Carnival Pride cruise ship propulsion issues disrupt multiple cruises

The Carnival Pride cruise ship is currently having propulsion issues that are affecting multiple cruises in Europe.

On Wednesday, the ship was unable to make it to its scheduled port of Gothenburg, Sweden. Guests enjoyed an extra sea day with a $100 onboard credit per cabin to compensate for missing the port.

The ship was due to be back at its homeport of Dover on Friday. Instead, the Carnival Pride limped to Kiel, Germany. Current guests are being transported back to London on charter flights while the ship is being repaired. A cruiser on Cruise Critic states they are being offered a 25% future cruise credit.

John Heald, Carnival Brand Ambassador, just announced the cancellation of the next cruise which was to depart on the Carnival Pride on July 21. He states on Facebook: “While we are working to make the repair and get the ship back to Dover as quickly as possible, we have made the difficult decision to cancel the 9-day cruise that is scheduled to depart from Dover on Friday as planned.” He states that there is the possibility of a shortened cruise if the ship is repaired soon.

All guests on the canceled cruise will receive a full refund and a 100% future cruise credit. A large percentage of cruisers for that Friday cruise are likely already in Europe or are currently intransit. Those guests will be reimbursed for two nights of hotel and $100 of food per day per person. Carnival is also covering airline change fees for guests.

I cannot imagine the disappointment the passengers on both the current cruise and Friday’s cruise are experiencing! For most Americans, cruising in Europe is all about the ports. Flying to Europe only to have sea days on a cruise is a major bummer. Of course, flying to Europe for a cruise that gets canceled is also a major bummer!

And for the guests who are already in Europe for Friday’s cruise, many will probably be shelling out unplanned additional money to turn their vacation time into a land trip. That involves finding last-minute hotel reservations and figuring out alternative plans. Hopefully, Carnival will issue the cruise refunds quickly so that guests can use that money for these unplanned expenses.

Final Thoughts

Hiccups and mishaps are bound to happen on every trip (read about what went wrong on my recent European trip). But, this cruise ship malfunction is a biggie. My sympathies to the ~4000+ guests affected by this.