An abrupt power outage left a cruise ship adrift in the Mediterranean for a couple of hours.
The Celebrity Constellation lost power off the southern Italian coast during an 11-night sailing from Ravenna to Rome.
It drifted for around two to three hours before power was eventually restored. This caused uncomfortable conditions for guests, cutting off air conditioning and lighting.
“One hour in and it’s HOT,” one passenger posted online, while others wrote of their concerns it could turn into another infamous “poop cruise” incident.
Guests Served Cold Food at Dinner During Outage
The backup power system supplied emergency lighting but guests were served cold food for dinner. Satellite tracking showed the ship was drifting at just 1–2 knots for more than two hours.
Despite the problems, guests praised crew for how the coped with the situation.
Royal Caribbean Group confirmed the 2,170-passenger ship lost power for nearly three hours on Saturday but didn’t elaborate on the cause of the outage. It would only say it fixed the “technical issue.”
“We’ve been communicating with our guests directly,” it added. During the outage, the ship’s position was fairly close to the Italy coastline, so guests could still access cellphone coverage. Power loss is often linked to electrical faults or engine room fires.
The 2,170-passenger ship was headed to Messina, Sicily after a call in Kotor, Montenegro. It still has scheduled calls at Naples and Livorno before the voyage ends in Civitavecchia on August 8.
Launched in 2002, Celebrity Constellation is one of the older ships in the Celebrity Cruises fleet.
It follows a recent propulsion system problem on Celebrity Beyond just a few weeks ago. This caused a cruise cancelation as the ship was rerouted to the Bahamas for emergency repairs.
