Cruise 101: Electrical Appliances

 Plenty of electrical appliances can tax a cruise ship's power system.

Pictured here is the iLounge aboard Celebrity Summit.

Photo © 2010 Aaron Saunders

A recent CruiseCritic thread told of a cruiser who had a small portable electric fan confiscated on a recent voyage aboard Celebrity Mercury.  Cruise lines have been attempting to crack down on the amount of electrical appliances passengers bring aboard with them - and for good reason.

Unlike your house, a ship is responsible for creating its own power, and each ship has a finite amount it can produce at any given time.  A portion of this is used for technical operations, like propulsion, security, and navigation.  By far though, the vast majority of available power is used by hotel operations.  Consider the immense power required by the enormous air conditioning units that keep public spaces and staterooms cool and comfortable.  Then there's the multitude of lights, televisions, entertainment devices, theatre lighting, elevators, bars and so on - all of which require ample power.

While ships are considered to be far more efficient than the average home or workspace thanks to low-consumption devices, the vast majority of power a ship can produce is being used.  A small remainder is set aside for passenger cabins.

Passengers are quickly gobbling that reserve up.

Ten years ago, this would have been a non-event.  But consider how many items we use that need to be charged or plugged in.  I'm guilty of it; I bring electrical appliances with me.  In fact, I was shocked just how many devices I bring that require an electrical outlet.  On my last cruise, I brought:

- A laptop, with charger.
- An iPod, with charger.
- A digital camera with - yep - a charger.
- A digital video camera - charger again.
- A portable DVD player that runs on - yes, electrical current.
- A cell phone, with charger.

Now, not all of those are plugged in at the same time, but batteries, laptops and cellular phones clearly make up a substantial portion of our day-to-day lives.  

Carnival caused a bit of a stir earlier this year when they announced they were adding certain electronic devices, like power strips or high-wattage peripherals, to their list of items they are allowed to confiscate at their discretion. 

Power strips have become a huge issue onboard most cruise ships.  Electrical outlets in your stateroom are limited for a reason: the generation capacity for plugging in multiple appliances just isn't there.  By plugging in a power strip, an electrical overload is possible.  At best, you risk tripping an entire section of staterooms, leaving them in the dark.  At worst, it poses a potential fire hazard - something you definitely don't want at sea.

While no cruise line will confiscate your Blackberry or MacBook anytime soon, they may take anything extraneous - like a portable fan or a power strip - if they feel the amount of "gear" you've brought with you is excessive.

What's the best course of action?  Don't stop bringing things you absolutely need - like a digital camera, cellphone charger, or laptop.  But consider each item you bring, and ask yourself if you need it.

And definitely don't plug them all in at once.