Fantasy having mechanical issues

[DisneyPiPhi]

Someone I know is sailing today, and he shared communication from DCL on Facebook. The communication listed predicted times and also said they were offering OBC in compensation for cruisers needed to get lunch on their own today. That seems nice.

 

[iZon]

Here it comes on webcam!

 

[Dug720]

Unexpected? Is this like when you take your car in to get a rattle fixed and it comes out with a different rattle? Coincidence?

The first thought I had was "Well, people fussed about vibrations..." Sometimes the devil you know is truly better than the devil you don't...

 

[iZon]

Despite the inconvenience, it's neat for the passengers to be up on deck sailing in to port. The front looks full. There is a tug.

The ship has basically sat at CC the past two days and floated around at night. Now they have 60 hours to the Virgin Islands. So they need the engines running at full speed. Unless they give everyone a paddle.

 

[dclpluto]

This has been called an unexpected mechanical issue. I don't believe it has anything to do with something that was worked on/added during dry dock. Something like this could have happened last month or 3 months down the road.

I say it's dry dock related. You start working on things in dry dock. Lots of things could go wrong. First you got human error. Than you have New or rebuilt parts that could be the problem. Of course you try to make things better in the long run it usually is but in the short term you have a greater chance of something happening. At work after we come back from a shutdown we know there's going to be lots of problems.

 

[PBB]

The latest report is that the problem is an "Unexpected Mechanical Issue".

Does anyone ever have a "Expected Mechanical Issue"? I guess so, when you don't fix the "Unexpected Mexhanical Issue" right away!

 

[sweetpee_1993]

Well if I was on board and wasn't in a rush for a flight I would enjoy the extra time onboard those few extra hours is Probley a few hundred dollars worth

I am on Fantasy now. There's karaoke in Tube. Something in D Lounge. Trivia in OGills. A dance party on deck 11 with characters scheduled. A movie in Walt Theater. This to absorb a couple thousand passengers. Uh, nope.

They keep saying they want us out of staterooms at 11:00 at latest. They said soonest passengers off will be 12:30. They want everyone to stay away from the atrium.

So for an hour and a half we sit in a stairway? The hallway?

I cannot load my pic right now but when we left PC Wednesday there was a helluva brown slick in our trail. I have a pic of it.

 

[iZon]

Can't you sit on deck 4 or on top?

 

[sweetpee_1993]

Pulling in with tug friends.

 

[Cackyschmackers]

ugh, 12:30pm is what I am hearing too in terms of being able to get off the ship... there is going to be a mad dash for everything, security and buses.... what a crappy way to end a trip.. our flights are usually at 12:15

to the expert travelers on trip insurance - if you had to miss your flight and you couldn't arrange to get a new one, would this be something trip insurance covers?

Good luck Tink on your travels today, thanks for the update

Regarding the trip insurance question, Yes! When we were fogged out of the Galveston port, it was the one and only time we used it. We missed our flights and since it was winter and we missed the only direct fight, our only options were connecting through Chicago and of course there was an ice storm. So insurance paid our new car to the airport hotel we stayed in, the hotel and all the changes to the flights the next day. Royal pain with 5 of us traveling. Bleck

 

[sweetpee_1993]

Can't you sit on deck 4 or on top?

Not sweating it out up top. We'll wing it out best.

 

[Shanti]

You get what you pay for! Was this an inexpensive cruise?

I was just wondering because that's the reasoning so many DCL lovers use when this stuff happens on other lines. They cruise DCL because you get what you pay for.

What a nasty comment to make when people are concerned about getting their families home. You sound really bitter.

 

[Capt_BJ]

the primary reason for routine drydocking is the inspection and servicing of everything that's normally underwater. The paint on the bottom, all the "sea chests" aka the openings for taking in and expelling sea water for normal functions AND the thrusters, shafts, 'struts', propellers and rudders and their associated seals and bearings where they pass through the hull. Sometimes parts are replaced, often there is an 'open and inspect and replace if necessary' aspect. Anytime such systems are opened and or replaced there are a bunch of things that can go wrong. You try to avoid this of course but sometimes Mr Murphy applies his law ......

