The Carnival Splendor is just TWO YEARS OLD

[nadinbrzezinski]

HOLY SHIT!

If this was a DESIGN FLAW... how many other SISTER SHIPS are out there?

n November 2002, as an improvement to the Destiny-class, Carnival launched Carnival Conquest, the first of five 110,000-ton Conquest-class ships similar in design to the Destiny class, but slightly bigger and able to carry 2974 voyagers. Carnival Glory followed in July 2003, Carnival Valor (the first ship with bow-to-stern wireless Internet access) in December 2004 and Carnival Liberty in July 2005. Carnival Freedom, entered service in spring 2007 and Carnival Splendor followed in July 2008.

Read more: http://www.cruisemates.com/articles/reviews/carnival/index.cfm#ixzz14vqGVSIz

No wonder two navies and the Panamanian Government (flagged there) want a full review.

[msongs]

1. why would anyone want to go on a cruise on a ship so big? like the mall at xmas or worse lol nt

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. Barring any incidents

you'd never know actually.

That is part of the design.

[haele]

28. Why do people go to Las Vegas?

A cruise liner is usually similar. You go on a cruise to be served, eat, gamble, see shows, suntan, sleep, stop off at a few interesting sight-seeing stops, and basically just hang out.

Some people like that. Some people get bored silly.

Haele

[edbermac]

2. A lot older than the Titanic.

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. Remember her sister ships went down during WW I

as well

Oh and we now think we know what was the design flaw too... it just took a little longer!

[Posteritatis]

17. I'd give the one that sunk during the war a pass, actually

I wouldn't expect civilian shipwrights to engineer their ships against mines like the one the Britannic hit.

[nadinbrzezinski]

19. Nah but they actually found the exact same failure

on all three...

It took over eighty years.

[marmar]

6. But at least the Titanic had an iceberg as an excuse.....

nt

[haele]

5. Interesting, that class was designed and built by Fincantierni

based out of Triste, Italy. Usually a good company, but I wonder if they were taking "cut and paste" shortcuts in their design modeling.
I suppose they'll be using SWM facilities; that shipyard has done repair/upgrade for most of the Ensenada cruise liners. That might be good for a half-a-million or so to the South Bay economy.

Haele

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. It is going straight to the 32nd yard

and I wonder if they will be doing ahem... major repairs to the WHOLE class?

This ain't gonna be cheap.

On the plus side, we now know that one Navy that did not have the capacity ten years ago, now does.

And that is not the US Navy I am talking about.

[haele]

23. Hmm, going to NASSCO then? There's in-house maritime design engineers there.

They do the big oil tankers (The Condelezza Rice was built there) and the Navy RO-ROs and supply ships. I wonder if the Italian company has a re-design in the works or if they're going to contract General Dynamics (who runs NASSCO) to assess and re-design their engine room for that class.
The engine room problem might be a matter of a technological advance (a "Smart" engine room where everything is automated)that was not originally designed for that class; add upgrades or new functionality on top of other upgrades - or jerry-rigged fixes, and your original design has interoperability issues and that new sensor or valve may not function as your office based engineers had modeled it, causing a nasty casualty. It might not be a class wide problem, depending on where the problem was.

The problem with GD or Raytheon (the other maritime yard) developing any fixes on this is that those companies either go with propriatary designs that will net them big bucks any time there needs to be a change or upgrade and tie the ship designers by the hip to them, or they'll use the cheapest Micro-off-the-shelf system they can buy to throw a quick fix on the problem until it gets back to the original designers.

Haele

[nadinbrzezinski]

24. It is going to be costly either way

and that is my guess as well. Of course getting all these people OFF that bucket of bolts and into a nicer area of town will be a mess... at least nobody has to do any customs.

