Propulsion problems dog cruise ships

Recent months have seen several high profile cruise ships suffer propulsion problems, resulting in ships having to curtail cruises, operate at slower speeds and require major repairs.

In August, Celebrity Cruises’ vessel Celebrity Millennium equipped with two Rolls-Royce Mermaid pods suffered problems that resulted in five cruises being cancelled and the ship going to Grand Bahama Shipyard for repairs in September. This involved one of its pods being replaced.

According to Celebrity, the problem was with the pod’s stator. The failure happened in August when the ship was in Alaska. Following initial repairs in port, the pod failed a second time, leading the operator to decide to replace the pod completely. The faulty pod was being analysed after removal to diagnose the exact problem.

Royal Caribbean has had a history of problems with pod failures and in 2010 agreed a financial settlement with Rolls-Royce following problems with the Celebrity Millennium series of ships. Carnival also reached a settlement with the supplier as a result of failures on the Cunard vessel Queen Mary 2.

But in October the 225,282gt Royal Caribbean vessel Allure of the Seas, delivered in 2010, suffered problems with its ABB Azipods, resulting in the ship having to operate at reduced speed on cruises in the Caribbean. According to the operator the problem is unexpected wear in one of the propulsion pod motors. As a result it has decided that the only way to repair the problem is to put the ship into an unscheduled drydocking in February, with the ship operating at reduced speed until then, although the damaged pod is still operational.

“While Allure could have continued to sail at a reduced rate of speed, we felt it was important to fix the problem as soon as possible,” said William Baumgartner, senior vice president of marine operations, Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. A spokesman for ABB told MP that the problem on Allure of the Seas is a maintenance issue and not any design or production problem. MP