Connectivity Outage Delays Carnival Cruise Ship in Port Overnight

Connectivity at sea was a luxury just a decade ago, but as cost has dropped and speed has improved, it has become an essential service in many sectors - particularly in the cruise industry. High speed wifi and digitally-enabled shipboard transactions are critical to cruise ship operations and revenue (and passenger satisfaction). A brief outage aboard Carnival Firenze this week suggests that a connectivity issue is enough reason to delay a departure until the ship's IT systems are fixed - even if it means waiting in port for repairs, as one would for a propulsion or mechanical issue.

Carnival Firenze (ex name Costa Firenze) is a 2021-built cruise ship with space for up to 5,000 passengers and 1,300 crewmembers. The ship is deployed on a circuit from Long Beach to Baja, alternating between four and six-day itineraries. On her current voyage, she was scheduled to depart LA on Monday afternoon, then head for Cabo and Ensenada before returning on the 21st.

On Monday, passengers arriving aboard the vessel reported a full communications outage on board due to a "system crash" or "connectivity issue." The root cause was not disclosed, but the outage took down shipboard wifi for guests and temporarily disabled some functions of the guest services phone app, passengers reported. Others said that the outage took the ship's in-cabin TV service and the shipboard casino offline as well.

"Our team is right there working on the connectivity matter, but of course it is not clear yet just how soon it will be resolved," a crewmember said in a shipboard announcement on Monday, recorded by a passenger and posted to TikTok. "Since we must have a working system before we can set sail, we will continue to troubleshoot and are hopeful that we will be able to resolve it tonight."

The issue was still ongoing by the following morning, passengers said, and Carnival Firenze remained in port. "We’re still docked in Long Beach while they work to resolve a major communication issue - no Wi-Fi, no internet, and no way to connect with shore," one passenger aboard Firenze commented on Tuesday morning.

Like most connectivity issues, it was eventually resolved, and passengers still had a comfortable overnight stay. AIS data shows that Carnival Firenze got under way at 1200 hours local time on Tuesday, and she is now underway southbound, headed for Cabo San Lucas.

Top image: Carnival Firenze (RL0919 / CC BY SA 4.0)