Passengers on Carnival Dream have been flown home after the remainder of the sailing was cancelled over a fault with its backup emergency generator, only one month after guests onboard its sister ship were stranded for five days.
The cruise line has also cancelled the ship’s next voyage, which was due to depart on March 16, after a malfunction occurred during scheduled testing of the ship’s emergency diesel generator while it was docked in St Maarten on the final leg of the seven-day trip
Carnival Dream passenger Gregg Stark described “human waste” sloshing onto the floors of some of the ships bathrooms, and elevators not working, according to the Daily Mail.
However, a Carnival spokesman has said that only one public restroom was taken offline for cleaning because of overflowing toilets, and there was just one request for a guest cabin bathroom to be cleaned.
Carnival has said that the ship, based in Port Canaveral in Florida, did not lose power, and its propulsion systems primary power source were not affected.
Carnival said that all guests were safe and comfortable, and it was making arrangements to fly passengers home via private charter flights and scheduled flights from St Maarten while its engineering team continued to work on fixing the problem.
St Maarten was a scheduled port of call, and guests were able to spend the full day in port and have the option of continuing to do so until their scheduled return home, said the cruise line, while all of the ship’s activities and facilities are fully operational.
A spokesman said there were periodic interruptions to lifts and bathroom services for a few hours last night, but all hotel systems are functioning normally and have been working since around 12.30am local time today.
Guests on the current voyage will receive a refund equivalent to three days of the voyage and 50% off a future cruise, while passengers scheduled to sail on the cancelled cruise due to depart this week will receive a full refund and 25% off a future seven-day cruise.
Guests who re-book will have their current rate protected on the future sailing, and any non-refundable transportation related expenses will be reimbursed.
Carnival said: “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.”