Footage shows moment Royal Caribbean cruise ship was flooded during storm in the Gulf of Mexico

Table Of Content

• Latest Weather News
• Carnival cruise ship floods after its battered in storm off Charleston
• More than half of major bridge collapses are in the U.S.
• Making It Rain: Analyzing weather's effect on rideshare requests
• The new issue of Explore Florida & the Caribbean takes you places
• Accidents, dirty fuel and fish cause blackouts
• I Spent 7 Days on My First Adults-Only Virgin Voyages Cruise

He said he’s not going to let this experience stop him from going on future cruises. “Myself being in emergency services and retired, I knew nobody was going to come rescue us with winds over 40 knots,” he told CBS News. Another passenger, Christa Seifert-Alicea, said they didn’t receive word from the captain or crew for more than 12 hours. Guests who are unable to commit to the entire voyage can also join in different segments.

Latest Weather News

The more severe of the two is near Belize and Mexico, while the weaker and less organized system is located east of The Bahamas and is unlikely to impact cruise lines. Hurricane season officially begins today, and already two potential areas may develop with threats for cruise travelers. Even for Larson, who has been on more than 100 cruises with the line, it was a new sensation.

Carnival cruise ship floods after its battered in storm off Charleston

Even if the engine had been working, Calnan said, it would have taken 0.8 nautical miles to bring that particular vessel under those particular conditions to a full stop – farther than the distance to the bridge it was about to hit. Statistically, the experts said, such failures are more likely to happen in ports and harbors, as well as in close proximity to bridges, because that’s when the ships are under the most stress. Roughly 500 feet from the country’s longest suspension span – crossed by nearly a quarter-million vehicles a day – the ship was adrift with no steering, no propulsion and no engine. Fortunately, a pair of tugboats were able to rescue the U.S.-flagged vessel and tow it to safety, where it was determined a broken air compressor valve was to blame. The vast majority were classified as routine but a dozen were labeled major or significant. For the past half hour, the crew navigated the hulking vessel through relatively calm waters and lined it up to pass perfectly under the main truss of the steel bridge, softly lit in the early morning darkness.

More than half of major bridge collapses are in the U.S.

Videos from the much-talked-about Ultimate World Cruise aboard Royal Caribbean’s Serenade of the Seas have shown massive flooding on Deck 12. Water has been streaming in from one side of the ship and flowing to the other, pooling in the corridor and so deep along the way that currents and ripples can be seen as loose debris floats away. Royal Caribbean International’s Ultimate World Cruise has hit its first significant glitch just 24 days after departing Miami, Florida. Both Ireland and Escobedo said their staterooms flooded as water filled their balconies, as well, though neither were as severe as some other staterooms they saw. When they eventually left their cabin, they saw some passengers walking around in lifejackets, and praying and comforting one another in the halls.

The Carnival Sunshine is currently departing on a cruise to the Bahamas that will last for a total of five days and will arrive back in Charleston on Thursday. For Escobedo’s part, the experience wasn’t enough to prevent her from taking another cruise – eventually. She referred to the flooding as a "complete river" that extended across the hall to her neighbor’s room. The dark portion of the carpet shows where the floodwater flowed into the cabin from the balcony. Royal Caribbean's Voyager of the Seas first encountered hail as the ship was heading back to its home port of Galveston, Texas.

Watch: Royal Caribbean cruise ship on nine-month trip floods - USA TODAY

Watch: Royal Caribbean cruise ship on nine-month trip floods.

Posted: Fri, 05 Jan 2024 08:00:00 GMT [source]

But maritime problems – which international governing agencies call “casualty incidents” – have been steadily rising over the past decade, according to a report by Lloyd’s List Intelligence, a global maritime data and analytics company. Now, just a half mile from the span, the vessel has gone dark – no power, no steering, no propulsion. Inside the ship’s towering command center, the crew tries to re-engage the system but no luck. It is also a good idea to pack seasickness remedies along, as storms hundreds of miles away can still create rougher water conditions for cruises.

Accidents, dirty fuel and fish cause blackouts

Click here to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here to stream Action News Jax live. “It’s just one of them unlucky experiences that occurs once in a while,” he told CBS News. Videos shared online by vacationers show flooded hallways littered with glass and other debris, doors ripped off their hinges and downed pipes laying soaked on the floor. Undoubtedly, interior measures will also be taken, such as squeegeeing the water back out to the deck and using industrial fans to quickly dry out carpeting. While the issue is ongoing, certain public corridors may also be closed.

About the Ultimate World Cruise

In the weeks since its departure from Miami, videos about the Ultimate World Cruise have proliferated on TikTok. Posts from both passengers on board – including Larson – and users at home recapping new developments and reported “drama” a la reality TV have amassed millions of views. Larson also shared a video on TikTok taken by a friend that appeared to show the floor on Deck 12 covered in water. She said the captain informed passengers the ship was sailing through winds as high as 60 miles per hour. Royal Caribbean did not comment on the specifics of Larson’s experience. Cruise passenger Sharon Tutrone, a professor at Coastal Carolina University, tweeted Friday that the ship was rocking.

