Accourding to a press release (http://www.corporate-ir.net/ireye/ir...item_id=439489) from parent company Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (NYSE: RCL), Celebrity Cruises filed a lawsuit today against the manufacturers of the Azipod units installed aboard MV Millenium, MV Infinity, MV Constellation, and MV Summit to recover damages due to the failures of these units. According to the press release,
The lawsuit charges that the Rolls Royce and Alstom Power Conversion pods, brand-named Mermaid, have failed repeatedly, resulting in cancelled cruises and thousands of disappointed guests. These recurring failures cost the company hundreds of million of dollars, for which the lawsuit seeks restitution.
The lawsuit further claims that Rolls Royce and Alstom Power Conversion misrepresented their product, which was "defectively designed" and "deceptively and fraudulently marketed."
and
"Unfortunately, the Mermaid pods have not lived up to the manufacturers' promise or to Celebrity's high operating standards," said Jack Williams, president and chief operating officer of Celebrity. "This has created intolerable consequences for our guests, and imposed unacceptable conditions on our company."
There are -- and have been -- no safety issues with any of these ships. All have been given clearance to sail by the U.S. Coast Guard and the ships' classification society. Even with the problems, safety was never compromised.
and
"In the meantime, guests should know that any cruise we have to cancel, as a result of any issue with these pods, we will back with a full refund and a free cruise." (attributed to Jack Williams).
With any luck, this lawsuit will bring a swift resolution of the problem.
It didn't take a lawyer or a rocket scientist to figure out that the azipods were not holding up and were not performing . On some ships they have been overhauled or repaired more than once. Celebrity has lost any number of cruise weeks and given that many more away in free cruises. In addition I am sure thereare at least some folks who won't book on these ships again.
My next cruise is on Summit. Between a gash in her side, a busted propeller and the azipods, I live in fear of the cancellation or modification of that cruise. Alawsuit may help recover lost monies for Celebrity, but, it's not going to make this whole class of ships any more reliable.
I'm thinking they should weld a really big bracket along the stern of each ship and
hook on a whole bunch of 200hp outboards accross the stern just in case of azipod failure. Johnson and Evinrude never fail.
Alawsuit may help recover lost monies for Celebrity, but, it's not going to make this whole class of ships any more reliable.
That's not a given. A finding of liability for defective product would imply liability for future failures -- which would be quite substantial. Thus, it would provide motivation for the vendors to invest the resources required to solve the problem and retrofit the solutions into the affected ships.
As I have noted in prior posts, though, I think that the problem is a fundamental conceptual flaw. Several of the failures have involved components that would be inside the hull, and thus easily replaced while at sea, on a conventional shaft. The main thrust bearing that recently failed aboard MV Millenium is in this category. Thus, the lawsuit may well reduce to an issue of whether the vendors misrepresented the reliability of the basic Azipod design since it's quite obvious that it moves common failure points outside the hull.
Given the fact that Azipods have been used in commerical ships for years without out problems....why are there so many a problems on Celebrity cruise ships? Is it the design of these particular vessels or this particular company that built them.?
The original post clearly states the lawsuit is against RR-Alstom for brand name MERMAID pods, they are not Azipods who are mnf by a different company in Finland & have a much more reliable reputation than Mermaids, so please refer to Celebritys pods by their correct name
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Azipod Lawsuit
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