Why did the dream do this?

[chaseg03]

On our at sea day we just sat there. We just sat there until like 1:00 in front off freeport bahamas. The ship all of a sudden starts going like 19.7 knots (I think thats what it said on the bridge report) Is this normal? Was there engine trouble? Sorry if this is unnecessary to know, I'm just curious.

 

[dcassetta]

On sea days the captain tries to be in a location that is sunny and calm. This usually means staying within the Bahamas. At some point though, they need to get going to meet the next port time. The ship's normal speed is about 20 knots.

 

[clten]

Seems perfectly normal to me. On a sea day on a short cruise, the important thing is to find some sun and calm seas. If the captain was able to do that and keep the ship in that area for a period of time, that's a win for the guests (favorable conditions to use pool and outdoor activities) and a win for the cruise line (no need to burn extra fuel). The time that they took off from that spot may have been because they needed to get to another spot in order to keep on schedule or the captain saw a change of weather or seas coming and got the ship in a more favorable position. Sailing at 19-20 knots is also pretty typical.

Most likely if there were engine trouble, you would have seen other things happen rather than just being in one position. We were on the Magic one December several years ago when she went dead in the water. You knew right away there was a problem - odd sounds, announcements, unusual crew activity, etc. Even though it was not a big issue, it took 45 minutes to get the engines restarted. Doesn't sound like the Dream had any issues and all was just routine.

 

[Dug720]

Magic was at about 0.8 knots for most of her sea day. No biggie.

 

[chaseg03]

Seems perfectly normal to me. On a sea day on a short cruise, the important thing is to find some sun and calm seas. If the captain was able to do that and keep the ship in that area for a period of time, that's a win for the guests (favorable conditions to use pool and outdoor activities) and a win for the cruise line (no need to burn extra fuel). The time that they took off from that spot may have been because they needed to get to another spot in order to keep on schedule or the captain saw a change of weather or seas coming and got the ship in a more favorable position. Sailing at 19-20 knots is also pretty typical.

Most likely if there were engine trouble, you would have seen other things happen rather than just being in one position. We were on the Magic one December several years ago when she went dead in the water. You knew right away there was a problem - odd sounds, announcements, unusual crew activity, etc. Even though it was not a big issue, it took 45 minutes to get the engines restarted. Doesn't sound like the Dream had any issues and all was just routine.

That happened to me on the Magic as well. It was also around 45 mins. Guessing because the Magic is older.

 

[kiford]

We basically just drifted around for the day on our last sea day during our 2010 Med cruise. The distance between the last two ports wasn't very far so they just sat around and occasionally moved to, presumably, keep position until late in the afternoon when we started heading for the final destination.

 

[truck1]

That happened to me on the Magic as well. It was also around 45 mins. Guessing because the Magic is older.

Its happened to the other ships as well. A lot of times what happens is that with all of the computers onboard, that regulate all of the safety systems for the engines and the power distribution for the ship, if a computer senses an issue, it could take 45 minutes or so to trouble shoot to see if its an issue or if the computer/sensor is going bad.

The way it normally works is that all 4 of DCLs ships have 5 primary diesel engine generator sets. These provide all of the power for the ship. From propulsion to charging a phone in your cabin. While the ship moving, 1 is normally assigned to provide power to each of the 2 electric drive motors, that actually move the ship. The other 3 are used as necessary to provide power to the ship itself. Hotel services etc. All of the power that is generated goes through 2 big breaker boxes before going out to the ship. If the computer safeties sense a problem, it will do 1 of several things. 1 is reroute the power or safety everything which means shut every thing down until a human confirms that there is no issue. All depends. It almost sounds like the ship went into safety mode, and the crew was just moving to certain key areas. Because guess what else wont work with out power. Elevators. Not only are there the 3 public banks on the ship, but theres at 3 more if not more elevators that are crew use only.

 

[hanscarlet]

we just chilled at sea during the nights between St. Thomas and Tortola and you can throw a rock from one island to the other, the locals said DCL does that because sitting in port is $$$, cheaper to burn the fuel

 

[chaseg03]

we just chilled at sea during the nights between St. Thomas and Tortola and you can throw a rock from one island to the other, the locals said DCL does that because sitting in port is $$$, cheaper to burn the fuel

That makes since, my teacher is into DCL and just did the eastern Caribbean. She told me she did the same.