Allure of the Seas to Depart as Schedule After Engine Fire

Royal Caribbean's Allure of the Seas arrived back in Fort Lauderdale early Sunday morning as scheduled after a short-lived fire broke out at 7:45 Friday evening in the engine room aboard the world's largest cruise ship.

Royal Caribbean tells Cruise Critic that nobody on the 5,400-passenger vessel was injured, and the next sailing will leave on time Sunday evening. The cause of the fire has not yet been determined.

According to accounts from several passengers on cruise message boards, the ship had to change course briefly on its way from St. Maarten to Fort Lauderdale to keep smoke from blowing back inside the vessel.

One such message had this to say of his first-hand experience: "I am on board The Allure, yes there was a small fire in one of the engine rooms, that caused some smoke smell around the back end of the ship. There was no visible smoke in passenger areas. I was dining at the Chefs Table at the time and we were asked to move from the area for about 20 minutes, whilst the extract fans did their job. There was NO panic around the ship, a couple of youngsters showed concern, and some parents went to meet up with family members."

Whilst another posted the following: "Just got off the Allure and I have to disagree that there was NO panic. The crew were visibly scared as we're many of the passengers. ...The crew were trying very hard to appear in control and they did a good job, but you could see them passing notes to each other and the concern on their faces. We were finished our dinner, but skipped out on desert because I really couldn't eat much after hearing Bravo bravo bravo and water tight doors closing." 

"We could see that there was no power from the engines as it appeared we were drifting - this occurred for at least an hour maybe two," commented another user of the online message boards of the view from the AquaTheater deck. "Auxiliary power was running as at no time did the power, lights, air conditioning or water go out."

This incident is just the latest in a string of recent cruise ship engine problems. Last week, Saga Holidays' Saga Sapphire cut its inaugural cruise short due to engine troubles. Two weeks ago, Plancius, an ice-class vessel operated by the Dutch company Oceanwide Expeditions, suffered a partial engine failure and stranded its 73 passengers and 42 crew on a South Atlantic island. In March, Azamara Quest suffered an engine room fire that injured five crewmembers and left the ship adrift off the southern Philippines coast. In February, an engine fire left Costa Allegra inert in the Indian Ocean. Cunard's flagship, Queen Mary 2, has also been plagued with engine troubles over the past year.

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Last-minute deals and incentives on offer

Cruise lines are offering last-minute deals and incentives to jump-start business as they cope with a string of bad news. After the Caribbean, Europe and Alaska are the most popular destinations.

Cruise lines are using two-for-one deals, onboard ship credits, discounted airfares, "free" gratuities, even chocolate-dipped strawberries to jump-start business as they cope with a tsunami of bad news this year.

First came safety fears raised by the January shipwreck of the Costa Concordia in Italy, then a fire aboard a sister ship, the Costa Allegra, in the Indian Ocean in late February.

An outbreak of the norovirus forced a Princess Cruises ship to return to port. A group of cruise-ship passengers were robbed while on a nature hike near Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.

Meanwhile, summer airfares to Europe are soaring and riots in Greece are giving travelers the jitters — cutting into European cruise sales.

After the Caribbean, Europe and Alaska are this year's most popular destinations, according to Cruise Holiday's 2012 Cruise Trends survey. Prices on Alaskan cruises are higher than they were last year, but travel agents say that could change in the coming months.

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Costa Cruises bases Costa Classica in Asia in 2009

Costa Cruises is to more than double capacity in Asia by basing a larger second ship in the region from 2009.

The Costa Classica carries 1600 passengers and is set to join Costa Allegra in Asia for a combined total of 60 cruises and 85,000 berths from March 2009.

Before being positioned in Asia, Costa Classica will complete its Mediterranean season on November 30, 2008, setting sail from Savona, Italy, for the United Arab Emirates, where the ship will operate 11 seven-day cruises from Dubai. It will then depart for Singapore on a 19-day positioning cruise.

You will be able to sail on Costa Classica from March 27 through to November 7, 2009 on 33 cruises lasting between four and 14 days, with departures out of Singapore, Shanghai, Tianjin and Hong Kong.

The 1,000-passenger Costa Allegra will offer 30 cruises from November 2008 through November 2009, some of which will be 14-day cruises, with departures from Hong Kong and Singapore.

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