Royal Princess file photo. Photo (c) Princess Cruises via Flickr
Carnival Corporation’s Princess Cruises has confirmed that a power outage on board its newest Royal Princess cruise ship has forced the cancellation of at least the remainder of the ship’s current voyage so that repairs can be made.
In a statement issued Monday, Princess Cruises said that the Royal Princess suffered a power outage Sunday while sailing in the Mediterranean Sea between Mykonos and Naples. Power was restored after 3.5 hours, but Princess Cruises says that the ship’s technical team has determined that further repairs will be needed to fully resolve the situation and, as a result, passengers will be forced to disembark in Naples.
The statement said that power has been restored and Royal Princess is now expected to reach Naples early Tuesday morning. From there the ship will sail to Barcelona with crew only.
Princess Cruises says that that the impact of the repairs on the ship’s next cruise, scheduled to depart from Barcelona on September 27, is not yet known.
The 3,600 passenger, 141,000 GT MS Royal Princess was just delivered to the company by the Fincantieri shipyard in Monfalcone, Italy in June 2013. The new ship is the largest ship in Princess Cruises fleet and replaced the Grand Princess as the company’s flagship vessel.
The Royal Princess made headlines in June when it was named by Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cambridge, aka former Kate Middleton.
Princess Cruises says that passengers on the current voyage will be provided a full refund of their cruise fare, along with a 25% future cruise credit, and Princess is making homeward air arrangement.
This weekend’s incident follows other famous Carnival power outages such as Carnival Triumph earlier this year and Carnival Splendor in 2010.
Carnival Corp. has pledged an estimated $600 to $700 million to improve emergency power and fire safety mechanisms across its entire fleet following a recent operational review.
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