Murder on Carnival Elation

An unnamed man has been arrested by the FBI following the death of his wife aboard Carnival Cruise Line’s Carnival Elation. The vessel was on the last leg of a Baja Mexico cruise when the incident occurred. FBI agents boarded the ship in San Diego, California and arrested the man. Sphere: Related Content

Carnival Dream completes sea trials

Carnival cruise Line’s 130,000grt Carnival Dream has successfully completed sea trials and is set to be delivered from Fincantieri’s Monfalcone shipyard in September, entering service in Europe on 21 September.  Sphere: Related Content

Multiple ship orders from Carnival?

At a time when new cruise ship orders are few and far between and owners are expected to spend more and more money on refits and conversions, there are strong rumours in Europe suggesting that the Carnival Corp that the Miami-based giant is about to order a series of vessels for its various brands. The only thing Carnival would say about this matter was ‘watch this space.’ Sphere: Related Content

Peter Fetten to join Carnival Corp

One of the most respected men in cruise vessel design, refit and operation, German Peter Fetten is to join the Carnival Corp as of 1 July in the newly created position of Senior Vice President, Corporate Ship Refits.

Fetten has previously held senior technical positions at RCCL, Freeport’s Grand Bahama Shipyard, Hamburg’s Blohm & Voss shipyard, as well as running his own consultancy. He will be responsible for the refits and conversions of all vessels operated with the various Carnival brands. Sphere: Related Content

Unique hull coating improves QM2’s performance

Cunard’s decision to recently coat the underwater hull of QM2 with the fluoropolymer foul release coating Intersleek 900 has paid off. During the vessel’s recent drydocking in Hamburg, 6,000m2 of the underwater hull of QM2 was blasted and coated with International Paint’s Intersleek 900; the vessel having being previously been coated with a self polishing copolymer (SPC) antifouling. The decision to switch to Intersleek 900 was part of Cunard’s strategic initiative to reduce fuel usage, cost and associated CO2 emissions whilst maintaining operational schedules.

Commenting on the selection of Intersleek 900, David Strawford, Head of Technical Services, Carnival UK said: ‘To date, performance results have been very positive. The vessel is achieving operational speed whilst utilising less power than was previously the case. A significant improvement compared to the previous SPC system.’

Carnival has coated more cruise vessels with International Paint’s Intersleek system than any other passenger vessel operator. Their first vessel to be coated was P&O cruises’ Oriana in 1999 with the silicone-based foul release system Intersleek 700. Since then 20 other Carnival cruise ships have subsequently been coated.

Following the introduction of Intersleek 900 in 2007, the company is currently upgrading existing silicone coated vessels to advanced fluropolymer technology. Smoother, tougher and with better foul release capabilities than its silicone-based predecessor, Intersleek 900 was most recently applied on P&O Cruises’ Arcadia and has been specified on the four AIDA Cruises newbuildings currently under construction at Germany’s Meyer Werft. Sphere: Related Content

Carnival sues Rolls-Royce over QM2 pod problems

Carnival Corp, parent of Cunard Line, is suing propulsion system specialists’ Rolls-Royce/Converteam for US $100m over ongoing problems with the Mermaid podded propulsion system used propel QM2.

In a law suite filed in Florida last week, carnival alleges ‘fraud and conspiracy.’ Carnival is looking to recover mullions of $s in damages to compensate for repair costs and other losses incurred by ongoing propulsion with the ship’s four main propulsion pods.

Carnival claims that the pod system never performed as promised and further alleges that Rolls-Royce/Converteam are guilty of ‘fraudulent and conspirational’ acts. QM2 has been plagued by propulsion pod problems ever since being delivered by the then Chantiers de l’Atlantique shipyard in St. Nazaire in 2004. She is the first cruise ship to be powered by four propulsion pods; two fixed units and two azimuthing pods.

Carnival says that Rolls-Royce and Converteam knew that each time they pretended to fix a failed pod it would, in fact, break down again because in reality they had no solution whatsoever for the complex design and manufacturing defects plaguing the Mermaids installed on QM2, nor did they want to incur the cost of undertaking a complete redesign.

The problems with QM2’s pods relate to the lifetime of the bearings in each pod. Rolls-Royce/Converteam claim that each bearing should have a service life of between 15 and 20 years. In reality, says Carnival, Cunard is changing bearing every three years.

Commenting on the pod problems, Mickey Arison, chairman of Carnival said: ‘It will be very embarrassing to Rolls-Royce if this is not resolved. And expensive.’

This is not the first time that Mermaid pods have had problems with cruise ships. RCCL sued Rolls-Royce for problems with the pods on Celebrity’s four Millennium-class vessels. Sphere: Related Content

No Japanese newbuildings for Carnival

The Carnival Corp will not be building two newbuilding cruise ships at Japan’s Mitsubishi heavy Industries. Talks between the two parties have been underway for months for two 1,000 passenger capacity vessels for delivery in 2013 and 2014. However, due to the global recession and both companies not being able to agree on the price for the ships, the deal has been shelved for the time being. Sphere: Related Content