Cruise ship diverts to Oahu for repairs after engine fire

The cruise ship Grand Princess docked Tuesday morning in Honolulu Harbor for repairs after a small fire in an engine room led to loss of power at sea.

After the ship experienced electrical problems about 20 miles off Hilo on Monday morning with 2,592 passengers aboard, a decision was made to bypass a port call there.

Princess Cruises, which operates the ship, said that at about 5:30 a.m. Monday the propulsion circuit breaker in the aft switchboard suffered “significant failure,” resulting in smoke. The company said assessments and repairs would be made in Honolulu. No injuries occurred as a result of the incident, ship representatives said.

Passengers arriving in Honolulu on Tuesday morning said the captain and crew were helpful during the outage and that power was restored in about an hour.

“I feel we should be OK from here on out,” said Ohio resident Bonnie Crosby.

Crosby said she was a little disappointed the ship hadn’t been able to stop in Hilo but that she and other passengers still had other stops, including Kauai, Maui and Ensenada, Mexico.

Passengers later said the ship was to leave for Kauai on Tuesday night. They also said they were told the Maui stop was being eliminated. Passenger Ed Arnow said he was disappointed because he and wife Jo had planned to meet with their daughter, who lives on Maui.

Bill Roach, another passenger, said he’d heard that those aboard would be partially refunded due to missing the Hilo stop.