Celebrity Cruises ship drifts off coast of Italy during power outage
A spokesperson for Royal Caribbean Group, the line's parent company, confirmed the 2,170-passenger ship lost power for under three hours on Saturday, Aug. 2, as the team "addressed a technical issue" in an email to USA TODAY. The cruise line did not provide details on what sort of issue or repair was required.
It's not uncommon for cruise ships to lose power, with most having emergency generators independent of the ship's main source of power as a backup plan. Situated on the upper decks, they can provide power for emergency lighting, elevators, radios and fire detection systems, and even re-start engines if necessary, according to Royal Caribbean's website.
The ship was sailing to Messina, Sicily from Kotor, Montenegro and was right off the coast of Italy when the incident occurred, leaving it to drift for a short period of time, according to CruiseMapper. Satellite tracking data at the time showed the ship's speed briefly dropped down to as low as 1.1 mph, as reported by Cruise Hive.
The cruise line said the ship was close enough to the coast to still be within range of cell phone service.
"We've been communicating with our guests directly," the spokesperson added.
Part of Celebrity's more upscale Millennium class, the Constellation is currently sailing an 11-day, one-way cruise departing from Ravenna, Italy on July 28. It is scheduled to visit Naples and Livorno before ending in Civitavecchia-Rome on Aug. 8.
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