M Class Pods -- Info to New Cruisers

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BSeabob

Guest
I thought that I would put up this sticky and see if it can help everyone understand the Problem that Celebrity has had over the years with their pods. I don't profess to be an expert but as I was onboard one ship when a cruise was canceled and was a week away when another was canceled I have personal experience on how this can really screw up your holiday. I have followed the problem with great interest as I really enjoy this class of ship.

The Cruise Line policy as of this date FEB 2008 is if a cruise is canceled due to a pod problem you get your money back and a "Free cruise" within a certain time frame. They have only canceled one sailing at sea ever that I know of and that was prior to this policy. They have canceled a few for dry docks repairs but prior to sailing. Several cruises have run slower/missed ports or had time in port etc shortened since this policy came into effect. Some of those itinerary ran for months on an amended schedule.

To the best of my knowledge no M class ship had had any Pod issues since the Infinity was last repaired in MAY 07
It is now MAY 2008

Here's the list. (I borrowed it and believe it is accurate but of course am not 100% sure) It is the net after all.

The Purpose of this thread is for Information. Not to be turned into a contest please.

In a nut shell the X ships in the M class have Pod systems that propel the ship.
Here's a list of what has happened.

Millennium Inaugural date June 17, 2000

Pod failure dry dock January, 2001
Pod failure dry dock July 16, 2003
Pod failure dry dock December 10, 2006
Pod failure on New Years 2007 cruise and again in January. (Note: ship continued to sail at reduced speed until dry dock in mid April 2007).

Infinity Inaugural date March 3, 2001

Pod failure dry dock late 2001 (3 weeks)
Pod failure dry dock April 13, 2002
Pod failure dry dock January 29, 2003
Pod failure dry dock March 2004
Pod failure dry dock March 27, 2005
Pod failure Ports skipped and cruise shortened on two cruises
(July 9 and July 16, 2006) Electrical problem in pods.
Pod failure dry dock September 13, 2006
Pod failure November 19, 2006. (Note: this ship continued to sail with altered Itineraries and some missed ports until dry dock on May 20, 2007).

Summit Inaugural date October 1, 2001

Pod failure dry dock March 2002
Pod failure dry dock July 18, 2003
Pod failure dry dock September 2004
Pod failure dry dock June 3, 2005
Pod failure dry dock May 20, 2006

Constellation Inaugural date May 1, 2002

Pod failure dry dock May 1, 2002 (salt water leaked into pods at launch time).
 
L

lordhavemercy

Guest
...Thank-you...BSeaBob...!!! To have this information....ALL in one place, is wonderful...:loveya
 
B

bearanddollie

Guest
Thanks for this recap, Bseabob. By now, we can say that we aren't new to cruising. Seven of our cruises have been on M Class ships. Still, your listing is most interesting and appreciated. The M Class vessels are still our favorites.
 
W

wave runner

Guest
Thanks, BSeabob for putting the information about this problem in one place and making it a sticky. Thanks also to whoever took the time to put this list of propulsion failures together. Without boards like cruise-addicts, these kinds of issues would remain unknown to almost all cruisers. It is great that each of us can be able to read the list of problems and make our own decision as to the importance of this issue when choosing a cruise ship.

I agree about the way that Celebrity handles cancelled sailings due to this problem is quite fair. Just to recap, over the years on these four Celebrity ships (Infinity, Summit, Millennium and Constellation) there have been 15 emergency dry docks due to this problem and those affected did receive their money back and a "free" cruise from Celebrity. What happened with the last two failures in 2007, for the Infinity and Millennium, was that Celebrity decided to continue sailing at reduced speeds for a total of 35 weeks, until the scheduled dry dock date, for each ship, was reached. The end result was that there were no free cruises awarded in 2007.

The real rub comes in when you are on one of the far more than 15 cruises, mentioned above, when the PODS are not working. I have posted my review of what happened to me on my disastrous Alaskan cruise on the Summit. If anyone is interested you can find it by clicking on Reviews. Scroll down to Summit and then click on Summit. The reviews are in "date added" sequence and I put my review up on this board on 11/21/07. At this time it is located toward the bottom part of page two. Due to the almost unbelievable sequence of events that occurred on my cruise I used a day by day chronology to report exactly what happened to me and the other passengers on board. From a public relations stand point I have to admit that it is almost unbelievable, but I can assure everyone that everything reported did happen and has been well documented by those who were on board that cruise. There are also many other great and informative reviews for all cruise lines on that board.

Thanks again to BSeabob for making this issue a sticky; I think all who really just want information are very grateful for your efforts.
 
