Updated: Carnival Agrees to Pay and Costa Gets a Slap on the Wrist

Update: Carnival Corp has has agreed to reimburse the U.S. government for costs related to the high-profile fires aboard the Carnival Triumph in February and Carnival Splendor in 2010. Read more here. The juxtaposition is priceless. OK, priceless may be the wrong word … Continue reading

Fire on the MV Azamara Quest Only the Latest Failure on Modern Diesel Electric Cruise Ships

The fire on the MV Azamara Quest, is one of a recent series of disabling fires and power failures on diesel-electric powered cruise ships.  Unlike the MV Azamara Quest, however, the ship’s crews aboard the Costa Allegra, the Carnival Splendor,  and the MSC Opera were unable to effect … Continue reading

Cruise Ship Costa Allegra Adrift off Seychelles After Fire

Sixteen months after the Carnival Splendor was blacked out by an engine room fire in the Pacific off the coast of Mexico, another Carnival owned cruise ship is drifting, dead in the water, after an engine room fire.  The Costa Allegra, a cruise ship … Continue reading

Carnival Splendor Set to Sail from San Francisco

The Carnival Splendor, which was crippled by an engine room fire on November 8th, leaving it drifting for days off the coast of Mexico with nearly 4,500 crew members and passengers aboard, is expected to sail from San Francisco on Friday … Continue reading

Carnival Splendor Arrives in San Francisco for Drydocking and to Complete Repairs

After attempting to sail on Wednesday and Thursday, the cruise ship Carnival Splendor finally departed San Diego under its own power on Friday, accompanied by two tugs.  As of Sunday morning, around 05:00 local time, the ship was approaching San Francisco under its … Continue reading

Ten Years of Cruise Ship Fires and Carnival Confetti

A weird dissonance between two cruise stories struck me recently.   On one hand, Carnival Cruise Lines is “the official confetti sponsor of the Times Square New Year’s Eve 2011 celebration.”   As reported by the the Maritime Executive “the sponsorship includes multiple opportunities to associate the … Continue reading

The Last Voyage of the Lakonia – Deadly Christmas Cruise

Forty seven years ago, passengers on the cruise ship Lakonia were promised  “a marvelous Christmas cruise to sunny Madeira and the Canary Islands.”   The brochure read –  “Have your holiday with all risk eliminated. Enjoy a holiday you will remember for … Continue reading

Why did the Carnival Splendor go dark?

How could an  fire in one of two engine rooms do sufficient damage to the electrical distribution system on the Carnival Splendor to completely disable the ship?   The answer isn’t obvious. The Carnival Splendor is diesel electric powered, which is to say, instead of … Continue reading

Carnival Splendor Update – Tugs, Flush Toilets and Spam

Perhaps the best news for the stranded passengers on the disabled cruise ship, Carnival Splendor, is that the flush toilets aboard are back in service and that the ship is proceeding slowly under tow to the mainland.   Still lacking refrigeration on … Continue reading