Power cuts hit QM2 world voyage

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Cunard flagship Queen Mary 2 is making stop-start progress on her current world cruise – the 150,000-ton liner has been plagued by a succession of brief power blackouts.
The latest left the vessel without propulsion as it was en route to Japan. The ship was also affected by power outages during its crossing of the Indian Ocean to Australia last month.
Passengers have reported being stuck briefly in lifts until power was switched back on. although back-up generators restored lighting and other services after a short break.
More alarmingly, the most recent incident appears to have affected propulsion of the vessel, which is carrying 2,600 passengers and about 1,000 crew.
Cunard, whose spokesperson attributed last month’s power cuts to “routine maintenance”, have been slightly more forthcoming about the latest events.
The company said: “After experiencing brief power interruptions, when back-up systems immediately kicked in, full power was swiftly restored to Queen Mary 2 on each occasion. Hotel services were restored to the ship within 15 minutes, there was virtually no impact on guests and the ship is continuing on her voyage as normal.”
The statement added, somewhat alarmingly in my view: “During the short period of power interruption the ship was without propulsion but was in safe navigation at all times with safety, navigation, radar and lighting systems working; anchors could have been deployed if necessary but were not required.”
Queen Mary 2 completed a major overhaul in dry dock in Hamburg only in December. The ship is expected back in Southampton, at the completion of her 2012 world voyage, on April 27.
In September 2010, the ship was left drifting without power in the Mediterranean after an explosion in an electricity switchboard. Passengers on board at the time were aware of a brief power outage, and the full extent of the incident became clear only on the publication of a Marine Accident Investigation Branch report in December 2011.
However, a Cunard spokesman said there was no connection between the 2010 incident and the recent events.
►Two cruises on Caribbean Princess have been cancelled in order to carry out repairs to the ship’s propulsion systems. The 23004-built Grand-class ship, which carries 3,200 passengers, cut short a cruise and returned early to port in San Juan when the problem arose last week. The March 18 and 25 voyages are the ones which have been scrapped. The ship is expected to return to service on April 1 after repairs.

By | 2017-06-15T15:59:52+00:00 19 March 2012|Cruise News, Cruise Ships|1 Comment

About the Author:

John Honeywell is a travel writer specialising in cruise ships and cruise travel. Winner of CLIA UK's Contribution to Cruise award 2017.

One Comment

  1. ron 20 March 2012 at 6:58 pm - Reply

    so what?
    not any big deal like you’d like to make it out to be!!!

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