Welcome to Cruise News, your daily update on
everything happening at sea. Visit CruiseNews
.io to see today's stories and sign up for email
alerts. It is good to be here and we have quite
the lineup today. We really do. From hurricanes
to, well, some really risky behavior and even
a man overboard search. Today's stories just
spotlight how quickly cruise. plans and onboard
safety can change. They really can. We're looking
at a historic storm scrambling itineraries for
Disney Cruise Line, a tragic search operation
in the Mediterranean involving Viking cruises
and then a viral video from a Royal Caribbean
ship that has the internet just screaming at
their screens. It's a heavy mix for sure but
you know if you look closely there's a thread
connecting all of these events. Which is. It's
about the illusion of control. I mean we get
on these massive floating city ships like the
Disney Treasure or Wonder of the Seas and because
they have Starbucks and waterslides, we kind
of forget we are in a hostile maritime environment.
That is a really good point. We treat them like
hotels, but hotels don't usually have to outrun
a category five storm. Precisely. Whether it's
a captain navigating around a hurricane or a
passenger deciding to climb over a balcony railing,
the ocean is always waiting to remind us who
is actually in charge. Well, speaking of the
ocean being in charge... Let's start with that
big weather news. Hurricane Melissa. What a storm.
If you were watching the Weather Channel this
week, this thing was a monster. I mean, we are
talking about a historic category five storm
with sustained winds of 185 miles per hour. And
just to put that in perspective for everyone
listening, 185 miles per hour is not just bad
weather. No. That is catastrophic. It's the kind
of wind speed that literally strips pavement
off the ground. This storm made landfall in Jamaica
and caused severe damage and flooding there,
and in Cuba, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic,
too. So obviously, if you are running a cruise
line, you are not sending a ship anywhere near
that. I want to talk about the logistics here,
because I think people assume you're just doing
the steering wheel and go somewhere else. definitely
not that simple. Disney Cruise Line had to make
massive changes for the Disney Treasure and the
Disney Wish. Huge changes. Let's look at the
Disney Treasure first. This was a seven -night
Halloween sailing. It left Port Canaveral on
October 25th. The original plan was the Eastern
Caribbean. Right, so Tortola and the British
Virgin Islands, St. Thomas and the U .S. Virgin
Islands, the classic Eastern route. But Melissa
was just... barreling right through that corridor.
That way around it. So Disney scraps the eastern
planet entirely. They rerouted the ship to the
western Caribbean. Instead of Tortola, guests
ended up in Cozumel, Mexico. Right. And here
is where I have a question. How hard is it to
just switch to Cozumel? I mean, Can a ship the
size of the treasure just show up and park? Absolutely
not. You have to imagine the Caribbean during
a hurricane as a high -stakes game of musical
chairs. Okay. Every single cruise line, Carnival
Corporation, Royal Caribbean Group, Norwegian
Cruise Line Holdings, they are all looking at
the exact same weather map. They all want to
move their ships away from the storm and into
the calm waters of the Western Caribbean. So
Cozumel just becomes a parking lot. It becomes
the most competitive real estate on earth. A
port like Cozumel only has a specific number
of berths. Literally, the parking spots for these
massive vessels. And they are booked years in
advance. Wow. So when Disney decides to pivot
to the west, their operations center is frantically
calling port authorities, negotiating fees, and
trying to secure a slot before another line takes
it. That makes the fact that they pulled this
off even more impressive. It is a logistical
miracle. If you can't get a dock, you have to...
tender, which is slower, or you just spend the
day at sea burning fuel and dealing with very
disappointed passengers. Well, speaking of disappointed
passengers or, you know, avoiding that, Disney
did something interesting with the schedule.
They added an extra day at Castaway Cay. The
double dip. Exactly. The Disney treasure ended
up visiting Disney's private island on both October
30th and October 31st, and they did something
similar with the Disney Wish. That was a four
-night sailing. They just swapped the order,
Castaway Cay first, then Nassau, just to dodge
the weather. Why lean so heavily on Castaway
Cay? Is it just because it's popular? It's popular,
sure. But strategically, it is the ultimate safety
valve. This is the massive advantage of cruise
lines owning their own private destinations.
Oh, OK. When the rest of the Caribbean is closed
or fully booked, Disney doesn't have to call
a foreign government to ask for permission to
dock at Castaway Cay. They own the island. They
own the pier. They are their own port authority.
Exactly. It turns a potential scheduling nightmare
into a bonus day for the guests. Oh, we can't
go to St. Thomas, no problem. Here's another
day at the beach. It saves the vacation experience.
