I just received a message from a reader of Cruise Law News that Carnival announced that the new Carnival Vista is having propulsion problems.
Carnival stated on its Facebook page that the Carnival Vista is experiencing what it calls a “technical” problem with its propulsion system which is “affecting only its maximum cruising speed.”
On November 19th, the Carnival Vista is scheduled to sail a repositioning cruise from New York to Miami, Florida. Grand Turk was originally scheduled for November 19th. Carnival announced that it is replacing Grand Turk with the nearby port of Nassau due to the propulsion issues.
The reader commented:
“New ships are like new cars and they all can have mechanical issues but it is really sad to see a ship less than 6 month old having propulsion issues. I’ll be interested to hear what is causing this as it seems to happen far too often. And substituting Nassau, the armpit of the Caribbean, is rather like a slap in the face to unsuspecting cruisers who thought they were going to be in the relatively safe Port area of Grand Turk.”
These comments are spot on.
Another Carnival cruise ship, the Carnival Liberty has been in the news recently for these same reasons.
The Carnival Vista was last in the news for wiping out a small dock in Messina, Italy two months ago..
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November 19, 2016 Update: The Vista sailed to Grand Turk after all. Today the Carnival ship called on Grand Turk and was assisted into port via tugs. Some passengers say that the cruise ship needed tugs becuase of high winds while others say that the ship is experiencing propulsion issues and difficulties with its azimuth pods and/or bow thrusters.
Photo credit: Top – Antonio from Trieste, Italy – TRIESTE NAVI, CC BY 2.0, commons / wikimedia; bottom – Marine Traffic AIS.