Fire cripples carnival ship

[over50visits]

I was thinking that if this happened to me and it was early in the trip (like 1st or 2nd day), I don't think that what they are offering would be enough compensation. They're basically having people reschedule their vacations at a HUGE inconvenience and the compensation offered pretty much just gets them to a break-even point as far as $$$ are concerned.

Life happens, though...I think Carnival offering to take the entire loss is more than reasonable, even paying for the cruise up to that point. I feel sorry for the Carnival personnel who will have to deal with a handful of some pretty demanding people.

 

[tvguy]

Severe enough would be an irreparable Diesel generator. If one of those is done, the ship probably is. You've seen from all the construction pictures of the Dream with these modular built ships. They set the engines in place and build the hull up around it. Short of cutting massive sections of the hull apart that engine is part of the ship permanently, and the costs involved probably make it prohibitive to attempt it over building another.

Ships routinely get new engines/generators during longer dry docks, so that shouldn't be a problem. According to the Carnival website the Splender has 6, so I suspect it's just a matter of repairing damaged wiring. As someone else pointed out, so far it has had no impact on future cruises.

 

[Tonka's Skipper]

Its almost for sure.....Carnival will have had long talks with the vessel Chief Engineer. There will be shore engineers, repair crews and supplies on the dock in emsemde (spl?)ready to braod on arrival

Anything else will be pre fabucated and ready in a ship yard for when the vessel docks in Long Beach.

Whether she will be ready for her Nov 21st cruise depends how bad the damages are!

Before she will be allowed to carry passingers again she will have many surveyors and inspectors checking her out and will need the ok of her classification, underwriters and USCG.

AKK

 

[IbeAbitGOOFY]

Severe enough would be an irreparable Diesel generator. If one of those is done, the ship probably is. You've seen from all the construction pictures of the Dream with these modular built ships. They set the engines in place and build the hull up around it. Short of cutting massive sections of the hull apart that engine is part of the ship permanently, and the costs involved probably make it prohibitive to attempt it over building another.

Having worked in the modern (large) ship repair industry for a number of years, I can tell you with absolute certainty that the generators CAN and will be repaired. It is done all the time. It’s not easy nor will it be cheap, but it’s also not worth scrapping almost $700M investment.

 

[MarkRG]

Having worked in the modern (large) ship repair industry for a number of years, I can tell you with absolute certainty that the generators CAN and will be repaired. It is done all the time. It’s not easy nor will it be cheap, but it’s also not worth scrapping almost $700M investment.

I did not say repair, read on.

Ships routinely get new engines/generators during longer dry docks, so that shouldn't be a problem. According to the Carnival website the Splender has 6, so I suspect it's just a matter of repairing damaged wiring. As someone else pointed out, so far it has had no impact on future cruises.

They get rebuilds and overhauls, yes. They can replace most of the internal moving parts, cylinders, pistons, valves, etc. In fact that was done to one of the engines while the ship was in service on the Wonder three years ago when one of hers failed. On the modern modularly built cruise ship they cannot replace the entire diesel generating unit once it's inside the hull, it becomes a physical impossibility as the ship is built over it. Other types of ships leave provisional access to be able to do it, but not the modern cruiseliners.

Have a look for yourself.

http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2010/07/starting-the-disney-dream-engines/

Now can something catastrophic enough happen to irreparably damage an engine that positively massive? I will even say the possibility is very low, but it is there.

And I agree all is conjecture until the ship hits port and they really inspect the damage.

 

[dursin]

Life happens, though...I think Carnival offering to take the entire loss is more than reasonable, even paying for the cruise up to that point. I feel sorry for the Carnival personnel who will have to deal with a handful of some pretty demanding people.

The ship departed Sunday evening and the fire occurred at 6am on Monday morning. Don't think that "paying for the cruise up to that point" is particularly generous.

