Norwegian Dawn cruise ship breaks down near Puerto Rico
November 28, 2009 by NJ News
Filed under Feature, Latest Headlines, Travel
On Friday, the Norwegian Dawn, a cruise ship owned and operated by Norwegian Cruise Lines broke down on its way back to Miami after a week long trip around the Caribbean which included the Dominican Republic, Tortola, St. John, Barbados and St. Kitts.
Passengers on board say the ship completely lost all power and Coast Guard ships and helicopters were dispatched to the scene. All activities on board the ship were cancelled Friday and the ship is headed to the port of San Juan in Puerto Rico, not Miami, this morning. Passengers were told they would have to make accomodations to return to Miami, but were offered a 70% discount and credits of 50% on future cruises. NCL also offered to pay for hotel accomodations and airfare.
During the power outage, the more than 2,000 passengers on the ship had no access to running water, electricity air conditioning or toilet services in the hot Caribbean. The current temperature in San Juan is partly cloudy 85 degrees with 67% humidity. Guests have been asked to conserve water because the ship has limited capacity to produce new fresh water.
The ship was expected back in Miami on Sunday for a 5 day cruise but that cruise has been cancelled due to the severity and complexity of repairs needed. All reservations for the Norwegian Dawn have been locked out at this time.
Passengers onboard the ship have reported that without air conditioning, the interior of the ship has become very hot and uncomfortable as all power is being used for propulsion of the vessel. To escape the heat of the cabins, passengers were sleeping out on the ship’s open decks.
This is not the first time the Norwegian Dawn has had power failures. Over the summer, the ship had lost power during a cruise to Bermuda for approximately one hour.
We are actually stuck here in San Juan. All thanks to the lovely Norwegian Dawn. Ha! Just to update you we are offered or given I should say 75% back on our cruise fares, also have a 50% off voucher for our next cruise. I will say the crew has done well holding it together for the amount of pissed of people. Only problem now is our flight is not tell tuesday so we have to stay on the hot boat tell then…
Danny:
Can you check the lists and see when we are scheduled to fly out. We got off the ship after we weren’t on the first 5 lists for flights. Have the conditions improved any, we couldn’t handle the heat with respiratory problems. Our thoughts are with you.
Bowen and Anske
Poor poor Norwegian Dawn.. one time we took it, it could only go 1/2 speed because of a faulty azipod or something.. next time we were on it, the norovirus broke out.. luckily we didn’t get it.
We were the lucky ones. As soon as we hit the port I got on my cell phone. Found flights home for everyone in my family. Tonight we are home. Last night it was so hot in the cabin no one was sleeping. I went for a walk to try cool off and look for some where to sleep. I found what looked like a disaster camp set up on the party deck.People were sleeping where they could. In chairs on cots and some even on the floor. I hope it is better tonight for those who are still on the ship. Good Luck.
The passengers should be glad that they weren’t on an airplane!
Any clues as to when it might be ready to sail again? We are booked on it for a cruise on Friday Dec 4th? Of course we’ll call cruise agents on Monday, but just wondered if there was any speculation talk on the ship. I see the 5 day cruise today through Thursday was cancelled. We are booked on back to back cruises….this ship and the NCL Sky. Concerned now how it will all shake out..
We were the lucky ones. As soon as we hit the port I got on my cell phone. Found flights home for everyone in my family. Saturday night we were home. Friday night it was so hot in the cabin no one was sleeping. I went for a walk to try cool off and look for some where to sleep. I found what looked like a disaster camp set up on the party deck. People were sleeping where they could;in chairs, on cots and some even on the floor. I hope it is improved for those who are still on the ship. Good Luck.
Reply
I was aboard the Dawn this past week. It was my first Cruise ever. I will Cruise again and will do so with NCL. Mechanical failures happen, and it’s how the ship’s crew reacted that matters I was very impressed. The Captain gave 15 min updates during the initial outage. When it was apparent it was going to take longer, we were updated every 30 minutes. They tried unsuccessfully for about 4-5 hours to get all systems up and going, and when they failed to do so, it was determined that for our safety and comfort, they would divert us to Puerto Rico, give us 75% of our fare back, 50% off a future cruise and fly us home.
I am astounded by how weak people have become. I am convinced that some people just like to complain. First, we had water; they just asked us to conserve it. Second, we never went without food or entertainment. In the early hours of the outage, they quickly put together a Barbeque on Deck and had an excellent Guitarist/Vocalist roaming around the deck doing requests.
The only thing I would advise NCL to do is on all future bookings, get your passengers returning flight information so that you have the information you need to better coordinate flights home and maximize the need for passengers and airlines to change flights. As an aside note, I heard from some passengers they were being charged changed fees and some were having those fees waived. Bravo to those airlines that waived the fee.
By the way, I am writing this from the comfort of my home. Thank you NCL for making the best of an unfortunate end to a fantastic vacation.
you where lucky we where on the fourth floor the temperature got to 108,we where told to be ready to disembark at 7am,finallyy did so at 2pm,got to san juan sat there with nofood or drink or ncl explabations for 6 hours,got to miami waited 2 hour s for cases finaly arrived at hotel at 2am,well done ncl i dont think so
Steve, I presume you’ve never crash and your car never breaks. If there is fire in your home you will probably react very quickly because you, you are perfect.
where you there did you have 3 days with out sleep ,slept in 108 degrees heat and paid for the priveledge
I was there we were without AC one night, I was without elec for three weeks
where I live one winter, no one gave us anything we had to do it all on our o
own. NCL did a great job of taking care of over 2000 people plus crew, we
never went wtihout food, or drink, they gave out free bottles of water and sodas
Then we got to spend two days in San Juan. My husband had been born there so it was great that we got to see all the places his parents went. The only thing that we didn’t get from this cruise was two night of entertainment. But we spent those nights on San Juan enjoying ourselves. They helped us get our luggue to the airport they got us on a great flight home with a movie and dinner. There was buses there when we got to Miami, the airport was having problems with their belts so lugguge took a while to get but not that long we we back at our car by 11:30 Sunday night they gave hotel rooms to us who missed their flights, and paid for the missed flights. Total cost to us for this vaction 700.00 NCL has already given refund, and we will use the 50% off for our next cruise with NCL. NCL did a great job they handled a bad problem with little trouble to the passengers. The Crew handled it very well they were with out AC the whole time down in the bottom of the ship. People show their strengths or weakness when problems come along. Thank you NCL for your strenght in this power loss. Ray and Penny Hawkins
I’ve read all these postings and I agree with most of the postive posters. It seems like NCL did a fine job of making a horrible situation bearable. I do wonder how they would have dealt with someone like me. I cruise because I will not fly!!! I haven’t in 15 years and I doubt I would have made it from an Island airport back home in FL. Did they ever say that you could stay with the boat and get back to Miami? Or possibly arrange another ship to get us crazy no-flyers home? I guess the alternative would be to stay in San Juan