Mechanical difficulties are causing grief for thousands of Carnival Legend passengers, after the problems caused the 2,124 passenger vessel to arrive late and therefore depart late on this week’s voyage. The Carnival Legend is the same ship that collided with a Royal Caribbean ship a few months ago, but the problems are unrelated.
According to Carnival, the Legend arrived several hours late on Sunday due to a problem with the propulsion system. Many passengers had confirmed flights just hours after they were due back in the Tampa port, causing a lot of headaches as they tried to reschedule missed flights.
The passengers aboard this week’s Legend cruise are also feeling the effects of the delay, as a schedule stop in Grand Cayman was skipped for a short stay in Cozumel Mexico.
News of mechanical problems aboard Carnival’s Legend comes just a month after CCL experienced similar problems with the slightly larger Destiny, which had to be dry-docked for a week to fix the problem. The problems aboard the Carnival Destiny prompted the line to cancel two voyages and modify three others.
Normally the weather is the main factor that cruisers worry about when it comes to disruptions in their trip – whether it be plane delays getting to the port or modified itineraries once on board. Carnival will need to make good with the cruisers that have planned port stops and cruises many months in advance, or they’ll end up in the same PR battle as Toyota is in right now.
My wife and I were passengers on the February 7 to 14 cruise that was late returning to Tampa.
From my perspective the staff on board did a great job of dealing with the thousands of issues that arose from the delay. They quickly put together another set of “Sea Day” activities and meals. Maybe I was lucky because I booked my airfare and everything direct with Carnival but in the end, our return to Canada was only 4 hours behind schedule. They took care of rescheduling the flights and everything.
The people I feel sorry for were those sitting at the dock waiting to get on the ship. I probably would have been a bit upset had I been one of them. This is our 6th Carnival cruise and our first on the Legend. Based on the all 6 experiences, I wouldn’t hesitate to sail with Carnival again.