And speaking of that vacation experience, I noticed
Disney mentioned that port adventures for the
canceled stops were automatically refunded. For
people who don't cruise often, are port adventures
just excursions? Yes. That is just Disney branding
for shore excursions, snorkeling, city tours,
that sort of thing. But that automatic refund
is crucial. Why is that so important? Usually
that money is tied up with third -party tour
operators on the islands. Getting that cash back
to the guest instantly without them having to
stand in line at guest services prevents a riot
at the front desk. I could imagine. It wasn't
just Disney, right? The whole industry was scrambling.
Oh, everyone was moving. We saw Royal Caribbean's
Icon of the Seas and Celebrity Cruise's Celebrity
Beyond shifting away from St. Martin and St.
Thomas, heading toward Mexico and Honduras. And
what about the others? Carnival Dream and Norwegian
Joy couldn't even find ports. They just opted
for extra sea days. And the regal princess on
a transatlantic crossing just skipped the Caribbean
entirely. It really highlights that When a storm
like Melissa spins up, the schedule just goes
out the window. It has to. Safety is the only
metric that matters. It creates such a stark
contrast, doesn't it? We're talking about avoiding
a storm to keep people safe. But sometimes, the
danger isn't the weather outside. It's an emergency
happening right on the ship. And that brings
us to the news out of the Mediterranean. This
is a much tougher story to cover. We're talking
about a man overboard situation involving the
Viking star, which is part of the Viking cruises
fleet. Yes, this happened on Monday, October
27th. The ship was transiting between Crete in
Greece and Sicily, Italy. And we know from reports,
including from a Fox News producer who happened
to be on board, that this occurred around 1130
in the morning. Horrifyingly, passengers actually
witnessed the crew member going overboard. I
just can't imagine how traumatic that is for
the guests and, of course, the fellow crew members.
The accounts say the crew reacted instantly.
They threw an orange life ring and a smoke flare
into the water. I get the life ring, but why
the smoke flare? Is that just a signal for help?
It's not for help. It's for position. You have
to understand the ocean is vast and a human head
is about the size of a coconut. Right. In open
water, even with calm seas, you can lose sight
of a person in seconds. The smoke flare marks
the specific spot where the person hit the water.
It gives the bridge a visual reference point
to calculate the drift. The report mentions the
ship maneuvered to circle back. Is that just
a simple U -turn? It's much more technical than
a U -turn. The bridge likely initiated what is
called a Williamson turn. A Williamson turn.
It's a standard maritime rescue maneuver. If
you just turn the wheel hard left, you will end
up parallel to your original course but miles
away from where the person fell because of the
ship's momentum. Ah, I see. A Williamson turn
is a specific figure -eight maneuver designed
to bring the ship back to the exact coordinates
of the incident, traveling in the opposite direction
down its own wake. It requires incredible precision.
That explains why they were searching that area
so intensely. They were about 100 nautical miles
southeast of Calabria, and the Italian Coast
Guard was coordinating. But then, by Monday evening,
the Viking Star was released from the search.
That always feels jarring to the public, doesn't
it? Why did they stop looking? Exactly. It feels
like they're abandoning the person. They aren't.
But a cruise ship is not a dedicated search and
rescue platform. It's big, it's hard to maneuver,
and it has thousands of passengers to care for.
So the professionals take over. Once the professional
assets arrive... helicopters, Coast Guard cutters,
the authorities will often release the cruise
ship. The Coast Guard can search more effectively
with thermal imaging and aircraft than a cruise
ship can with binoculars on the bridge. Viking
Cruises issued a statement saying they were deeply
saddened and supporting the family, but they
haven't released a name or a cause. However,
there was one detail, or I guess a lack of a
detail, that caught your eye. It did. Viking
did not answer inquiries about whether the Viking
star is equipped with an automated overboard
detection system. And we hear about these systems
a lot. They use thermal cameras or radar to instantly
alert the bridge as something falls over, right?
In theory, yes. But the industry has been slow
to adopt them universally. The technology still
struggles with the maritime environment. Sea
spray, birds, even a towel blowing off a balcony
can trigger a false alarm. And if the bridge
gets 50 false alarms a night? They stop trusting
the system. But when they work, they can save
precious minutes. The statistics on this are
just grim. You pulled some numbers from CLIA
and GPWild. Yes. Between 2009 and 2019, there
were 212 overboard incidents. Only 48 people
were rescued. That is less than a 25 % survival
rate. And we have to be honest about why. Brian
Solano, a former senior VP at CLIA, has pointed
this out before. Crew ship railings are high.
