Carnival Splendor is a operated byCarnival Cruise Line. She is the only Concordia-class ship in the Carnival fleet and the sole ship of her namesake class, the Splendor class. Her other sister ships are part of the Costa Crociere fleet. The ship entered service on 2 July 2008 as the largest Carnival ship until debuted in September 2009. Carnival Splendor is widely known for the November 2010 incident in which a fire started in the engine room, shutting down all electrical power to the ship. The ship was originally designed and ordered for Costa Cruises but she was transferred to Carnival Cruise Lines during construction.
Christening
Carnival Splendors godmother is Myleene Klass, who on 10 July 2008 christened the vessel in Dover in a lighthearted ceremony where she played Sailing on the piano, while a Royal Navy diver climbed up five decks on a rope, and broke the bottle of champagne on the bow by hand.
Areas of operation
Carnival Splendors inaugural season began on 2 July 2008 with a cruise from Genoa, Italy to Dover, England, followed by cruises to Northern European ports. On 3 November 2008 she transited to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. In January 2009, Carnival Splendor moved to Long Beach, California, a journey which took 49 days. The ship was too wide for 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. In March 2009, 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. In February 2013, Carnival Splendor sailed again around South America, re-positioning to New York City to cruise to the Caribbean and Bermuda. 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. In October 2015, Carnival announced that Carnival Splendor would be re-positioned to China in 2018 offering year-round short cruises. However, Carnival subsequently announced in November 2016 that Carnival Splendor would instead relocate to Long Beach for the second time in January 2018, offering cruises to the Mexican Riviera. To move to Long Beach from the Caribbean, she sailed through the Panama Canal and became one of the largest ships to cross through the new locks. In February 2018, Carnival announced Carnival Splendor would sail to Australia in December 2019 to operate year-round out of Sydney. On 5 October 2019, the ship embarked on a 24-day Transpacific cruise to Singapore, where she was dry docked to undergo renovations before being homeported in Sydney. Stops along the voyage included Maui, Oahu, Guam, Kota Kinabalu, and Ho Chi Minh City. This was the longest voyage ever offered by Carnival, and was Carnival Splendors final voyage out of Long Beach. From 30 October to 24 November 2019, Carnival Splendor underwent renovations prior to sailing to her homeport in Sydney.
Incidents and accidents
2010 fire
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. 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. 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. The crew was unable to restore power to the engines, and the ship was towed by tugboat to San Diego. Without power for air conditioning and refrigeration, passengers were fed rations delivered via U.S. Navy helicopters from the aircraft carrier. Splendor was escorted by, and received aid and security assistance from the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter. Carnival Splendor arrived in San Diego under tow around sunrise on 11 November, and docked around noon. 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. The ship has three 12-cylinderWärtsilä 12V46C medium-speed dieselgenerating sets in the aft engine room and three in a forward engine room. Each generator is connected to two switchboards. The failure of a single engine or generator should not normally cause a total power loss. Clark Dodge, former chief engineer for Washington State Ferries, said, "If things were designed properly, all the power shouldn't have gone out." 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.
2012 armed robbery
On 23 February 2012, while in Puerto Vallarta port, Mexico, 22 passengers on the Carnival-organized "City and Jungle Tour" were robbed by an armed bandit. Passengers lost money, cameras, purses, passports, other documents and valuables. No shots were fired and everybody escaped without injuries.
2017 engine troubles
On 2 March 2017 while offshore of Puerto Rico the ship experienced engine trouble requiring operation on a single engine. Carnival canceled the remaining portion of the cruise and returned to Miami. Carnival offered a 50% refund off the cost of the cruise, free internet use for the remainder of the voyage, and a 50% discount off a future cruise.
