Another Carnival cruise cut short by engine troubles
Passengers sent home early after crew encounter technical issues with diesel generator
Passengers from the Carnival Dream were heading to the airport Thursday instead of sailing home after an on board generator problem halted their trip in the latest maintenance headache for the world's largest cruise line.
The Dream was in St. Maarten on the final stop of seven-day Caribbean cruise when the crew announced that they would not be sailing home to Port Canaveral, Florida, when the crew announced a mechanical issue with a diesel generator, passengers said.
Several passengers told the Associated Press that power and water were out for about ten to 20 minutes on Wednesday evening, contradicting media reports of longer outages and unsanitary conditions.
"We have toilets. We have water. It's no different than a regular day at sea," said 31-year-old Tasha Larson of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, after disembarking with her boyfriend to spend the day in St. Maarten.
Passengers Mary and Terry Washington of Tampa, Florida, said the generator malfunction gave them an additional day to spend in St. Maarten.
"The plumbing is fine. The food is fine. Everything is fine," Mary Washington said.
Carnival Cruise Lines said the ship encountered a technical issue with its backup emergency diesel generator during the scheduled port and that they would make arrangements for the 3,646 passengers aboard the stranded ship Dream to fly home.
Damage control
The next voyage for Dream from Port Canaveral, scheduled for March 16, has been reportedly cancelled.
Passengers who are currently stranded will receive a partial refund and while those expected to be on the March 16 voyage will get all of their money back, said Carnival Cruise Lines.
"We are very sorry for this disruption to our guests' vacation plans and extend our sincere apologies," Carnival Cruise Lines told CBC.
Today's disruptions to vacationers' plans comes less than a month since an engine fire crippled the Carnival Triumph, leaving 4,200 stranded for five days without working toilets or power.
The cruise line company announced two days ago that it would conduct a thorough review of its entire fleet.
With files from the CBC