After cruising for 20 years, I experienced my cruise ship losing power temporarily for the first time. While concerning, it wasn't nearly as scary as you might expect.
While I've sailed around hurricanes and been to the ship's medical center, I had never lost power at sea.
No one expects something like this to happen to them, and I never would have predicted it either. A ship losing power while sailing is quite rare. So when it happened to me while sailing on Royal Caribbean's Radiance of the Seas last week, I was more than a bit surprised.
Like any unexpected event, you go through a range of emotions quickly. But the truth is the constant communication from crew members made the experience far less scary than you'd expect.
I wanted to share my experience as an example of how dedicated crew members are to keeping passengers safe, and the realities of how much redundancy modern ships are.
The cruise ship lost power right after leaving Mexico
I was sailing on Radiance of the Seas for a 4-night Western Caribbean cruise from Tampa, with a visit to Cozumel, Mexico. This is one of Royal Caribbean's older ships, with an age of 25 years.
We had just departed Cozumel when there was a medical emergency and our Captain told us we'd have to return to Cozumel to disembark the passenger safely and get them additional medical care.
That process went smoothly, but as our ship departed Cozumel, the lights went out.
I was in the casino watching a hockey game and on the phone with my wife when it happened.
At first, I assumed something had shorted out the power to the casino. When the lights didn't come back on after a few seconds, it became apparent this wasn't a localized issue.
One thing to note is how much emergency backup lights there are on a ship. You'll notice that in the photos I took, the ship is remarkably bright even on backup power. It's really the decorative and flood lights that are what rely on primary power.
I walked back to the ship's Centrum to discover the power loss was not just in the casino, but across the ship.
There was a sense of disbelief and even some humor. I didn't detect any panic, as there was enough light around the public areas where you could easily see where you're going.
The Captain made an announcement very quickly to explain the situation
As soon as we lost power, the crew members around us all remained calm and pretty much kept operating as normally as they could. It helped provide a sense this isn't a major problem.
In fact, bartenders were happy to dispense drinks that didn't require power.
I'd estimate in less than 10 minutes the Radiance's Captain came on the public address system to give us an update. He apologized for the problem, and confirmed the ship was experiencing a power loss.
He was quick to note that the Chief Engineer and his staff were already hard at work getting the ship's secondary generator online to restore power.
He assured us it wouldn't take very long, and he would make another announcement once power was back to give us an update.
Just like hearing from your airplane pilot in bad turbulence, it was very reassuring to hear they had a grasp on the situation.
We had enough light, and even the Wi-Fi still worked
I was pleasantly surprised to discover we never lost the ship's Wi-Fi signal during the entire blackout.
I found it interesting that the satellite internet and all the access points work off emergency power, and it helped I think keep everyone somewhat more relaxed so they didn't feel "alone".
My top worry was how long it would take to restore power, as well as air conditioning.
Because the Captain gave us a quick update, I was not anxious. Like most other passengers, I just wanted the power back on so we could go about the fun again.
I wandered the ship some more, and the one area where the power loss was most apparent was in the cabins. I had an inside room with no windows and there was no emergency lights in the cabin.
As you might imagine, the ship's elevators didn't operate either.
I headed up to the pool deck to see what it was like up there, and make a pit stop at Park Cafe to get a slice of pizza before they ran out.
As I ate my slice of pizza, the power came back online and we had power for the rest of the sailing.
The Captain made one more announcement to confirm main power was back online and things would be back to normal. Furthermore, there would be no impact to our timeline of returning to Tampa on time.
It's unlikely I'll ever experience power loss on a cruise ship again, but I was grateful for how quickly things were repaired
In reflecting on my roughly 30-45 minutes without electricity on a cruise, I think the biggest takeaway is how quickly and efficiently the crew worked to get it everything fixed.
Most importantly, the communication by our Captain and the crew members keeping things calm helped considerably.
Even if there was a bit of dark humor shared among passengers during the incident, things never remotely approached any kind of level of concern that I would have become nervous about.
Cruise ships, like Radiance of the Seas, have heavy redundancies in place, such as dual engine rooms and independent power grids.
According to Royal Caribbean's website, "we have plans for a contingency and we move to using the emergency generators. These are typically located on the upper decks and they have their own fuel supply and are completely independent.
"The generators can provide emergency lighting, fire detection systems, operate elevators and even provide power to re-start the engines, if necessary."
"They can also power communication channels - radio, telefax, email, so the ship can continue to communicate with shoreside."
You don't need to worry about losing power on a cruise ship, because it's so rare for it to occur. But if it did, take solace in the fact there are systems in place to get it back quickly.
