Repercussions From Damaged Ship Propeller Expected to Drive Down RCCL's 2Q Profits

Celebrity Cruises said on Monday it expects the cancellation of a 14-day European voyage as a result of a damaged ship propeller to drag down second-quarter profits of parent Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.

The company said repairs, refunds and other compensation to the 1,696 passengers aboard its Galaxy ship will hurt Royal Caribbean's profits for the quarter by $.04 to $0.5 a share. Analysts had on average estimated earnings for Royal Caribbean, the world's number two cruise group behind Carnival Corp., at $.40 a share.

Celebrity canceled the cruise so a damaged propeller on the Galaxy can be repaired, spokeswoman Lynn Martenstein said.

Celebrity staff continued to investigate, but suspect Galaxy's port propeller was damaged on Saturday as the 858-ft. (261.5-m) ship moved through a lock in Holland, according to Martenstein.

A diver found one eight-foot (2.43-m) blade was bent and three others, each weighing 3.5 tons, were scratched.

Galaxy, which returned to port in Amsterdam over the weekend, will enter dry dock on Wednesday at the Blohm & Voss yard in Hamburg, Germany, to fix the propeller, one of two on the ship, Martenstein said. Galaxy should resume sailing on June 16. "This is a pretty easy fix," Martenstein said. "We have all the materials on hand."