It may be officially fall now, but guests aboard Royal Caribbean’s Utopia of the Seas experienced mid-summer temperatures recently following a power failure onboard the Oasis-class ship that impacted the air conditioning system on Wednesday, September 18, 2024.
While the power loss did not last long, it did impact a variety of systems, including fire doors, water pumps, and elevators. Most systems returned to normal once the power was restored, but the air conditioning system did not restart normally.
“While the power was restored and affected systems reconnected, the full function of our air conditioning did not come back online,” the ship’s captain said in a shipboard announcement. “This has caused an increased temperature around the ship. Our technical team is of course working full speed to get this resolved with the full support of our shoreside experts.”
Guests were asked to assist with temperature regulation until the full air conditioning could be restored.
“While we work on getting this resolved, I will kindly ask that you keep doors to the exterior closed, so we minimize the amount of hotter and more humid air to enter the ship. Thank you for your cooperation in this matter,” the captain continued. “I’m terribly sorry for the discomfort this is causing and I do thank you for your patience while we are working hard on getting this resolved.”
Other systems were restored more quickly after the power outage, and it was only Utopia of the Seas‘ air conditioning that continued to have problems for several hours as the system was fully restored.
To be clear, air conditioning in some areas of the ship was functioning normally, while other areas – particularly closer to outer doors leading onto the open decks – felt warmer than typical.
At the time, Utopia of the Seas was enjoying a 4-night Bahamas and Perfect Day cruise, having departed Port Canaveral on Monday, September 16. On the day of the outage, the ship was enjoying a day at sea on her way to Perfect Day at CocoCay, Royal Caribbean’s private destination in the Bahamas.
As the ship’s propulsion was not significantly impacted, there were no delays in the itinerary either for the ship’s visit to CocoCay on Thursday, September 19 or her return to Port Canaveral on Friday, September 20.
No explanation has been disclosed for the power failure, though a similar outage also occurred aboard Icon of the Seas in May. Interestingly, that outage also occurred during a day at sea.
It is possible that massive power use by thousands of guests on such large ships could be triggering some malfunctions that lead to outages, though this is speculation only and Royal Caribbean has not offered any official reason for the outages.
Utopia of the Seas is the cruise line’s sixth Oasis-class ship and only entered service with her maiden voyage just two months earlier, on July 19, 2024. The 236,473-gross-ton vessel can welcome 5,668 travelers at double occupancy and is also home to 2,290 international crew members.
How to Respond in a Power Outage
A power outage can seem like a scary situation on a cruise ship, but emergency generators often keep critical systems fully operational even if guest amenities may be temporarily shut off.
Read Also: Oasis-Class Cruise Ships – What You Need to Know
Passengers should remain calm during any power outage and immediately take steps to conserve power, such as unplugging any chargers or other electronics so they will not have an impact on the power system as it restarts.
If guests are in their staterooms, closing curtains over windows or balcony doors can help keep the room cooler until air conditioning resumes.
Finally, listening to any announcements will provide further instructions and keep guests informed about the situation until any difficulties are resolved and their cruise vacation can resume as planned.
