Carnival's ship Celebration spilled some lube oil and damaged a screw when the screw hit ocean bottom in The Bahamas. The ship is returning to Jacksonville for damage assessment. Read about it here.

Oops, tide must have been out, ballast not emptied? Wonder how much a new shaft and screw cost?

I don't know the price, but it isn't an easy or quick repair. You either have to drydock the ship or put a cofferdam around the aft end. It also depends on how much the shaft is warped. Then there is the fact that you have to have replacement parts, some of which are probably not off-the-shelf items.

I don't see any updates on the Carnival website, but won't be surprised to see some cancelled sailings.

I wonder what it is about this class of ships? The Holiday has had similar events and sailed for a good while with a slightly bent shaft. They replaced it during the refit this spring.

Might not be the class of ships, but the ports they are sailing into. I need to go read the article, but if the port was Freeport, maybe its shallower than others and/or more susceptible to sand bars forming???

nope, after reading the article it wasn't Freeport.. it was Nassau. That would make ne made to have Nassau cancelled. Doesn't that cruise only go to Nassau and Freeport? But, they did give each passenger $50 and 25% off their next cruise. Wow.. such generosity for messing up a persons vacation.

The itinerary was Jax, Key West, Nassau, then two days at sea. I guess they needed three days at sea to get back to Jax with only one screw operating.

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they did give each passenger $50 and 25% off their next cruise. Wow.. such generosity for messing up a persons vacation.

Now, now Jim, that was probably much more than they needed to do based on Page 832, paragraph 46 b, article iii, of their maritime agreement signed in Transylvania, that states they are not responsible for a person's vacation.

Hey Dave, Thanks for the interesting article. I wonder if the "generous" $50 was just their port charges? Have been on that ship/itinerary and thought the top of the ship was going to scrape under that bridge leaving out of JAX.

So..what now?!! Is that ship active or not?
Can somebody please tell me more about it because I had to be on that ship on August,21. (got a job there). Thank you

Here is the latest info from Carnival.

If I understood it well, Celebration is not going only to Freeport but everything else is like before?!

Lena25.. that's how I read it.

In my opinion, skipping Freeport will only make the cruise better. I wonder when and where they are going to fix the "technical problem with the propulsion system". Probably not everywhere that you can replace a prop shaft or at the very least the propeller.

Or is it just going to limp around on one until the ship is due for re-ferb?

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Carnival will provide guests that sail on this new cruise with a $100 per person credit to their onboard Sail & Sign account. In addition, guests that sail will receive a 20% discount off a future 3 to 7 day Carnival cruise (excluding Alaska, Christmas and New Years) departing prior to December 13, 2007. This discount applies to the cruise fare only.

Jim, you are right about getting rid of Freeport making it better - that's the cake - AND they're giving a $100 shipboard credit - that's the icing on the cake.

For sure, Freeport is a complete waste of a port call.

OK, so what happened to Freeport. I used to love going over on the weekends when I lived in Florida. Of course, it's been 25 years since I left Florida. We used to stay at the King's Inn, they made the best Caesar salad I've ever had. The beaches were just beautiful. What did they do to ruin this island?

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Originally posted by Lena25:
So..what now?!! Is that ship active or not?
Can somebody please tell me more about it because I had to be on that ship on August,21. (got a job there). Thank you

Nice company! They don't even keep their employees informed of what's going on?

Maybe it was the way they presented it then but when I went there, the ship docs, there are taxis waiting at the end of the ramp and they take you the other side of the island ($10) to a tourist trap of a shopping area and a crappy beach. Then its $10 back to the ship. Nothing to see and no reason to get off the ship. Unless something has drastically changed since then (and from Chucks and Dave's post I gather it hasn't) Freeport is a waste of a prefectly good cruising day.

Jim,

That is my experience too. Perhaps it is different if one goes there and stays at a hotel, but the cruise stop is disappointing and boring to me.

That's truly ashame. It was really fun and the snorkeling was good as well. One day, I might venture back just to see what they've done. Thanks for the info

More bad news, which confirms my suspicions. The 8/21 cruise is cancelled. Read about it here.