B

BSeabob

Guest
[quote bearanddollie]Thanks for this recap, Bseabob. By now, we can say that we aren't new to cruising. Seven of our cruises have been on M Class ships. Still, your listing is most interesting and appreciated. The M Class vessels are still our favorites.[/quote]

mine too! :)
 
W

wave runner

Guest
I can understand the feelings of those who have not yet been on one of these cruises on an m-class ship when the propulsion system is not working. Before my cruise I had the same feelings and had recommended Celebrity too many friends. At that time, I had no clue about these recurring problems or how often it happened and how many cruise were affected by the problem. When things are working, as they should, these ships offer a good cruising experience but I do think that your opinion changes after you have been through one of these experiences.
 
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BSeabob

Guest
Well you see "Wave" that's where we have to differ and I've been there and done that. Still my favorite ship. But I agree about the Need for information prior to sailing and that's what we are attempting to do here at Cruise@ddicts.
 
C

Conniemc

Guest
[size=large]Also been there, done that. Missed ports, late arrival.
Would still rather cruise Celebrity. And Wave..really, since it's now history, and not an active issue, can we give it a rest?
PLEASE?
:girly[/size]
 
B

BSeabob

Guest
5 SEPT 08

UPDATE

Just off the Infinity and I had a chance to speak with the Staff Captain aboard about the situation with the M class ships.

He advises that it is actually coming up two years since an incident/difficulty started aboard. He of course didn't want to say anything about them going on for a while as the ships did their itinerary's.

Anyhow he's says that they are feeling like they have got a fix by using new metals in various parts that have failed. No guarantee of course as "Ship" happens....

Solstice class will have pods by different manufacturer :)
 
B

BSeabob

Guest
Well ...I think that this threa has served it's purpose and I will allow it to float along with everything else in the forum. The "Pod" problem has not reared it's ugly head for some while now and I think we can let the "Search" mode and anything new take care of the situations that may or may not arise.

Fingers crossed.
 
C

Conniemc

Guest
I find it comical that hundreds of people are still posting on cruisecritics .com that the "pod issues will RUIN your cruise!!!" I've tried, at length, even linking them to your post and then gave up. It's amazing what people will believe without knowing the facts.

IMHO the problem in ancient history
:)
 
T

Ted_D

Guest
I agree that the issue gets overblown, but I don't think it is entirely accurate to say it is totally behind
us either. I just returned from Summit last night. It is going into a brief Bermuda dry-dock in two
weeks to address a pod issue. Our cruise went without a hitch, but the Captain indicated that one
of Summit's two pods was unable to operate at full power due to an electrical issue. For normal
Caribbean cruises that isn't a big deal, since I doubt they ever intend to cruise at that speed. But,
for an Atlantic crossing or some type of emergency, full power might indeed be called for. So, into
drydock she goes.

So, nine years after the launch of the first M Class ship with this pod design, X continues to have some
problems.
 
W

wave runner

Guest
Ted_D said:
I agree that the issue gets overblown, but I don't think it is entirely accurate to say it is totally behind
us either. I just returned from Summit last night. It is going into a brief Bermuda dry-dock in two
weeks to address a pod issue. Our cruise went without a hitch, but the Captain indicated that one
of Summit's two pods was unable to operate at full power due to an electrical issue. For normal
Caribbean cruises that isn't a big deal, since I doubt they ever intend to cruise at that speed. But,
for an Atlantic crossing or some type of emergency, full power might indeed be called for. So, into
drydock she goes.

So, nine years after the launch of the first M Class ship with this pod design, X continues to have some
problems.
Click to expand...

Ted_D:

Your point is very well taken. It is almost impossible to get accurate information from Celebrity about these problems.
As far as I know there have been no admitted POD problems from Celebrity since the May 7, Infinity cruise.

Whether or not this problem has at long last finally been permanently fixed is nothing more than a matter of opinion.

Whether or not one of the many POD problems can ruin a cruise, from personal experience, I can report that when/if they do happen they most assuredly can ruin a cruise. Here's hoping that Celebrity has fixed this problem and there will never be any more cruises such as the one I was on.
 
C

Conniemc

Guest
Taken from Cruise Critic -

**Important Message To Our Celebrity Community

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Yes, our name is "Cruise Critic". Of course, we have no problem whatsoever with anyone questioning the problems with Celebrity ships or service. Afterall, posting your first hand experiences -- good or bad -- is what we are all about.

Here's what I see happening here on the Celebrity forum, which I find inherently different than the above. What I'm referring to is when the same person or couple of people post the same thing over and over again on a wide variety of threads about a specific issue. Try as I might I sincerely don't know what they are trying to achieve with this tactic. Do they really think that people will stop sailing Celebrity or that Celebrity will magically fix the pod problem with a snap of their fingers? In reality, what they are doing is disrupting our community.

The bottom line is that our veteran members and our newbie members who are trying to find out information about their cruises are simply sick and tired of the continued Celebrity bashing by a few people.

While we are not suggesting eliminating "negative" posts, what we are going to do is systematically stop those who, in the sole discretion of Cruise Critic staff, post the same negative things over and over and over again in many threads just to disrupt the boards. It doesn't matter if you are "new" to Cruise Critic or you've been here for years. If you do this you will lose your posting privileges without warning.

