Carnival Splendor is the sole ship of the Splendor class, a smaller, modified version of the Concordia-class cruise ship, operated by Costa. She entered service on 2 July 2008. At 113,323 GT, she was the largest ship in Carnival Cruise Line until Carnival Dream debuted in September 2009. There are currently no plans to build another ship like her. The Carnival Splendor is widely known for the November 2010 incident in which a fire started in the engine room, shutting down all electrical power to the ship.
The ship was originally designed and ordered for Costa Cruises and is similar in design to Costa Serena, Costa Pacifica, Costa Favolosa, Costa Concordia, and the Costa Fascinosa with a larger spa and children's facilities. But the Carnival Splendor was transferred to Carnival Cruise Lines during construction.
On 7 February 2018, Carnival Cruise Line announced Carnival Splendor will come to Sydney Harbour in December 2019, to operate year-round down under.
The ship is scheduled to undergo a dry dock in November 2019.
Video Carnival Splendor
Christening
Carnival Splendor's godmother is Myleene Klass, who on 10 July 2008 christened the vessel in Dover in a lighthearted ceremony where she played Sailing on the piano, while a Royal Navy diver climbed up five decks on a rope, and broke the bottle of champagne on the bow by hand.
Maps Carnival Splendor
Special voyages
Carnival Splendor's inaugural season began on 2 July 2008 with a cruise from Genoa, Italy to Dover, England, followed by a three-day cruise to Amsterdam. Thereafter followed five 12-day Northern Europe cruises from Dover to the northern European ports of Copenhagen, Warnemünde, Helsinki, St. Petersburg, Tallinn, and Amsterdam. On 11 September 2008, the ship sailed to Southern Europe, to visit ports such as Civitavecchia (near Rome), Naples, Dubrovnik, Venice, Messina, Barcelona, Cannes, Livorno, Marmaris, Izmir, Istanbul, and Athens. She began her crossing of the Atlantic on 3 November 2008, toward Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
In January 2009, Carnival Splendor, Carnival's first new ship based on West Coast in 14 years, embarked on its cruise to the Pacific Ocean, heading to its new home port Long Beach, California..The ship was too wide for the Panama Canal at the time, so it made the journey by sailing around Cape Horn. It was the first Carnival ship to have ever made this voyage. The relocation took 49 days, and included visits to ports in Dominica, Barbados, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Peru, Ecuador, and Mexico. In Long Beach, she sailed year-round cruises to Mexico, replacing Carnival Pride.
In March 2009, Carnival Splendor was the host ship for Mayercraft Carrier 2, a four-day cruise from 27 to 31 March, from Los Angeles to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico hosted by musician John Mayer and featuring music and comedy shows.
In February 2013, Carnival Splendor sailed again around South America, repositioning to New York City to sail year-round. The South America voyages were sold in blocks from 13-18 day cruises. She then sailed one 7-day cruise to Bermuda followed by the same current operating 8-day cruises to the Caribbean/Bahamas replacing the Carnival Miracle's year-round deployment. In November 2014, the Carnival Splendor was re-positioned to Florida to offer seasonal seven-day cruises to the Eastern and Western Caribbean. In March 2014, Carnival announced the Carnival Splendor would sail seasonally out of Norfolk, Virginia before heading back to New York beginning in 2015.
In October 2015, Carnival announced that the Splendor will be re-positioned to China in 2018 offering year-round short cruises joining the Carnival Spirit which will reposition to China instead of the Carnival Miracle. However, Carnival announced in November 2016 that the Splendor will instead relocate to Long Beach for the second time in January 2018, offering 7 day cruises to the Mexican Riviera. To get to Long Beach from the Caribbean, she will sail through the Panama Canal and will become one of the largest ships to ever cross through the new locks.
Incidents and accidents
2010 fire
On 8 November 2010, at approximately 06:00 Pacific time, on the second day of a voyage from Long Beach to the Mexican Riviera, the ship experienced a catastrophic failure of the #5 diesel generator which started a fire in her aft engine room. The fire spread to the overhead electrical cable runs in the aft engine room. The fire in the cable runs caused extensive damage to the cabling and contributed to the ship losing all electrical power. According to Carnival president, Gerry Cahill, a "crankcase split, and that's what caused the fire", adding it was isolated to the aft generator room. The fire was extinguished by the afternoon, and no one was injured. Nearly 4,500 passengers and crew members were on board at the time.
The crew was unable to restore power to the engines, and the ship was towed by tugboat to San Diego. Without power for air conditioning and refrigeration, passengers were fed rations delivered via U.S. Navy helicopters from the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan. Splendor was escorted by, and received aid and security assistance from the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Morgenthau. Carnival Splendor arrived in San Diego under tow around sunrise on 11 November, and docked around noon. Carnival promised to refund all passengers for ticket and travel expenses along with a voucher for a free cruise of equal value to their cruise on Splendor.
The ship has three 12-cylinder Wärtsilä 12V46C medium-speed diesel generating sets in the aft engine room and three in a forward engine room. Each generator is connected to two switchboards. The failure of a single engine or generator should not normally cause a total power loss. Clark Dodge, former chief engineer for Washington State Ferries, said, "If things were designed properly, all the power shouldn't have gone out."
The investigation into the fire was carried out by the United States Coast Guard in conjunction with the Panamanian Maritime Authority. The report into the cause of the fire was released on July 15, 2013.
2012 armed robbery
On 23 February 2012, while in Puerto Vallarta port, Mexico, 22 passengers on the Carnival-organized "City and Jungle Tour" were robbed by an armed bandit. Passengers lost money, cameras, purses, passports, other documents and valuables. No shots were fired and everybody escaped without injuries.
2017 engine troubles
On March 2, 2017 while 50 miles outside Puerto Rico the ship experienced engine trouble requiring operation on a single engine. Carnival canceled the remaining portion of the cruise and returned to Miami. Carnival offered a 50% refund off the cost of the cruise, free internet use for the remainder of the voyage, and a 50% discount off a future cruise.
References
External links
- Official website
- Cruise Critic review
- Carnival Splendor ship location in Google Maps
Source of article : Wikipedia
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