Is pod propulsion the best or worse thing to ever happen to cruise ships? Celebrity Cruise Line just cancelled the cruises for the rest of season in Alaska on the Celebrity Millennium due to failures in its pods. It had already cancelled two previous cruises due to the malfunctions.
The Rolls Royce “mermaid pods” installed on the Celebrity Millenium class ships are a rotating pod propulsion system which serves as rudders and thrusters as well as propulsion. In theory, they are highly efficient and provide the sort of maneuverability that large cruise ships operating mostly without tug support need to get in and out of port. The only problem is making them work.
Both Royal Caribbean, the parent company of Celebrity, and Carnival have had major problems with the failure of pod propulsion. In 2010, Royal Caribbean agreed to a $65 million settlement with Rolls-Royce in a lawsuit over the failure of the pod propulsion on the Celebrity Millenium class ships. A year later, Carnival Cruise Lines was awarded $24 million in a lawsuit with Rolls Royce related to the repeated failure of the ”Mermaid Pods” on Carnival’s Cunard Line ship, Queen Mary 2.
Three years later and the Celebrity Millennium’s pod problems have not been resolved.
Pods again!! It would seem there is a basic design fault with the Pod system. Various ships built in various shipyards are all suffering major problems yet the new cruise ships are still being designed with them as the motion/steering system of choice. This places the Master and Watchofficers in a difficult position should the vessel suffer an incident. Perhaps the Bridge Watch should issue a “legal disclaimer” so popular these days with just about everything one purchases.
Good Watch.
Legal disclaimer: This is just a suggestion and must not be considered in any manner, form or interpretation thereof as legal advice !!
we are cruising on the celebrity millenium on Nov. 20. Sydney to Singapore. will this cruise still be taking place
Obviously that is Celebrity’s call. This is not the first time that Celebrity has had to repair their pods. I am sure that they will have the problem fixed by then.
According to the cruise line as reported in “The Miami Herald” the motor is being replaced and the ship will return to service on September 22, 2013.
Good Watch.
Good luck, Janette. They told the 8/16 passengers that everything was OK too and we never left Ketchikan.
Those Donkey Holes!! I went on the Northbound Vancouver to Seward August 16. Shore enough, there was a “Bang” (I didn’t hear it) and the captain “our of an aboondance of cowshun: turned back en route from Ketchikan to Icy Straight Point. Kept giving updates that they were “working around the clock” but after three days the other shoe dropped and they said they’d charter us off to where we wanted to go. However, in the middle of the Night the ticket was on my door-back to Vancouver!!-like many others, I wanted Anchorage. The second week of my vacay-independently booked-was a train to Denali Park. They Did refund the cruise and excursions and say they will give us all coupons for future cruises-Celebrity again, Oh JOY!-but I will write them demanding a refund for the Vancouver to Anchorage plane ticket I was forced to buy myself. The Bus company that was going to take me from Seward to Anchorage had a message that they know all about the Millenium Snafu-but THEY have not credited the money back.
WHY do they use unreliable engines?? They ruined my vacation and wasted a week of my Life!!!