 

[Malaguti Ball Clan]

Although I wouldn't want to have to to it, it is possible to replace the entire system, step one....drydock, step two, cut extremely large hole in side of ship...............

http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/series/worlds-toughest-fixes/3561/Overview


Having spent alot of time at sea this one was much better to watch on HD then to have to live though.

Fire at sea is soooooo dangerous, thankfully everyone is safe.

I did not say repair, read on.



They get rebuilds and overhauls, yes. They can replace most of the internal moving parts, cylinders, pistons, valves, etc. In fact that was done to one of the engines while the ship was in service on the Wonder three years ago when one of hers failed. On the modern modularly built cruise ship they cannot replace the entire diesel generating unit once it's inside the hull, it becomes a physical impossibility as the ship is built over it. Other types of ships leave provisional access to be able to do it, but not the modern cruiseliners.

Have a look for yourself.

http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2010/07/starting-the-disney-dream-engines/

Now can something catastrophic enough happen to irreparably damage an engine that positively massive? I will even say the possibility is very low, but it is there.

And I agree all is conjecture until the ship hits port and they really inspect the damage.

 

[MarkRG]

Although I wouldn't want to have to to it, it is possible to replace the entire system, step one....drydock, step two, cut extremely large hole in side of ship...............

http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/series/worlds-toughest-fixes/3561/Overview


Having spent alot of time at sea this one was much better to watch on HD then to have to live though.

Fire at sea is soooooo dangerous, thankfully everyone is safe.

As am I glad it was nothing more than inconvenient for the passengers.

Ok, so not completely impossible.

And I was going from a point of view that they will do everything they can to just repair it.

But still there are possibilities of damage in a way where they may be better doing something radical than a direct fix. As has been said over and over, we don't know what the damage is.

The best possibility is it could be as simple as some kind of power distribution failure.

The worst possibility is something far more radical than even what RCI's ship had done to it. Why was RCI's engine replaced? We don't know that either. We don't know if the Carnival ship's construction would allow something as simple as just cutting a large hole and sliding it out the side. It could be an inboard engine failure.

We simply don't know enough to rule anything out, which is the point I was trying to make.

And I never said they'd just throw away all the investment in it. It IS only 2 years old. If it was a failure that doomed the engineering section, its sure a possibility they could do something like build just that section and 'modular' it back in to the rest of the hull. They've already stretched a cruise ship by adding an entirely new middle section.

 

[Stephieann]

Kind of off topic but i got a phone call today from Carnival about military discounts they are offering.....had thought about booking but now not sure...i guess this could have happened on any cruise line

 

[sayhello]

Kind of off topic but i got a phone call today from Carnival about military discounts they are offering.....had thought about booking but now not sure...i guess this could have happened on any cruise line

If you don't book a cruise because *one* ship from a cruiseline has a problem, then you may as well never cruise again. All cruiselines have issues. I wouldn't let this stop you. I might skip booking the Nov 21, 2010 sailing of the Splendor, but other than that...

Sayhello

 

[justmestace]

The ship departed Sunday evening and the fire occurred at 6am on Monday morning. Don't think that "paying for the cruise up to that point" is particularly generous.

Guests will get refunds, reimbursement for transportation costs and a free future cruise of equal value, the cruise line said.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/a...om-blaze.html?ito=feeds-newsxml#ixzz14pS2Ut3P


Sounds pretty good to me, even though everyone's vacation was ruined.
If I interpret this correctly, not only are they getting REFUNDED, but they are also getting ANOTHER cruise free....plus their transportation costs.
What more could the cruise line do?

 

[discorsner]

I was just thinking about this. Shouldn't everyone who travels have either enough cash, traveler's checks, or credit on their credit cards, to handle any emergency that comes along?

Theoretically, yes.

However, I know of some of times we have vacationed, especially when we were younger before kids where we may have not had that much extra with us.

We always have an emergency fund and travel insurance but you never know how much you may need I guess.

