Carnival Dream Docked in St. Maarten with Mechanical Issues
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Amy Sussman/Getty Images(NEW YORK) — After suffering a public relations nightmare that played out in the media over nearly a week when the Carnival Triumph lost power and thousands of passengers were stranded at sea, the largest cruise ship operator has another stalled ship to deal with.
Reports of power outages and overflowing toilets onboard the Carnival Dream emerged on Thursday. The ship is currently docked in the Caribbean island of St. Maarten, where it was originally scheduled to leave on Wednesday.
The cruise line said in a statement to ABC News that the power and toilet issues have been addressed. The cruise line also said the ship at no time fully lost power.
“The Carnival Dream has a technical issue which our engineering team is currently working on. The ship is at dock in St. Maarten,” said spokesman Vance Gulliksen. “At no time did the ship lose power but there were periodic interruptions to elevators and toilets for a few hours last night. However at this time all hotel systems are functioning normally. The ship has full power but is still at dock while personnel continue to work on the technical issue.”
A person claiming to be on the ship posted on the popular Cruise Critic message boards that at 3 a.m., the ship was 10 hours behind schedule.
“At first, no toilets or elevators. Those back on but ‘mechanical’ issues,” wrote member herbanrenewal.
The Carnival Dream was on a seven-day cruise and is based in Port Canaveral, Fla. The ship was scheduled to call on Nassau, Bahamas; St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands and Phillipsburg, St. Maarten before returning to Port Canaveral.
The 130,000 ton Carnival Dream is scheduled to leave for its next cruise on March 16. The ship, launched in 2009, is among the largest in the Carnival fleet, and can accommodate 3,652 passengers and 1,369 crew.
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