, which is a great number. Personally, I believe the cruise lines should schedule drydocks every two years with azipod equippend ships, instead of tring to push the drydocks out to three years. The Pearl has been in service slightly over two years, and still hasn't had its first drydock yet. But you can't blame the cruise lines, facing higher fuel expenses, trying to push drydocks out to three years.

 

NCL ships with azipods:

Star, Dawn, Jewel, Jade, Pearl, Gem, and Pride of America.

 

NCL ships without azipods:

Majesty, Dream, Spirit, Sky, Sun, and the two new F3 class ships.

 

By the end of this year, the Dream will be gone. By the end of next year, the Majesty will be gone. The Sky could leave NCL's fleet soon, as Star Cruises has it up for sale.

 

Which leaves the Spirit, Sun and the new F3 class ships not using Azipods in NCL's fleet for a long time to come.

 

Do what I do, book your future cruises on them, the ships without azipods, if you're going to worry yourself silly about them. Also, even the Spirit is suffering some propulsion problems this year. But at least quick fix up repairs can be done to it to keep it operating near full speed mainly because the bearings are easily accessible.....

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VoyageVirgin

VoyageVirgin

Posted
Posted
I'm back, after a short stay in the hospital...Can't surf there or didn't feel like doing so......

 

Others have discussed the technical aspects well.

 

To add, the radial and thrust bearings are the most likely problem. These bearings aren't you typical ball bearings. Check out babbit radial bearings and Kingsbury thrust bearings.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babbitt_metal

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluid_bearing

 

Once they start to wear, with wear particles getting embedded into their soft babbits, eventually major maintenance is required. If they could open them up, sometimes just scrapping the babbits and flushing the oil lines well can fix the problem. But that's the major problem with azipods, you can't open them up to repair them quickly. You have to schedule a drydock to open them up. Which means by the time you get the ships into drydock, an expensive bearing replacement is usually required.

 

The motors in these azipods use higher voltages to make the motors smaller in size. Even so, they are huge motors. Because they use higher voltages, the bearings have to be insulated electrically to prevent pitting the bearings from stray electrical currents. Again, you have to open the bearings up to replace the insulation and scrape the bearings, which means a drydock too.

 

Whereas azipods are more efficent to run, they have proved to be more expensive to maintain. I would like to point out that NCL's new F3 class ships are not going to get azipods, and that's probably a good thing.

 

Anytime you can run rotating equipment constantly over several years between major overhauls, you're getting great service. Although we hear about azipod problems all the time, each problem ship is usually getting operating availablity easily over 90%, which is a great number. Personally, I believe the cruise lines should schedule drydocks every two years with azipod equippend ships, instead of tring to push the drydocks out to three years. The Pearl has been in service slightly over two years, and still hasn't had its first drydock yet. But you can't blame the cruise lines, facing higher fuel expenses, trying to push drydocks out to three years.

 

NCL ships with azipods:

Star, Dawn, Jewel, Jade, Pearl, Gem, and Pride of America.

 

NCL ships without azipods:

Majesty, Dream, Spirit, Sky, Sun, and the two new F3 class ships.

 

By the end of this year, the Dream will be gone. By the end of next year, the Majesty will be gone. The Sky could leave NCL's fleet soon, as Star Cruises has it up for sale.

 

Which leaves the Spirit, Sun and the new F3 class ships not using Azipods in NCL's fleet for a long time to come.

 

Do what I do, book your future cruises on them, the ships without azipods, if you're going to worry yourself silly about them. Also, even the Spirit is suffering some propulsion problems this year. But at least quick fix up repairs can be done to it to keep it operating near full speed mainly because the bearings are easily accessible.....

 

Sorry to hear you were having health problems Electricron - nice to have you back on the boards.

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