Fire
In January 2009, Carnival Splendor moved to Long Beach, California, a journey which took 49 days. The ship's post-Panamax size made it too wide to navigate 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. From Long Beach, she sailed year-round cruises to Mexico.[10] In March, 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.[11]
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 No. 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.[12] 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.[13] 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.[14]
The crew was unable to restore power to the engines, and the ship was towed by tugboat to San Diego.[15][16] Without power for air conditioning and refrigeration, passengers were fed rations delivered via U.S. Navy helicopters from the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan (CVN-76).[17] Splendor was escorted by, and received aid and security assistance from the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter USCGC Morgenthau (WHEC-722).[18] Carnival Splendor arrived in San Diego under tow around sunrise on 11 November, and docked around noon.[19] 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 Carnival Splendor.[20][21]
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.[22] Each generator is connected to two switchboards. The failure of a single engine or generator should not normally cause a total power loss.[23] Clark Dodge, former chief engineer for Washington State Ferries, said, "If things were designed properly, all the power shouldn't have gone out."[23][24]
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 15 July 2013.[25][26]
Return to service
The ship returned to service after undergoing repairs for the fire in March 2011. The repairs took longer than planned as the damage was greater than initially estimated.[27] On 23 February 2012, while in the port of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, 22 passengers on the Carnival-organized "City and Jungle Tour" were robbed by an armed bandit.[28] Passengers lost money, cameras, purses, passports, other documents and valuables. No shots were fired and everybody escaped without injuries.[29]
In February 2013, Carnival Splendor sailed again around South America, re-positioning to New York City to cruise to the Caribbean and Bermuda.[30] In November 2014, Carnival Splendor was re-positioned to Florida to offer seasonal seven-day cruises to the Eastern and Western Caribbean. In March 2014, Carnival announced Carnival Splendor would sail seasonally out of Norfolk, Virginia before heading back to New York beginning in 2015.[31]
