{"id":8395,"date":"2016-02-09T09:01:48","date_gmt":"2016-02-09T17:01:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/cruise-ship-that-sailed-in-storm-headed-back-to-home-port\/"},"modified":"2016-02-09T09:01:48","modified_gmt":"2016-02-09T17:01:48","slug":"cruise-ship-that-sailed-in-storm-headed-back-to-home-port","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/cruise-ship-that-sailed-in-storm-headed-back-to-home-port\/","title":{"rendered":"Cruise ship that sailed in storm headed back to home port"},"content":{"rendered":"
MIAMI (AP) \u2014 A Royal Caribbean cruise ship ran into high winds and rough seas in the Atlantic Ocean on Sunday, forcing frightened passengers into their cabins overnight as their belongings flew about, waves rose as high as 30 feet, and winds howled outside. The cruise line says that although no one was injured and the ship suffered only minor damage, it\u2019s turning around and sailing back to its home port in New Jersey.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was shaking all over,\u201d Shara Strand of New York City wrote to The Associated Press via Facebook on Monday. \u201cPanic attack, things like that … I\u2019ve been on over 20 cruises, I\u2019ve been through a hurricane, it was never like this. Never.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sixteen-year-old Gabriella Lairson says she and her father, Sam, could feel the ship Anthem of the Seas begin to sway by 2:30 p.m. Sunday. The captain directed passengers to their cabins. There, the Lairsons heard glasses shatter in the bathroom, and they put their belongings in drawers and closets to prevent them from flying across the room. They ventured to the balcony, where Sam Lairson shot video of wave after wave rising below.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe winds were so strong that I thought the phone would blow from my hands,\u201d Sam Lairson, of Ocean City, New Jersey, said in an email. \u201cAfter that we had to keep the doors to the balconies sealed.\u201d<\/p>\n
The ship \u2014 with more than 4,500 guests and 1,600 crew members \u2014 sailed Saturday from Cape Liberty, New Jersey. It was scheduled to arrive for a stop at Port Canaveral, Florida, at noon Monday, then move on to other stops in the Caribbean. But Royal Caribbean said on its corporate Twitter account that the ship would turn around and sail back to Cape Liberty. \u201cThis decision was made for guests\u2019 comfort due to weather forecasts\u201d that would continue to affect the ship\u2019s itinerary, Royal Caribbean tweeted. Guests will get a full refund and a certificate toward a future cruise \u2014 passengers buzzed happily about that news onboard, Strand said.<\/p>\n
Sen. Bill Nelson has called for the National Transportation Safety Board to investigate.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe thing about this storm was that it was forecast for days. So why in the world would a cruise ship with thousands of passengers go sailing right into it?\u201d Nelson said on the Senate floor on Monday, according to a news release from his office.<\/p>\n
The National Weather Service\u2019s Ocean Prediction Center had issued an alert for a strong storm four days in advance, said Susan Buchanan with the weather service. The first warning was issued Saturday for possible hurricane-force winds in the area the ship was scheduled to sail through.<\/p>\n
Gabriella Lairson said that by early Monday morning, people were out and about on the ship, checking out the minor damage in some public areas.<\/p>\n
Lairson praised the crew and captain. \u201cThey did everything they could to make us feel comfortable,\u201d she wrote to the AP on Facebook. She said she and her father were a little disappointed the ship was turning around, but she called it \u201cthe best thing for the safety of everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fellow passenger Jacob Ibrag agreed. \u201cI can\u2019t wait to get home and kiss the ground,\u201d said Ibrag, who saw water flowing down stairs and helped some people who were stuck in an elevator Sunday as he made his way to his cabin per the captain\u2019s orders. The 25-year-old from Queens, New York, then stayed in his cabin until noon Monday, at one point filling his backpack with essentials in case of an evacuation.<\/p>\n
Robert Huschka, the executive editor of the Detroit Free Press, was onboard and started tweeting when the inclement weather hit. He told USA Today that the ordeal was \u201ctruly terrifying.\u201d He described the cruise director nervously giving updates, and he later posted photos of shattered glass panels on a pool deck.<\/p>\n
But Huschka was among passengers who found a silver lining in the storm. On Monday, he posted: \u201cThe good news? They never lost the Super Bowl signal. Perfect TV picture throughout storm!\u201d<\/p>\n
Royal Caribbean gave guests free Internet access and a complimentary cocktail hour, spokeswoman Cynthia Martinez said in an email. \u201cFeeling better after the happy hour they just put on for the guests,\u201d Sam Lairson joked.<\/p>\n
And despite her own worries, Strand said her daughter, 8-month-old Alexa, slept through the entire episode.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
Associated Press writers Janelle Cogan in Atlanta and Tamara Lush in Tampa, Florida, contributed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MIAMI (AP) \u2014 A Royal Caribbean cruise ship ran into high winds and rough seas in the Atlantic Ocean on Sunday, forcing frightened passengers into their cabins overnight as their belongings flew about, waves rose as high as 30 feet, and winds howled outside. The cruise line says that although no one was injured and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[65],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-8395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-nation-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8395"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8395\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8395"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=8395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}