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Princess ship loses power after 'significant failure'

Gene Sloan
USA TODAY
The Grand Princess at sea.

A Princess Cruises ship sailing near Hawaii on Monday lost power after a small fire in an engine room switchboard.

The Santa Clarita, Calif.-based line said the 109,000-ton Grand Princess was 20 miles off the coast of Hilo, Hawaii at the time of the incident, which occurred before sunrise Monday and forced the vessel to temporarily switch to emergency lighting and operate with limited air conditioning. As of midday Monday, power had been restored to the ship, and all hotel services were back in operation.

"At approximately 5:30 am local time, the propulsion circuit breaker in the aft switchboard aboard Grand Princess suffered a significant failure, resulting in smoke and a small fire contained within the switchboard," Princess said in a statement sent to USA TODAY.

All 2,592 passengers aboard the vessel were accounted for along with 1,095 crew, and there were no injuries, the line said.

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Princess late Monday said the Grand Princess was operating on three of its four diesel generators and heading to Honolulu, where it would arrive on Dec. 1 as scheduled. A call scheduled for Monday in Hilo has been canceled.

Engineers will meet the ship in Honolulu to assess the impact of the fire.

"Once the technical officers and engineers complete their assessment of the situation it will be determined if there will be any further impact to the itinerary," the line said.

The Grand Princess was on the fifth day of a 15-day Hawaii cruise that departed San Francisco on Nov. 25.

The Grand Princess was the largest cruise ship in the world at the time of its debut in 1998 but has since been eclipsed by far bigger vessels. It's one of 18 ships in the Princess fleet.

For a deck-by-deck look at a Princess ship, scroll through the carousel below.

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