A month after a Carnival cruise ship was stranded for five days in the Gulf of Mexico, another of its cruise ships is reporting equipment problems in the Caribbean.
The United States Coast Guard says the Carnival Dream cruise ship has an emergency equipment situation that is keeping the ship from traveling.
The cruise ship, which has a capacity of 3,646 passengers and 1,367 crew members, is docked at Phillipsburg in St. Maarten.
Petty Officer Jon-Paul Rios of the US Coast Guard says the Dream still has power and still has sewage facilities, but the ship remains moored while technicians fix an emergency diesel generator that affects propulsion.
Since the ship lacks propulsion, it is not able to head to its next port of call. The ship was scheduled to leave from Phillipsburg around 5 p.m. Eastern on Wednesday.
Carnival is not disembarking passengers as they believe the situation will be quickly fixed. The Coast Guard is not involved because the ship is moored.
Carnival posted this message to their Facebook page, commenting on the incident:
The Carnival Dream has a technical issue which our engineering team is currently working on. The ship is at dock in St. Maarten. 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 and have been functional since approximately 12.30am. The ship has full power but is still at dock while personnel continue to work on the technical issue. The Carnival Dream was on a seven-day cruise and is based in Port Canaveral, Fla.
Previously, the US Coast Guard said the ship had lost power. Later updates clarified that the power issues were related to the "periodic interruptions" referred to by Carnival in their statement.
This incident comes after another Carnival cruise ship, the Triumph, was towed back to Alabama after losing power in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico.
A fire aboard that ship left the passengers and crew with no air conditioning, scarce food, and unsanitary conditions.
Photo Credit: Carnival