They are chest -high on most adults. You don't
just trip over them. So the implication is that
many of these are intentional acts. Or the result
of extreme recklessness. Now, we don't know the
cause in the Viking Star case yet, so we shouldn't
speculate. But generally speaking, staying on
a cruise ship is very easy if you just keep your
feet on the deck. Which is a perfect, albeit
frustrating, segue to our final story. Because
while we are mourning a likely loss of life in
the Mediterranean, we have a viral video showing
people actively flirting with that exact - same
fate. This is the story that makes maritime lawyers
wake up in a cold sweat. A TikTok user named
advancedly posted a video that has gone absolutely
viral. and online sleuths have linked it to Royal
Caribbean's wonder of the seas. It shows two
teenagers climbing between the balcony dividers.
And just to be clear, they aren't just climbing
over the divider on the balcony floor. They are
stepping outside the protective glass barrier.
Outside. They are inching along the narrow steel
ledge, the ship's superstructure, that runs along
the outside of the vessel. And the ship is moving.
The ship is moving. They are hundreds of feet
above the waterline. I think when people see
these videos, they just think, oh, they were
just being silly kids. But you've talked before
about the physics of a moving ship. It's not
like standing on a hotel balcony, is it? Not
at all. First, you have the wind. If the ship
is doing 20 knots, you have a 20 knot headwind,
plus whatever the actual weather is doing. It
creates a wind tunnel effect along the side of
the hull. And then there's more. Then you have
vibration from the engines. And suction. The
aerodynamics of a cruise ship can create weird
pressure zones along the hull. If you slip, you
aren't just falling straight down. You could
be pulled into the side of the ship, hitting
a lifeboat, a promenade deck, or a lower balcony.
It's a meat grinder. And if you fall from deck
10 to deck 5. It's fatal. And it's traumatizing
for the hundreds of people who might see it happen.
So let's talk consequences. The internet is demanding
head's role. What can Royal Caribbean actually
do here? What is their legal leverage? It all
comes down to the contract of carriage. That
is the fine print nobody reads when they book
a cruise. Right. It basically says the captain's
word is law. If you endanger the safety of the
vessel or anyone on it, the captain has the legal
right to disembark you. Which is a nice way of
saying kick you off. Immediately. at the next
port. And this is what people don't realize.
If you get kicked off in Cozumel or Nassau, the
ship doesn't pay for your flight home. You are
stranded. If your passport is in the ship's safe,
good luck. And the penalties go beyond just being
stranded. Oh, yeah. Massive fines and usually
a lifetime ban. We have seen Royal Caribbean
issue lifetime bans for similar stunts before.
You will never set foot on their ships again.
The public reaction to this has been fierce.
We are seeing comments like one from a Becky
Rendell who wrote, parents don't care as long
as they're not bothering them. And another from
Danielle Marie saying, the number of young kids
roaming freely is alarming. It touches on a real
tension in the industry. Cruise lines market
themselves as these carefree, family -friendly
paradises, but they are also industrial work
sites operating in a dangerous environment. It
is that resort versus ship mentality again. Exactly.
Parents assume it's like a fenced -in playground,
but if your teenager is climbing the superstructure,
that is not a supervision failure. That is a
fundamental failure to respect the environment.
Do you think this will lead to changes? I mean,
we talked about the lack of automated detection
on the Viking star with ships getting bigger.
The wonder of the seas carries almost 7000 people.
Will we see cameras pointing at the balconies?
It's a privacy trade off, isn't it? People want
to sit on their balcony in their robe and have
coffee without Big Brother watching. Of course.
But if these viral stunts keep happening and
if the liability costs keep rising, the cruise
lines might decide that safety trumps privacy.
We might see sensors or cameras becoming standard
to stop this before it goes viral. It's a sobering
thought. We started with a hurricane, moved to
a tragedy, and ended with just utterly reckless
behavior. And the common thread is respect. You
have to respect the force of the weather, you
have to respect the ocean, and you have to respect
the rules that keep you alive. A cruise ship
is a marvel of engineering, but it is not a theme
park on land. It's an active vessel. It is. And
whether it is the captain of the Disney treasure
rerouting to avoid a storm or a passenger simply
deciding not to climb a railing, adherence to
safety protocols is the only thing preventing
disaster. Well, on that note, we are going to
wrap up this deep dive. A lot to think about
before your next sailing. Thanks for listening
to Cruise News. Visit CruiseNews .io to catch
up on the latest updates and sign up for free
email alerts.