Cruise ship hit by power failures

UPDATE: With the generators still out of action, Voyages of Discovery has cancelled the remainder o Voyager’s 9-day Celtic Treasures cruise. All 487 passengers will be returned to Portsmouth, where they embarked the ship, tomorrow

[Friday]. Additional excursions have been arranged to keep them entertained on their third day in Killybegs, Co Donegal.

A team of specialist engineers joined the ship to try to restore power to the affected generators yesterday [Wednesday]. They have not yet been able to rectify the faults in time for the cruise to continue as planned.

Voyages of Discovery has also announced the ship’s next voyage, a 10-day Heritage of the British Isles cruise due to leave Portsmouth on Sunday [June 2] has been cancelled. Passengers will receive a full refund or the option to receive credit worth 140 per cent of the fare paid towards another booking.

Talk about the luck of the Irish ! Cruise ship MV Voyager suffered a failure of two of its four generators while it was in port at Killybegs, County Donegal yesterday.
The ship, carrying 487 passengers and 286 crew, remained in port overnight and specialist engineers will assess the problem before it is allowed to leave.
The first failure occurred at 2.45 pm yesterday afternoon and the second at 6.30 pm. Operator Voyages of Discovery described the failures as “an unusual event.”
The remaining two generators are functioning normally and the ship still has power, with all guest facilities operating normally. However, it was decided to keep the ship in port rather than sail to Portrush.
Voyager is on a nine-day Celtic Treasures cruise which left Portsmouth on May 25. Capt Stuart Horne, director of Fleet Operations for parent company All Leisure Holidays – which also runs Hebridean Island Cruises and operates MV Discovery in a joint venture with Cruise & Maritime Voyages – has flown to the ship.
VoD says additional shore excursions have been offered during the extended stay in Killybegs and the company has apologised to all passengers for these “unusual and unforeseen circumstances.”
“The safe continuation of the cruise and the safety of all guests and crew are the highest priority for Voyages of Discovery, which wishes to ensure that at least one of the affected generators is working fully before any decisions are made regarding the continuation of the cruise,” .a statement added
An assessment of the generators is expected by the end of today.
MV Voyager, previously the Alexander von Humboldt, was christened by TV naturalist Miranda Krestovnikoff at a ceremony in Portsmouth last December.