We my wife and I sailed on carnival victory out of Fort Lauderdale florida on mar 18 we missed 1st stop Costa Maya due to weather conditions on 20th This was unexpected because the crew told us the weather was good the night before the port of call. But hey we know these things happen.
What pissed us off was on the knight of 22nd the ship lost all and i mean all power at exactly 10pm between limon Costa Rica and Colon Panama the Emergency generators Kicked in almost imediately but only partial emergency lighting. We could not beleive how hot and how fast the temp in that new ship rose.
In about 1/2 hr it was about 90. F in the promenade deck and the shows were cancelled, the Bingo game was Cancelled, The casino was in the dark all machines off. We smeled smoke like a diesel engine had just started and passengers thought there was a fire We quickly went outside to lido deck aft to an eary silence. We were floating dead in the water with both red signal lights on the main mast. This meant no control and not moving. At 11:30pm they got the starboard screw turning and ac back on. The cruise director Came on the P.A. With bells and sirens in the background trying to calm passengers. We tried to get some sleep but were re awakaned at 2:30am on the 23rd to a full stop as they annouced that the problem was a computer fault and were now reseting it. Well to make things short our panama crossing tour got cancelled. This was the primary reason for this cruise and we were forced to make our own arrangements with a taxi driver (very dangerous) because all other tours were sold out and later we found out from passengers were cut short due to our late arrival.
Then the P.R. Repair started with our cruise director telling passengers that we never lost power or rudder and that it was Just an inconvenience because these things happened on these big ship all the time. Then on tv he started reading selected so called pax letters expressing all the wonderfull things on the ship and that they did not undestand what the big deal was.
Let me tell you something Carnival if you had this total lost of thrust and navigation on a trans atlactic crossing with bad seas The outcome could be much much worse.
I reported to the coast guard after i witnessed the cruise lines atempt to sweep the whole deal under the rug. Because like the vegas slogan goes what happens at sea stays at sea.
I also e mailed numerous goverment agencies and the ones that responded basicaly said there is nothing they can do.
Most lines sail their flag of convenience for a reason.
As for Carnival we have sailed on them over 12 Cruises and this was the 1st time we were realy worried/Scared and reports/emails have been ignored to their guest relations.
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