Grand Princess Rerouted Due to Circuit Breaker Failure

The Grand Princess Cruise ship en route from San Francisco, Calif. to Hilo on Monday suffered a significant failure in a propulsion circuit break in the aft electrical switchboard, resulting in smoke and a small fire within the switchboard components.

Karen Candy, spokesperson for Princess Cruises, said the incident occurred around 5:30 a.m. local time, about 20 miles off the coast of Hilo.

Candy said no injuries were reported and all 2,592 guests and 1,095 crew members were accounted for.

“The incident was isolated but did cause a power outage resulting in temporary use of emergency lighting for a short time,” Candy said.

Power was restored and all rooming and guest services were back in operation later Monday.

Grand Princess’ call to Hilo was cancelled and the ship was diverted to Honolulu, where shore side engineers were to meet the ship for its on-time arrival of 7 a.m. Tuesday morning.

According to Candy, the technical officers and engineers will complete their assessment and determine if further changes to the cruises’ itinerary is necessary.

State of Hawai’i Department of Transportation spokesperson Tim Sakahara said the Grand Princess was originally set to arrive in Hilo at 8 a.m. Monday.

The Grand Princess departed from San Francisco on Nov. 25. The ship was on day five of a 15-day Hawai’i cruise when it experienced these issues.