Question to watch for now is: does the ship need to return to drydock??????

if so, is the dry dock immediately available .. are the needed parts readily available?????

inquiring minds want to know ...

 

[crazy4wdw]

Currently having everyone that had planned on the quick walk out to meet at the Walt Disney Theater. Hopefully we'll be first off the ship.

 

[Uncleromulus]

Will be interesting to hear what the "problem" actually was and if it means major repairs are needed.

 

[Suttonmama1]

Some advice from someone who was on Fantasy when it was a day late coming in because of Hurricane Matthew. Do not go stand in atrium with bags. You will only be part of the mad rush. Get as far away as possible (we hung out in bar area and played board games.) after they start announcing wait a bit and then go up. You will get off at basically the same time with less frustration. Also if you have extra packaged snacks or bottled water you don't want, please pass along to those waiting to get on. I guarantee there will be a line and it's hot! That last piece of advice is from 2015 trip when we were the ones delayed getting on.

 

[sweetpee_1993]

O.M.G.

So we get to the theater for express walk off like they've been telling us.

Get to the theater they want us to sit down. Where do we put our bags? An officer said, "Out there. Nobody told you?" Nope. The dozen crew we passed to get to the theater never said a word. It's such a cluster.

My hubby is ready to cancel all future cruises. As terrible as disembarking NCL Getaway was, it was nothing compared to this. Royal does all this stuff soooooooo much better. Ugh.

 

[truck1]

One prop working... just curious, how easy is it to fix an issue like this? To me it seems to make sense for them to spend more time after dry dock to work out the bugs without paying customers on board then do it this way?

Depends on what the root cause is. All of DCLs ships have 5 diesel engine sets that turn generators to make power. There are 2 electric motors that turn the propellers. What normally happens is that the diesel engines make the power and a computer decides how much power goes where based on demand. 2 gensets are typically dedicated to powering the propulsion motors and the other 3 are used as needed for the ship itself.

The 5 gensets feed all of the power into a big circuit panel for ease of explanation, and from there the power is routed to the entire ship. Considering that only prop is turning, and assuming that its true, there can be any number of problems, that would have that result. Could be an issue with that 1 drive motor, it could be a supply issue coming off the circuit panel, could be a computer issue. Take your pick. DCL does have a plethora of spare parts in storage for this reason at a wharehouse about halfway between the airport and the port. So getting the parts shouldnt be a problem. The problem is, how long will it take and will the CG, and any number of alphabet soup organizations approve the fix, for a timely departure.

 

[truck1]

the primary reason for routine drydocking is the inspection and servicing of everything that's normally underwater. The paint on the bottom, all the "sea chests" aka the openings for taking in and expelling sea water for normal functions AND the thrusters, shafts, 'struts', propellers and rudders and their associated seals and bearings where they pass through the hull. Sometimes parts are replaced, often there is an 'open and inspect and replace if necessary' aspect. Anytime such systems are opened and or replaced there are a bunch of things that can go wrong. You try to avoid this of course but sometimes Mr Murphy applies his law ......

Question to watch for now is: does the ship need to return to drydock??????

if so, is the dry dock immediately available .. are the needed parts readily available?????

inquiring minds want to know ...

DCL has a large wharehouse out off of the ICP. They supposedly have spare engine parts, lifeboat parts, paint, and just about anything else they could need.

The 64000 question is what could have gone boom, shaken the ship, and only effect 1 drive motor. I don't think it was any of the mains, as if 1 failed catastrophically, it should only effect the amount of available power. The Magic sailed 1 main down for a few months before it was replaced in dd and no one knew.

 

[Club Disney Chandler]

I was just wondering because that's the reasoning so many DCL lovers use when this stuff happens on other lines. They cruise DCL because you get what you pay for.

Dang!! We'll done and I didn't even get the correlation of that, well played. I hate when I miss the jokes. I wanted to originally post that this can only happen on carnival ships but thought that was too snarky.