MIAMI - March 20, 2002 - Celebrity Cruises will send two ships, Summit and Infinity, into unscheduled drydocks March 29 and April 13, respectively, to repair propulsion pods. Both ships are operating safely today but at a lower cruising speed.

Summit will cancel a March 29 sailing from Fort Lauderdale, and an 11-night cruise April 8 will be shortened to a seven-night sailing April 12. Guests on the shorter voyage will receive a 50-percent refund.

Infinity will miss her April 13 and 20 sailings from San Juan. In addition, Infinity will modify two itineraries. The April 6 sailing, originally a roundtrip from San Juan, now will originate in San Juan and terminate in Fort Lauderdale. The April 27 Transcanal sailing, originally from San Juan to San Diego, now will operate from Fort Lauderdale to San Diego.

The problem with the pods involves ball-bearing units that are wearing out prematurely. Consequently, ships must reduce their cruising speed, potentially falling behind schedule on port calls. By making repairs as soon as possible, Celebrity will avoid further changes in itineraries.

Both ships will be drydocked at the Grand Bahama Shipyard in Freeport, Bahamas.

"Disrupting a guest’s vacation experience is not the business we are in, and this announcement is painful for all of us, " said Celebrity President and Chief Operating Officer Jack Williams. "The ships are operating safely, but unless these repairs are made, we cannot guarantee the integrity of our advertised itineraries."

Guests booked on the cancelled sailings will receive a full refund and a voucher for a 50-percent discount on any seven- to 15-night Caribbean, Transcanal or Hawaii cruise, originating before May 31, 2003, excluding Christmas and New Year’s 2002 sailings.

Travel agents will have their original full commission protected, plus a $50 rebooking fee per booking when their clients reschedule their cruise.

I have also been told by Celebrity that for guests who booked their own air, Celebrity is going to issue a letter to the airlines to try to reduce/ elminate any charges/ penalties but with no promises.

The Apr 8 Summit itinerary is now 7 days leaving 12 April: FLL to Grand Cayman, Cozumel, Key West, Nassau, FLL

The April 6 Infinity itinerary: SJU - St. Thomas, Antigua, St. Maarten, Nassau ending in FLL.

The april 27 Infinity itinerary is now: FLL - Cartagena, Panama Canal, Punta Arenas, Acapulco, Cabo San Lucas and then San Diego.

...but. As I recall it, there are two different "pod" concepts. One is the "Azipod", as fitted to "Millenium." The other is the "Mermaid Pod" which is to be fitted to QM2.

Each is a patented offering by competing shipyards, I believe.

I do not know the technical differences, but one might inquire as to whether the "azipod" design is the culprit in this instance, since troubles have been reported before, as I remember.

Is the competing "Mermaid Pod" operational on any ships at this time?

On conventionally powered ships, if something goes wrong in the engine room, there are technical types aboard who can attend to it.

Only the propellors ("screws" if you will) are outside - everything is presumably accessible.

But with the pods, the main propulsion component, the electric motor, is outside in the pod. That you cannot see to on the voyage, or even in the water (unless there is a strange component on the ship of which I am unaware).

I remember in the days of long-distance propellor aircraft, when the controlable-pitch propellor went bad - ran away, froze, something, results can range from dicey to catastrophic.

[As an aside, part of our current reluctance to fly was an experience with an engine-fire and a runaway prop on a "Connie" on a Transpacific Flight experienced by my wife on her return from Japan in 1957. She made it, but it was not fun. It was almost an exact replay of the script of "The High and the Mighty" for vintage film buffs]

But anyhoo, if it's out there, you cannot fix it.

Such pods are similar to the power nacelles on Malcom's beloved hovercraft SRN-4s. They spin and they swivel. But on the hovercraft, you can at least get at it to fix it!

[ 03-23-2002: Message edited by: Cambodge ]

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Originally posted by geno-r:
Just read on Celebrity's web site that both the Summit and Infinity will have to go into dry dock in the Bahamas to have repairs made to their proplusion pods.

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