The largest cruise ship to Wellington NZ - Royal Caribbean's Ovation of the Seas, left the harbour after coming to halt due to an engine issue. The nearly 5000-passenger liner stopped at ~7:30 pm Monday evening, November 18, just off Steeple Rock after experiencing propulsion engine issues.
According to Wellington Harbourmaster, Grant Nalder, the crew had discovered the mechanical fault and that was "not something that happens often, especially the passenger ships, they have a lot of redundant systems onboard compared to say, a cargo ship."
Harbourmaster Nalder said it was unusual but the weather conditions were good and the tugs were available very quickly which was very positive. The issue has since been resolved and the cruise ship proceeded on her way to Napier following a half-hour delay.
Ovation OTS is on a 10-day, round-trip New Zealand cruise which departed from Sydney on November 13.
For other Ovation of the Seas accidents and incidents see at the ship's CruiseMinus page.