 

[KSDisneyDad]

Guests will get refunds, reimbursement for transportation costs and a free future cruise of equal value, the cruise line said.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/a...om-blaze.html?ito=feeds-newsxml#ixzz14pS2Ut3P


Sounds pretty good to me, even though everyone's vacation was ruined.
If I interpret this correctly, not only are they getting REFUNDED, but they are also getting ANOTHER cruise free....plus their transportation costs.
What more could the cruise line do?

I agree that this is both very generous and a good PR move for Carnival to help try to make lemonade out of lemons. They obviously did not want this to happen.

When I first found out about this incident, my first thought was to feel for those onboard and be thankful that no one was seriously injured. My second thought was "I sure would hate to be someone without trip insurance". It looks like Carnival is helping everyone regardless of whether or not they had trip insurance. Again, that's quite generous given the situation IMHO.

 

[OrangeCountyCommuter]

Kind of off topic but i got a phone call today from Carnival about military discounts they are offering.....had thought about booking but now not sure...i guess this could have happened on any cruise line

Happened years ago to my Grandparents... On a TOP of the line cruise ship. (Literally $10,000 cruises)

If you don't go because "this happened" then... you don't go anywhere. Life has risks.

 

[MarkRG]

Well the passengers may not come out of this totally unharmed...

No one was hurt and, by Tuesday, U.S. Navy helicopters were ferrying 70,000 pounds of supplies, including the crab meat, croissants, Pop Tarts, Spam and other items, to the stricken ship.

That sounds like a... unique food combination.

 

[cats mom]

Well the passengers may not come out of this totally unharmed...



That sounds like a... unique food combination.

So maybe pop tarts for breakfast, sliced spam for lunch, and crab meat on croissants for dinner?
Not exactly expected cruise ship fare.

I'm just glad there were no injuries reported.

 

[tvguy]

So maybe pop tarts for breakfast, sliced spam for lunch, and crab meat on croissants for dinner?
Not exactly expected cruise ship fare.

I'm just glad there were no injuries reported.

Hey, the U.S. military is brining the food ask anyone who as been in the military, pop tars, spam and crab meat is living high .....and I'm dead serious.
My dad served in World War II, and until the day he died, he viewed Spam as the ultimate comfort food because, when he was in Europe, when he was somewhere where they had Spam, and not packaged rations, he was somewhere safe, where he was being shot at.

 

[MarkRG]

Hey, the U.S. military is brining the food ask anyone who as been in the military, pop tars, spam and crab meat is living high .....and I'm dead serious.
My dad served in World War II, and until the day he died, he viewed Spam as the ultimate comfort food because, when he was in Europe, when he was somewhere where they had Spam, and not packaged rations, he was somewhere safe, where he was being shot at.

Two of my favorite meals are in Hawaii.

A Big Breakfast at McD's, which is composed of eggs, rice, Spam, and a slice of pineapple.

And lunch from Zippy's, which in most combinations includes Spam.

I can completely understand your dad's viewpoint.

I do doubt the people who sailed on that ship went in with the expectations of that... food group?

 

[dursin]

Guests will get refunds, reimbursement for transportation costs and a free future cruise of equal value, the cruise line said.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/a...om-blaze.html?ito=feeds-newsxml#ixzz14pS2Ut3P


Sounds pretty good to me, even though everyone's vacation was ruined.
If I interpret this correctly, not only are they getting REFUNDED, but they are also getting ANOTHER cruise free....plus their transportation costs.
What more could the cruise line do?

I know what the compensation is....I was just referring to that particular aspect of it.

 

[insureman]

Hey, the U.S. military is brining the food ask anyone who as been in the military, pop tars, spam and crab meat is living high .....and I'm dead serious.
My dad served in World War II, and until the day he died, he viewed Spam as the ultimate comfort food because, when he was in Europe, when he was somewhere where they had Spam, and not packaged rations, he was somewhere safe, where he was being shot at.

Beats MRE's