Additionally, for an undetermined amount of time any and all off-topic posts within a thread will be removed, and you will loose your posting privileges. (Here's a recent example: There was a thread started about breakfast food. It didn't take long for someone to post a "dig" about the pod problems.) If you do this you will find yourself unable to post in the future.

For those of you who persist and continue to create new user names in an effort to disrupt our community, we will take appropriate action with your isp. We have been successful in this regard in the past.
 
W

wave runner

Lecturer
BSeabob said:
I thought that I would put up this sticky and see if it can help everyone understand the Problem that Celebrity has had over the years with their pods. I don't profess to be an expert but as I was onboard one ship when a cruise was canceled and was a week away when another was canceled I have personal experience on how this can really screw up your holiday. I have followed the problem with great interest as I really enjoy this class of ship.

The Cruise Line policy as of this date FEB 2008 is if a cruise is canceled due to a pod problem you get your money back and a "Free cruise" within a certain time frame. They have only canceled one sailing at sea ever that I know of and that was prior to this policy. They have canceled a few for dry docks repairs but prior to sailing. Several cruises have run slower/missed ports or had time in port etc shortened since this policy came into effect. Some of those itinerary ran for months on an amended schedule.

To the best of my knowledge no M class ship had had any Pod issues since the Infinity was last repaired in MAY 07
It is now MAY 2008

Here's the list. (I borrowed it and believe it is accurate but of course am not 100% sure) It is the net after all.

The Purpose of this thread is for Information. Not to be turned into a contest please.

In a nut shell the X ships in the M class have Pod systems that propel the ship.
Here's a list of what has happened.

Millennium Inaugural date June 17, 2000

Pod failure dry dock January, 2001
Pod failure dry dock July 16, 2003
Pod failure dry dock December 10, 2006
Pod failure on New Years 2007 cruise and again in January. (Note: ship continued to sail at reduced speed until dry dock in mid April 2007).

Infinity Inaugural date March 3, 2001

Pod failure dry dock late 2001 (3 weeks)
Pod failure dry dock April 13, 2002
Pod failure dry dock January 29, 2003
Pod failure dry dock March 2004
Pod failure dry dock March 27, 2005
Pod failure Ports skipped and cruise shortened on two cruises
(July 9 and July 16, 2006) Electrical problem in pods.
Pod failure dry dock September 13, 2006
Pod failure November 19, 2006. (Note: this ship continued to sail with altered Itineraries and some missed ports until dry dock on May 20, 2007).

Summit Inaugural date October 1, 2001

Pod failure dry dock March 2002
Pod failure dry dock July 18, 2003
Pod failure dry dock September 2004
Pod failure dry dock June 3, 2005
Pod failure dry dock May 20, 2006

Constellation Inaugural date May 1, 2002

Pod failure dry dock May 1, 2002 (salt water leaked into pods at launch time).
Click to expand...

Hi BSeabob,

Just to keep the record of Celebrity POD failures up to date there have been at least two more probable POD failures in 2009. While these problems do not happen that often, they still do continue to happen.

The Celebrity Millennium did have a POD failure while on an Australian cruise in early March of 2009. The result for passengers who were on board, was the skipping of Christ Church and one other port on that cruise. For missing these two ports the passengers were offered a $100 on board credit. It is true that you do get a free cruise if your cruise is cancelled but the real rub comes in when you are on the cruise that is having POD problems, especially if you are a long way from home on a once in a lifetime cruise. The next cruise was cancelled by Celebrity on only five or six days notice to those passengers.

The Summit also went to dry dock at about the same time this year for probable POD problems. In all fairness, on this one, Celebrity has claimed that an electrical problem was the reason for dry dock. It should be pointed out that the PODS are an electric generator that is completely enclosed and under water and are probably the only part of an mclass ship that would require dry dock to repair.

IMHO, these have been the only two POD failures, so far, this year.
 
W

wave runner

Lecturer
Hi MisterD21,

Good question.
Actually the propulsion system used by the Celebrity mclass ships is totally different than the Azipods used by most cruise lines. The ones used by the Infinity, Millennium, Summit and Constellation are called Mermaid PODS and were manufacturered by Rolls Royce and Alstom. Celebrity has settled one suit with Alstom about this problem and is currently battling in court with Rolls Royce for over 300 million dollars.

The Mermaid POD system, used by the Celebrity mclass ships, is only used by very few other ships.

I am sure that one time or another Azipods used by other ships have had isolated problems but nothing like the recurring problems of the system used by Celebrity.
 
BSeabob

BSeabob

Forum Manager
Staff member
Hello again Wave. :)

=X= is now operating their Mermaid Pod problems at about the same rate as the other cruise line with other makes installed.

They seem to be the smoothest method of getting a big ship through the water and quickly but like everything else man makes and has to service everyone does have difficulties with them.

and of course no one including =X= and other lines wants to talk about it.
 
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