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Carnival to improve ship safety and reliability following series of failures
Carnival Cruise Lines has announced a raft of measures to improve safety and dependability on board its ships after a series of high profile incidents.
The cruise giant is to spend more than $300 million upgrading the emergency power, fire safety, and operating redundancies on each of its 24 ships, and making improvements to its entire 101-ship fleet.
The fixes, which already have begun and will take several months to complete, are designed to prevent the loss of power at sea and to keep essential services running even if power is lost.
In the first phase, emergency generators will be added to every vessel to keep 100% of stateroom and public toilets flushing, and ensure fresh water and elevators.
Once that is done, a second permanent back-up power system will be added to power cooking facilities, cold-food storage, internet, and telephone communications.
Also on the fix-it list are fire prevention, detection, and suppression systems.
Carnival also will form a Safety and Reliability Review Board of five outside experts with previous experience in organisations such as the US Navy, US Coast Guard, and National Transportation Safety Board.
Carnival has been recently hit by a series of failures and technical problems on board it ships.
In February, Carnival Triumph was left drifting in the Gulf of Mexico without power for five days after an engine room fire.
Last month the cruise line had to fly 4,363 passengers home after cancelling a cruise on Carnival Dream due to technical problems, while Carnival Legend had to cancel a stop in the Cayman Islands after suffering technical issues with propulsion.
"By applying lessons learned through our fleet-wide operational review after the Carnival Triumph fire and by taking advantage of new technologies, we have identified areas for enhancement across our operations," said Gerry Cahill, president and CEO.
The complete programme of enhancements across all Carnival brands and its entire 101-ship fleet will cost between $600 and $700 million.
by Cheryl Rosen, TravelMole Editor US
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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