I Spent 7 Days on My First Adults-Only Virgin Voyages Cruise

Fortunately, traffic was light and vehicles stopped before reaching the missing portion of the bridge, according to an National Transportation Safety Board report of the crash. There were no deaths or injuries, but the bridge sustained major damage. It was repaired and reopened later that year but permanently closed in 2016 after a new bridge was built in its place.

Despite the frequency of power failures and bridge strikes reported to the Coast Guard, the maritime shipping industry has had relatively few major accidents like the one that toppled the Francis Scott Key Bridge. The 1,096-foot-long container ship Ever Lotus lost power while mooring at the Port of Los Angeles in November 2016. Even though the vessel’s crew was trained to slowly increase the pitch of the bow thruster so as to not overload the generators, “the pilot adjusted the pitch from 0% to 100% instantly,” according to the incident report. Although such disasters are rare, the conditions that could cause them are frighteningly common, according to a USA TODAY analysis of U.S.

She went on to say that the only time passengers heard from the captain was in the afternoon, when he told them the crew was experienced and would do everything they could to minimize discomfort. The National Hurricane Center warned of a non-tropical area of low pressure off the Florida coast of Friday that was expected to head toward the Carolinas over the weekend. Meteorologists said that there would be gusty winds, dangerous surf and strong rip currents along portions of the U.S.’s southeastern coast through Sunday. Some passengers and crew members needed “minor assistance” from medical staff, a Carnival cruise spokesman told CBS News. There is no indication at all of any structural issues with the ship, nor are there any hull breaches or other emergency issues. This flooding – while startling – is simply a result of poor weather, and can happen onboard any cruise ship anywhere in the world.

“I've seen a lot of rocking, but never tilting just one side for so long,” she said. Later, as she walked down the stairs at the front of the ship, she heard what sounded like rain inside the elevator shafts. “One set of elevators and six rooms were impacted by some of the rain,” they said in an emailed statement. “Our team on board is managing the minor cleanup and elevator repairs.” Serenade of the Seas continued to Montevideo as planned, where it arrived Thursday. The spokesperson added that the Carnival Sunshine is now sailing on a five-day Bahamas cruise and will return to Charleston on Thursday. Water damage and broken glass were left in the hallways and rooms following the storm.

Even in the midst of bad weather, however, cruise ships can change their orientation, adjust speed, deploy stabilizers, and take other steps to ensure guests’ safety and comfort as much as possible until the severe weather passes. According to Fox Weather, a powerful storm off the southeastern coast of the US hit the Sunshine as it returned from a Memorial Day weekend trip to the Bahamas. The large waves, heavy rain, and strong winds rocked the ship, leaving some passengers sick and terrified. Coast Guard incident reports blame a host of culprits for the power outages reported by hundreds of ships over the years. They include unpredictable events like lightning strikes, fires on board or even fish clogging water inlets meant to help cool the engines.

She contacted Carnival when she got home and said she didn’t hear back until Wednesday morning, when a guest services representative asked to set up a call. Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal is calling for the CDC and cruise lines to again halt cruise travel, six months after the industry mounted its comeback. Coronavirus hospitalizations in the state have also risen from about 1,200 patients two weeks ago to about 3,400 on Wednesday. But that is still less than one-fifth the number of hospitalizations reported in late August due to the delta wave. The CDC said 88 vessels are now either under investigation or observation, but it did not specify how many COVID-19 cases have been reported. He noted that the cruise line gathers information from the National Hurricane Center, U.S. Coast Guard, and other government authorities, and the Carnival Cruise Line Fleet Operations Center is staffed 24 hours a day to monitor conditions.

Guests with balconies are also experiencing similar flooding on their balconies. The flooding is the result of stormy weather with strong winds as the ship makes her way down the coast of Brazil and Uruguay, between her port visits to Rio de Janeiro on December 31 and Montevideo on January 4. Passengers on the ship said that things got worse overnight on Friday and into Saturday while the crew kept quiet about what was going on. Daniel Taylor, one of the passengers, told Daily Mail about how much of the week-long trip to the Bahamas went well. The news comes after another Royal Caribbean ship, Serenade of the Seas, also faced flooding last month.

Royal Caribbean's Ultimate World Cruise is having some flooding issues due to severe weather and wind-driven rain. Passengers in public spaces reported bottles flying off shelves as the waves of more than 12 feet rocked the ship. The website report stated there were no injuries, but passenger space on Deck 2 also experienced flooded hallways and staterooms. Because the ships were heading back to their homeport, they were not able to adjust their route as significantly as if the incidents happened mid-cruise, when a port of call could be rescheduled or cancelled. The storm was likely the same squall line that Carnival Dream also passed through when guests and crew members were advised to stay in their cabins. Crew members reacted quickly to clean up, including putting towels down to soak up water in flooded areas and to ensure flooring was safe for guests.