With amenities at your fingertips and food and entertainment around the clock, it’s not hard to see the appeal of a cruise. But sometimes, when cabin fever sets in, it can make for some peculiar incidents onboard. From passenger mutinies to flooded cabins and freak weather to fires, we take you through the most unexpected events to have occurred on the high seas.
Click through the gallery to discover some of the cruise industry's most dramatic, dangerous and downright odd moments...
In June 2024, a group of women were caught on camera when a 3am argument escalated into a full-blown brawl aboard the Carnival Paradise. The incident occurred in one of the ship’s dining rooms, with the heated exchange exploding into a frenzy of chairs and punches being thrown before security intervened. The passenger who videoed the scuffle tried to diffuse the situation the only way he knew how – by suggesting they all just go and get some pizza.
To coincide with Taylor Swift’s iconic Eras tour, Royal Caribbean’s Navigator of the Seas hosted two special cruises for ‘Swifties’ in 2024. Named the ‘Bestie Cruise’, it was organised by agents at Fora Travel, who laid on an itinerary of friendship bracelet-making sessions and dance parties. In October, Marvelous Mouse Travels is also running a fan-led cruise for lovers of Tay-Tay on Royal Caribbean’s Allure of the Seas. There are set to be themed nights every evening on the four-day sailing.
YouTuber Kevin Martin recently spent 12 months living on cruise ships and travelling the world. Recounting some of the weird and wonderful moments from his year at sea, he said one of the strangest sights he saw was a passenger at the buffet filling his cargo shorts with cold prawns. With all those pockets, it must have been quite the feast...
In February 2020, the Diamond Princess became the site of the largest COVID-19 outbreak outside of China. It is well known that germs can spread quickly on cruises, and this was no exception. So when the first guests fell ill onboard, the ship was quarantined at Japan’s Port of Yokohama and all cruise-goers confined to their staterooms. Over 700 passengers ultimately tested positive for the virus and Diamond Princess remained locked down for two weeks. The coronavirus pandemic ravaged the entire cruise industry, leaving empty vessels languishing in ports all over the world.
After being on a private tour of Sao Tome and Principe that overran in March 2024, eight Norwegian Cruise Line passengers were left behind by the captain. Late to arrive back at port, they missed the last tender back to the vessel, which then continued up the west coast of Africa without them. Having met another stranded passenger, an 80-year-old woman who had been receiving hospital treatment, the group schlepped across seven different countries to catch up with the ship. They finally got back on board five days later.
In August 2018 the Norwegian Star was making its way from Croatia to Venice, when 46-year-old Kay Longstaff fell from the seventh deck of the ship. Tumbling into the sea around midnight – 60 miles (97km) off the Croatian coast – friends raised the alarm. But despite the ship doubling back, Longstaff was in the water (luckily a balmy 20°C/68°F) for 10 hours before being rescued by the Croatian coastguard. It's believed she used her yoga practice and singing to herself to avoid feeling the cold.
Also in 2018, one cruise ship heading to Melbourne had to make an emergency stop at the New South Wales port of Eden after a huge family brawl broke out. The fight had apparently been brewing for days and as many as 30 people were involved, 23 of whom were believed to be part of the same family.
Even if you're really close to land, we certainly don’t recommend jumping off a cruise ship. One man pulled this stunt from a Carnival Cruise Line ship just off Grand Turk Island in the Caribbean. After swimming to shore, police were waiting for him. They took him back to the boat, where he was ordered to disembark, ending his holiday.
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In 2016, a teenager decided to climb over the railings of the 110,000-tonne cruise liner Carnival Liberty off the coast of Texas, while a fellow passenger filmed the stunt. The clip of the foolish act was later posted to Twitter (now X) with the caption: “Craziest dude I met on my cruise."
Life at sea can be unpredictable and sometimes the weather takes a turn for the worse, which is exactly what happened on the Norwegian Breakaway on New Year’s Eve, 2017. Sailing from New York to the Bahamas, the ship encountered a 'bomb cyclone' leaving passengers terrified and with severe sea-sickness and the boat's decks covered in snow.
Speaking of sickness at sea, Royal Caribbean passengers had a horrible time when hundreds of them fell ill in 2017. Stomach and vomiting bugs aren’t uncommon on cruise ships, but it was unusual in this case because the illness was across two different ships within a few weeks of each other.
In 2013, a Carnival Cruise Line ship had to be towed into the harbour at Mobile in Alabama, after four days stranded at sea, due to an engine fire. Passengers reported vile conditions, including human waste filling bags in the gangways because the toilets were so backed up, earning the ship the nickname the 'poop cruise'.
When you book a cruise, you’re probably hoping for sunshine and calm seas, so it’s probably not a good sign if passengers are struggling to even board a boat. In 2017, Carnival Cruise Line crew had to don life jackets and help lift passengers onto the ship because the seas were so rocky. No one was harmed, but the event was filmed and the cruise line was criticised for not postponing boarding.