[haele]

27. There's a trolley stop right outside the gate - give them a $2.50 trolley ticket

and send them out the gates - the blue line runs every 15 minutes during the day and every half hour after 8, and they can be dropped off right in front of all the convention center hotels or the cruise line parking...:)

Actually, that neighborhood isn't too bad; the only thing across Pacific Highway near the trolley station there is the Navy Exchange/Commissary complex or a couple industrial complexes. And CRSW/Shore Patrol or Port Police is always going up and down that area (that area is where I've always gotten my Parking Tickets from the Port Police...). The worst one usually runs into is that young sailor or marine that had just a bit too much and has lost his or her bearings or the shipyard worker getting off shift that might have brought a personal illegal indulgence to keep working; actually, the worst part of would be trekking about 1/2 mile through that nasty, greasy, smelly shipyard to the main gate...
Most of the crime is a bit further north, near the railyards and on the other side of the bridge.

LOL - just before I hit post on this, I got a call on my cell phone from a telemarketing group asking me to "press one now to claim your reserved cabin on a Royal Caribbean Cruise"...

Haele

[nadinbrzezinski]

29. They'll use busses

[WolverineDG]

8. Destiny also has its share of problems

however, I've sailed on the Valor & it was just fine. We even sailed around a couple of hurricanes. That was not much fun, but we survived. :)

dg

[nadinbrzezinski]

9. Oh called AP, friendly nastrigram

on them leaving out the other half of the response.

I think I made them change the tenor.

:-)

I know they hate it when links to furiegner media are attached.

Oh and to add, why I said about design flaw is that if this is a design flaw on the power plant... we may see more of this...

[WolverineDG]

10. ???

nastigram to AP?

as for Destiny, it regularly has problems with its propulsion system, so mebbe you're right. All I know is that I was on the Valor & we had no problems. :)

dg

[nadinbrzezinski]

11. They conveniently left out the Mexican Navy

to the point that media even said, the Mexican Navy did nothing to help our stranded passengers... the horror. They were first on the scene, and two of the tugs are part of the Ensenada Station.

So I pointed this out and asked if the Mexicans did not help, are we imagining the Chihuahua and the Mexican Patrol and Rescue Vessel?

And of course put plenty of links... I also mentioned the EVAC procedure from Ensenada.

Well within 45 minutes the write up changed. I wish I did a screen capture!

[WolverineDG]

12. Ah. I wish they'd cut that crap out

it does make sense that the Mexican Navy would get to the ship first, since they were closer to Mexican territorial waters than the US.

I have a feeling they changed the port from Ensenada to San Diego because there might be a few passengers who sailed with a birth certificate & photo ID, which wouldn't get them back in the country now if they had to cross the border. (You would not believe the whining about this on the cruise board I frequent whenever sane people--like me--tell new cruisers to suck it up & get a passport.)

dg

[Bobbieo]

14. There was also a danger of "bus jacking" from the drug cartels. They also indulge in

kidnapping and robbery in addition to drug dealing.

[nadinbrzezinski]

16. Not with the security package that was in place

overtly, FEDERAL and Municipal Police assets, not so obvious, and I am willing to bet a dime on dollar... Mexican Military Choppers shadowing the damn thing and army personnel through the route.

As I posted it is about port fees. They were still considering Ensenada if they could not maintain speed.

[Bobbieo]

30. Sure would have been a tempting target - All of those :"rich Americans".

with their jewelry and cash.

[nadinbrzezinski]

32. Why do you think that convoy would be safer

than the chief executive of the country?

Do you understand the level of security they were deploying? Do you have an idea?

On the bright side, this VERY EXPENSIVE security blanket will not cost Mexico one red cent, and the company is SAVING at least 10K\day for emergency docking fees.

This is what this is about.

Not safety. but SAVING MONEY.

Read bellow wat I found from the Telegraph. One crew member jumped over board on Oct 12, and another was emergency medically evacuated earlier on the month. I smell more than just a few design problems.

[WolverineDG]

26. The Federales would not let that happen

the cartels know the second they target American tourists like that all holy hell will reign down on them. Wanna know why they don't pull that kind of crap on the US side of the border? Same reason.

dg

[nadinbrzezinski]

15. Nah that is not the reason

it is actually sicker than that.

Port fees. Hubby explained it to me this morning. He ran the Port of San Diego, effectively, while in the navy. yes above his rate.

