Passengers on a Royal Caribbean cruise experienced more drama than they bargained for when the ship unexpectedly tilted, causing furniture to slide across the floor and glasses to shatter – all while the Titanic theme song blared through the speakers.
Video footage posted to TikTok shows heavy winds and rain battering the massive Explorer of the Seas as Celine Dion’s My Heart Will Go On plays in the background by the pool – the iconic song from the 1997 film Titanic.
Initially, some of the 4,300 passengers on board thought it might have been special effects installed as part of the ship’s entertainment.
“We actually thought it was part of special effects,” said Simon Goodenough, a passenger on board the Explorer of the Seas. Local 10 News after disembarkation in Miami.
Goodenough was in the theater when the chaos began.
‘The ship started to tilt to one side, all the glasses and bottles fell off the bar and we thought, “Wow, this is amazing.”‘
But awe soon turned to alarm when it looked like the 138,000-ton ship might actually be in trouble, with passengers feeling like they were in a real-life disaster movie.
“We realized and looked at the crew’s faces that these were not special effects,” Goodenough added, describing how panic suddenly broke out.
Passengers on a Royal Caribbean cruise experienced more drama than they expected when the Titanic theme song blared from the speakers as the ship encountered a storm and fled.
Shocking footage – taken from the ship’s promenade – shared on social media shows the chaotic scene on board the ship as both passengers and furniture are tossed around
Bottles from the bar were smashed all over the floor, such was the angle of the ship
Passengers grabbed onto anything stuck as they felt the ship tilt sharply. Plates shattered and bottles fell to the floor.
Furniture and merchandise slid across the deck, with a digital display nearly knocking over a guest. Another man could be seen clinging to a table.
Dan So, 41, filmed the dramatic footage after leaving an onboard pub quiz. He noticed the deck tilted to a 45-degree angle and recalled hearing “screaming and breaking glasses.”
He said: ‘As I left the pub I heard shouting noises, glasses falling around and the cruise starting to tip over.
“You see a whole billboard hitting a guy and he saves himself and grabs his girlfriend. He was in a state of shock.
‘I wondered if this was normal, but the more I heard people screaming, the more scared I became and I had to turn off the video.
“It wasn’t the full tilt you see in the video, but about halfway.”
“Some people told me to come to them, so we held each other and the chairs around us.
Guests are seen trying to move through the ship, barely able to stand as the leaning ship continues to lean at an increasingly precarious angle
Broken glass bottles could be seen everywhere in the ship’s restaurant bar
Several store displays fell over because the angle of the ship was so large
Employees could be seen picking up stock that had fallen to the ground
Clothes and bottles of duty-free lay in a pile on the floor
Several display cases fell to the floor causing chaos
In the dining room, plates and cups were thrown onto the carpet
‘I thought this might be the end and the ship would fall into the water.
Mr. So, from Toronto, says it was a “huge relief” when the ordeal was over and believes climate change could be the storm’s culprit.
He said: ‘Normally waves cause the ship to rock, but this tilted on one side for five minutes. It held its position for about three minutes.
“It shows that climate change is creating things that even experienced cruisers haven’t seen yet.”
According to Royal Caribbean, the sudden list – the term for when a ship leans heavily to one side – was caused by an “unexpected gust of wind” near Tenerife, part of Spain’s Canary Islands.
Videos captured the chaos: bottles sliding across the bar, tables falling over and passengers struggling to stay on their feet.
The drama unfolded on November 7, during the ship’s transatlantic voyage from Barcelona to Miami.
A clothing display fell on its side after the freak storm that saw the ship’s list
Even the inside of a refrigerator was left a complete mess
The bar was in complete disarray after the serious tilt
After the unexpected tilt, the ship’s floor was covered in sticky potions
One passenger’s dinner ended up on the kitchen floor
After the sudden storm, bartenders had to clean up the damage
Dan So, 41, filmed the dramatic footage after leaving an onboard pub quiz. He noticed the deck tilted to a 45-degree angle and recalled hearing “screaming and glasses breaking.”
The 138,000-ton ship ultimately arrived in Miami three days behind schedule after the incident
The passenger ship Royal Caribbean Explorer of the Sea was at the start of its transatlantic voyage to Miami on Thursday, November 7, when it was struck by a storm, a sharp and sudden sustained gust of wind, off the coast of Tenerife
Videos and accounts of the incident also show a grand piano sliding across the stage, broken glass littering the floor and passengers clinging to the railing trying to balance as the ship lurches to one side.
The terrifying incident lasted less than ten minutes, but one passenger was injured and required medical attention.
It meant the 12-night cruise had to make an unscheduled stop in Las Palmas, in the Canary Islands, when the passenger disembarked.
Goodenough admitted that the experience was both terrifying and unforgettable. “It’s a story to tell,” he said.
The ship eventually stabilized and the voyage continued to Miami three days late, without further incident.