PHILIPSBURG, St. Maarten (CNN/KHOU) -- Carnival Cruise Lines is working to fly
all passengers on one of its cruises back to Florida after the ship
suffered a generator failure while docked in the Caribbean.
The experience on the Carnival Dream became something of a nightmare
for some passengers Wednesday when power went off, some toilets stopped
working, and no one was allowed to get off the vessel -- despite the
fact that the ship was docked at Philipsburg, St. Maarten, in the
eastern Caribbean.
Although power was restored and facilities were functioning again, the ship still couldn't leave port.
"During regularly scheduled testing of the ship's emergency diesel
generator, a malfunction occurred," Carnival said in a statement.
"While personnel continue to work on the technical issue we are
making arrangements to fly all guests home via private charter flights
and scheduled flights from St. Maarten. Guests on the current voyage
will receive a refund equivalent to three days of the voyage and 50
percent off a future cruise.
"We are also canceling the ship's next voyage which is scheduled to depart on Saturday, March 16."
Carnival spokesman Vance Gulliksen said Thursday 4,300 guests were
aboard the Dream along with about 1,300 crew members. Carnival's website
states the ship's capacity at 3,646 passengers, but that's based on
only two people per cabin, and some cabins hold more, Gulliksen
explained. There are also three- and four-person cabins aboard.
Kris Anderson, a passenger on the ship and reporter for CNN affiliate
WREG, said Thursday passengers have been told they will be allowed off
the ship to enjoy the island while flight arrangements are made.
On Tuesday, Carnival announced it was conducting "a comprehensive
review" of all of its 23 ships following a fire last month that crippled
one of its ships in the Gulf of Mexico, leaving passengers stranded for
days while the vessel was towed back to land. Carnival President and
CEO Gerry Cahill said the probe will focus on the prevention, detection
and suppression of fires, engine room redundancies, and what additional
hotel facilities might be provided and might run off the emergency
generators.
His comments, posted on Carnival's website, were made at an annual cruise industry conference in Miami.
After the problems began Wednesday, CNN was contacted by passengers describing the conditions.
Gregg Stark, who is traveling with his wife and two young children,
told CNN, "There's human waste all over the floor in some of the
bathrooms and they're overflowing -- and in the state rooms. The
elevators have not been working. They've been turning them on and off,
on and off."
An announcement over the ship's public address system said the crew
was trying to fix the problem and was working on the generators,
according to Stark. A few hours later, another announcement was made,
saying the problem was worse than originally believed.
"We are not allowed off of the boat despite the fact that we have no
way to use the restrooms on board," Jonathan Evans of Reidsville, North
Carolina, said in an e-mail early Thursday. "The cruise director is
giving passengers very limited information and tons of empty promises.
What was supposed to take an hour has turned into 7-plus hours."
But Thursday afternoon, Carnival told CNN that based on conversations
with the ship's management team, a look at service logs "and extensive
physical monitoring of all public areas, including restrooms, throughout
the night, we can confirm that only one public restroom was taken
offline for cleaning based on toilet overflow and there was a total of
one request for cleaning of a guest cabin bathroom.
"Aside from that there have no reports of issues on board with
overflowing toilets or sewage. The toilet system had periodic
interruptions yesterday evening and was fully restored at approximately
12:30 a.m. this morning."
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The Coast Guard was notified by Carnival that the Dream was
experiencing generator issues. Carnival has not requested assistance
from the Coast Guard, which has no jurisdiction in the ship's current
location, Coast Guard Petty Officer Jon-Paul Rios told CNN.
U.S. Coast Guard Chief Petty Officer Ryan Doss said Carnival's
original decision to keep passengers on board was "for accountability
purposes. The last thing we want to do is have someone get left behind
in St. Maarten by accident."
The Dream, based in Port Canaveral, Florida, was on a seven-day
cruise. The ship, 1,000 feet long -- about the length of three football
fields -- sailed from Port Canaveral on Saturday.
It was scheduled to leave St. Maarten around 5 p.m. ET Wednesday.
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Last month, an engine room fire left the Carnival Triumph crippled
and adrift in the Gulf of Mexico with more than 4,200 people aboard.
That scheduled four-day cruise stretched into eight days as tugs
pulled the vessel into port in Alabama. Food was scarce and passengers
sweltered in the heat with no air conditioning. People aboard also
reported overflowing toilets and human waste running down the walls in
some parts of the ship.
A class action lawsuit was filed against Carnival Corporation in the aftermath.
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The Triumph is still undergoing repair at a shipyard in Mobile, Alabama, Carnival spokeswoman Joyce Oliva told CNN Thursday.
"We are now focused on the lessons we can learn from the incident and
also what additional operational redundancies might be available,"
Carnival President and CEO Cahill said at the cruise industry conference
this week.
Another ship, the Carnival Splendor, had a fire in 2010 due to "a catastrophic failure of a diesel generator," Cahill noted.
The comprehensive review of the fleet, he said, "is our highest priority."
He also emphasized that the vast majority of the time, cruises experience no such problems.
Anderson said when he booked tickets for his family to take the
cruise, some friends ribbed him about choosing Carnival, given what
happened with the Triumph. "I said, 'What are the odds of it happening
to two ships in such a short period of time?'" he told CNN Thursday.
"Look what happened now."
Carnival Dream
