Carnival Dream cruise ship stranded at St Maarten

Carnival Dream cruise ship has been forced to fly passengers home after the vessel experienced overflowing toilets and power outages just a month after Triumph was stranded for five days in the Gulf of Mexico.

Carnival announced on Thursday that guests are being flown off the island of St Maarten where the ship is moored. Passengers will be refunded for three days of the trip and get a 50% discount on future voyages.

Carnival Dream cruise ship, which has a capacity of 3,646 passengers and 1,367 crew, is docked at Phillipsburg in the Caribbean on the last leg of a seven-day cruise from Florida.

There was no information on what would be happening to the crew on the crippled ship which had a mechanical issue with a diesel generator.

Dream’s captain alerted authorities of possible trouble with the ship’s propulsion system on Wednesday, a U.S. Coast Guard spokeswoman in Miami said on Thursday.

Several passengers told CNN that guests had been held on the boat despite the fact toilets were overflowing and unusable on Wednesday.

Other passengers said that crew had announced over the tannoy system that generator problems would take an hour to fix but that seven hours later, the unsavory situation remained.

Carnival Dream had been due to leave the Caribbean island at 5 p.m. on Wednesday after making the trip from Port Canaveral.Passengers will now fly the two hours back to Florida on both commercial and private charter flights.

Petty Officer Sabrina Laberdesque said the ship has functioning sewage and power systems, adding that officials are working to correct the problems.

Sabrina Laberdesque said the Coast Guard is not involved because the ship is moored.

Carnival shares fell 1.3% on Thursday morning to $35.24 after the cruise cancellation was announced.

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Carnival’s official statement:

“The Carnival Dream has a technical issue with the ship’s back-up emergency diesel generator which our engineering team is currently working on. Yesterday, during regularly scheduled testing of the ship’s emergency diesel generator, a malfunction occurred. At no time did the ship lose power and the ship’s propulsion systems and primary power source was not impacted. The ship is at dock in St. Maarten.

All guests are safe and comfortable. There were periodic interruptions to elevators and restroom services for a few hours last night. However, all hotel systems are functioning normally and have been functional since approximately 12.30 a.m.

While personnel continue to work on the technical issue we are making arrangements to fly all guests home via private charter flights and scheduled flights from St. Maarten.

Guests on the current voyage will receive a refund equivalent to three days of the voyage and 50 percent off a future cruise.

We are also cancelling the ship’s next voyage which is scheduled to depart on Saturday, March 16. Guests scheduled to sail on this cruise will receive a full refund and 25 per cent off a future seven-day cruise. Guests who re-book will have their current rate protected on the future sailing.
Additionally, any non-refundable transportation related expenses will be reimbursed.

Yesterday was a scheduled port of call visit to St. Maarten. Guests were able to spend the full day in port and have the option of continuing to do so until their scheduled return home. All of the ship’s activities and facilities are fully operational.

We are very sorry for this disruption to our guests’ vacation plans and extend our sincere apologies. We look forward to welcoming them back on another Carnival cruise.

The Carnival Dream was on the last leg of a seven-day cruise and was docked in St. Maarten when the technical problem arose. The ship is based in Port Canaveral, Florida.”