Princess Cruise Ship Loses Power off Florida Coast

The 3,100-passenger Emerald Princess cruise ship lost power Sunday for more than four hours after embarking from Fort Lauderdale on an Eastern Caribbean sailing.

The ship was without propulsion and passengers were without air conditioning and some other hotel services as power went on and off, Princess Cruises confirmed.

The cruise line said the incident happened 90 minutes after the ship left on a weeklong sailing, at about 6:30 p.m. Power was not restored until 11 p.m.

"At no time was there any danger to the ship or its passengers and crew," the line said.

In addition to a lack of air conditioning, at least one passenger wrote on the message board at CruiseCritic.com of limited lights, a limited dinner menu and canceled shows and entertainment, while the ship was dead in the water.

Once the power was restored, the three-year-old ship was given clearance by the United States Coast Guard and continued its itinerary, though a call at Princess Cays, the cruise line's private Bahamas beach, was canceled.

Spokeswoman Karen Candy tells AOL Travel News an investigation into the outage is underway, and a technician will join the ship in St. Maarten on Wednesday to help determine the cause. There were reports a computer glitch may have been to blame.

Candy said passengers would be compensated for their inconvenience and the missed port call.

Photo courtesy of Princess Cruises