WATCH: Royal Caribbean Cruise Caught in Hurricane Michael’s Path
WATCH: Royal Caribbean Cruise Caught in Hurricane Michael’s Path
Live look: @RoyalCaribbean’s #EmpressoftheSeas chasing #HurricaneMichael around #Cuba. Arrival to #Havana severely delayed.@CruiseCritic @weatherchannel @SAWeatherServic @bbcweather @breakingweather @TheWeatherStn #tropicalstormmichael #storm #caribbean #lightning #cruiseship pic.twitter.com/52vK6tUjNX
— Snapper Tams (@SnapperTams) October 9, 2018
Having just come off a cruise on Monday, I found this video to be slightly terrifying. I can only imagine what it must have been like to be on a ship caught up in the winds and weather of Hurricane Michael, which made landfall in Florida earlier this week and has devastated the Panhandle on through to Georgia and the Carolinas. What’s worse is the ship involved was the Empress of the Seas, which is a smaller class of ship for Royal Caribbean.
The cruise was one of Royal Caribbean’s Cuba cruises. A passenger on board the ship, Snapper Tams, posted the video on Twitter with a live look from the storm on October 9, 2018. The video shows waves slamming into the ship and the dark sky and seas that surround the ship.
Tams reported to CNN in an interview that the ship was held for hours as they waited for the storm to pass through the Yucatan Peninsula. Tams also said a number of people on the ship got seasick, as the swells from 13′-15′ rocked the boat back and forth.
I was on Royal Caribbean’s Empress of the Seas back in May for a weekend cruise to the Bahamas. I remember the last night there was some rough water and the ship was really moving. In fact, it admittedly made me a little nauseous. That was just simply a day with choppy water. I cannot imagine how it must have felt to be on that ship with 13′-15′ swells. I likely would have gotten sick myself as other passengers did.
This is not really news. The ship was not caught in it’s path. Cruise ships manuver around storms all the time and while those seas are large, they do not pose any danger to the ship. The size of the ship does not necessarily effect how it takes the seas. A lot of the huge new ships don’t handle rough seas well because of the way they are built so this being a smaller ship doesn’t mean it necessarily caused people to feel the swells more.
I disagree with the notion that it’s not news. This is a travel news and blog, and this individual posted his experience on a ship where many passengers were getting sick. That’s newsworthy, particularly for a blog that focuses on travel news and information from travelers around the world. Also, ship size definitely plays a part in how a ship reacts to giant swells. Also, having been on this ship and received relatively rough sees not related to a hurricane, I speak with certainty about how terrible the ship reacts to even minor swells.
This isn’t a news site. It’s a travel blog.
I agree, this ship was not in Michaels path. I’ve sailed on a cruise during a hurricane and they lock every door to the outside so you are not in any danger. You can’t get outside and they do everything they possibly can to stay as far away from the storm as possible. We could not go into our port of call on time, but went later and the residents of the island held a huge dock party for us. It was one of my favorite cruises due to that party. Don’t let the threat of a storm worry you. If it’s a threat to your safety, they won’t sail.