The unscheduled port call could run the company upwards of 10K \day and that is before ancillary costs... (read bus costs to the US)

IN San Diego they will go straight to the yard, avoiding all that cost. It is going to run them a pretty penny to repair the power plant, and if this is a design flaw, and it may from what you are posting.. they will need to bring the rest of the class in for major fixes/ Hey cheaper than a fire at sea.

[malaise]

13. Wow

I won't ever be in trouble on one of them - I pass on cruises.

[nadinbrzezinski]

18. We had fun on ours to Alaska

though it was funny... we had ONE "bad day at sea." Yes slight rocking... nothing serious.

People were green, we were like... watsha matter?

[malaise]

22. My Florida sister and her husband

love them. I pass - not me and hubby hates large crowds anywhere other than a cricket or football ground. :D

[nadinbrzezinski]

25. Then you might like the kind my brother went on

to the Galapagos,

It was a skiff, no luxuries, but they went with a biologist and it was an eco tour.

Passengers were about 25...

Ironically more expensive than what we took.

For us it was a nice break... and I loved Sitka... the forest was incredible.

Not saying I am going on one anytime soon... let alone on any ship from this class.

[zen_bohemian]

20. I sailed to the Mex Riviera in June

on another line, I have never sailed on Carnival. The waters were kinda choppy when we were out on the sea. I imagine these passengers are probably hot, seasick and being fed spam.

What I don't get is why were the passengers not brought back to shore, rescued if you will, instead of having to endure this, it's been going on for 3 days now, what if another fire had broken out or something else happened to the ship??

[nadinbrzezinski]

21. They'd be on a bus to the US Border

if they towed to Ensenada right about now.

But Carnival is too cheap to pay port feels, emergency port fees.

As to getting them off the ship... well that is where the Reagan would have come in, the Morgenthau, the Mexican Navy vessels, and I know I am missing somebody... so unlike the press, my apologies.

[nadinbrzezinski]

31. Bad month indeed

The incident marks the end of a bad month for the ship. On the night of Oct 12, a crew member jumped overboard and was never found.
John Heald, Carnival’s senior cruise director, described the search for the staff member on his blog.

“I advised the guests that we had lost a valued and dear crew member to the sea,” Mr Heald wrote.

“We lost one of our own tonight, someone who just a few hours earlier was serving the guests and who now is lost to us forever.”

On Oct 31, off the coast of San Diego, another crew member had to be airlifted to hospital from the ship after becoming seriously ill.

One of the passengers posted video footage of the incident, which took place during strong winds, to YouTube.

A spokesman for Carnival declined to elaborate but said the crew member had since recovered.

She said the incidents were “very unusual” for the company.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/centralamericaandthecaribbean/mexico/8123526/Stranded-luxury-cruise-passengers-fed-Spam.html

Nope I don't think I'd do carnival... oy

[coffee bean]

33. I feel bad for the families on that ship

Carnival is one of the more affordable cruise lines, and many of the passengers are families on a family vacations.
They worked hard and saved their $'s, then for this to happen is just awful.
Yeah, the cruise line will comp them and offer them some other freebies, but to save, wait and look forward to time with your family and loved ones, then have it blow up, well, it's just sad.
I'm just sayin'

[nadinbrzezinski]

34. Fully agreed

My sis is going (on Carnival no less) later on. I suggested they find out what ship?

As a medic I got to deal with a few personal tragedies, you know the tourist who came on his or her vacation only to end in the ER. That was always challenging. Not only they were not conversant with the language, but we had to deal with all the migratory crap... it just adds to the "entertainment"

Now to kids who are not too young... this actually could be an adventure! Kids deal with crap like this far better than adults.

[applegrove]

35. Poptarts and Spam! Sounds just awful. I'm now more of a land-lover than I ever was.

[nadinbrzezinski]

36. According to the reporter from Denver stuck on board

this morning they had bagels and laggs... which isn't that bad,

Also tells me they might be getting some power back to the galleys. They are having a mess and this is not the engine room they will need to repair. They will need to clean this thing and possibly refurbish her.

If they were not that cheap, they would have been in Ensenada and on the way to the US border by this afternoon.