World’s largest cruise ship will be removed from duty for repairs

The world's largest cruise ship (a title it shares with its sister ship, the Oasis of the Seas)—Royal Caribbean's 5,400-passenger, 225,000-ton Allure of the Seas—will be temporarily removed from service this February to undergo unscheduled repairs to its propulsion system. The decision comes after a slate of recent mechanical problems centered on one of the vessel's three propulsion motors.

While the cruise line has stated that the recurring issues with the malfunctioning propulsion unit pose no safety issue or affect the maneuverability of the ship, the result of wear on a bearing in the problem propulsion "pod" has limited the ship's ability to reach top speeds.

As a precaution, until the repairs are made, the Allure of the Seas’ eastern Caribbean itineraries from Port Everglades, Fla., will be slightly modified with shortened port calls to accommodate slower travel speeds; its western Caribbean itineraries will remain the same. The move to reduce the ship's speed "has reduced the rate of bearing wear and will ensure that all three propulsion motors are fully available for maneuvering and emergencies until repairs can be completed," the line said in a statement.

The Allure is slated to undergo repairs in a Bahamas' shipyard the week of Feb. 24, 2014, forcing the cancellation of a sailing previously scheduled for that week. All guests booked on the Feb. 23 sailing will receive a full refund, or have the option to sale on select alternate itineraries at the same rate they've already paid.

“We sincerely regret that we will be unable to deliver the Royal Caribbean cruise vacation that our guests were looking forward to,” said Adam Goldstein, Royal Caribbean International's president and CEO, in a statement. “We understand that our guests’ vacation time is very precious and can assure you that we did not take this decision lightly. But it was very important to us that we bring Allure back up to speed so that she could continue to deliver the amazing cruise vacations our guests expect.”