Passengers on a Carnival Dream cruise in May 2018 were surprised to find that their ship had flooded. A break in the fire suppression system caused 50 staterooms to flood and the water flowing down corridors was ankle-deep. Some 100 passengers were affected by the flood, receiving a full refund and a discount on their next cruise.
Travelling in serious storms happens fairly frequently but the Carnival Spirit hit such rough seas that terrified passengers thought it would capsize. Plates and glasses smashed to the floor, portholes looked like washing-machine windows, and people were throwing up as the vessel rolled in 40-foot (12m) waves and 62-miles-per-hour (100km/h) gusts.
Although cruise ships are built to survive storms, they’re still in danger of being struck by lightning. The Croisieres de France cruise liner was filmed in Genoa being struck and catching fire during torrential weather in 2015. Amazingly no one was hurt.
In 2016, passengers on a Royal Caribbean cruise were forced to cancel their holiday plans after a freak wave hit the ship, flooding cabins and breaking the windows. The Rhapsody of the Seas was sailing to Corsica when the wave hit and passengers were woken by their cabins being filled with water.
We’re all for taking safety seriously while onboard, but Cruise Critic reported in 2020 that one regular cruise-goer spotted a party of four who wore their life jackets the whole time. That might be taking things a little too far...
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One passenger onboard the Navigator of the Seas kept spotting the same woman on her trip. She was easy to identify because, for the entire journey, she wore her pyjamas and a pair of fluffy animal slippers. It brings a whole new meaning to the term cruisewear.
In 2014, the MV Lyubov Orlova cruise ship vanished at sea. She bobbed around in the water until 2017 when she returned to shore, washing up on a beach in California. The only passengers onboard? Hordes of cannibal rats...
In 2012, a passenger on the Silver Shadow watched as the huge ship collided with a container ship off the coast of Vietnam. The cargo ship reportedly nearly capsized, but the cruise ship is said to have only suffered minor dents and continued on its journey into Ha Long Bay.
A tricky manoeuvre and a tight turn isn’t easy with a cruise ship that’s 593 feet (181m) long and, after miscommunication between the Azamara Quest's crew, the ship crashed into rocks. No one was harmed but officials stated that the turn was “set up to fail".
Cruise ships don’t come into contact with many obstacles when they’re out at sea but the captain of the Disney Dream somehow managed to crash into a pier in the Bahamas, prompting a camera-wielding tourist to comment “Goofy’s driving the boat today.” No one was harmed during the incident.
In 2013, on its way to Coco Cay in the Bahamas, the 916-foot (279m) Grandeur of the Seas caught fire. Although the boat didn’t need to be evacuated, it took the crew two hours to stop the fire.
Love cats? Want to share how much you love cats with others? The Meow Meow Cruise might be all your wildest dreams come true. The strange part? There are absolutely no felines on board. Just a lot of cat people showing you their cat photos.
Friends can’t make the trip? A group of passengers on a Monarch of the Seas cruise decided to bring along a life-sized photograph of a pal who couldn't make the trip, so he could still be in all of their holiday snaps.
Service dogs aren’t unusual on cruise ships, but a service monkey? That’s a whole different ball game. Apparently one woman was spotted with her capuchin monkey who told her when to take her medication. One of the symptoms of her illness was forgetfulness and the monkey would poke her when it was time for each dose.
After the ocean liner Queen Mary 2 cancelled three of its scheduled stops in the Caribbean in January 2006, passengers threatened to mutiny. Angry at only being offered a 50% refund after spending six days of their 12-day cruise at sea, they decided that they would refuse to disembark until a better offer was made.
There's a long history of cruise lines helping in the aftermath of emergencies. After Hurricane Katrina hit America’s Gulf Coast in 2005, thousands of people were left homeless. Temporary accommodation was arranged and for many displaced New Orleans workers and their families, their new home was a Carnival Cruise Line ship.
As the Grand Princess pulled into port in Alaska in 2017, the last thing anyone was expecting to see was the tragic sight of a humpback whale lodged to its bow. It was impossible to determine whether or not the whale had already died, or if it had been killed upon impact with the ship.
One of the most important rules of being a cruise captain is that you never abandon your ship if it’s sinking – you don’t leave until every other passenger and crew member is safe. However, when the Oceanos was sinking off the coast of Durban in 1991, passengers watched their captain flee. He later said that he had left to “coordinate rescue efforts.”
The strange stuff that happens onboard isn't always limited to humans. Cunard is currently the only cruise line that allows dogs (and their feline nemeses) to travel on some transatlantic crossings on the Queen Mary 2. As you'd expect, the kennels are luxurious with treats, joys and belly rubs included for all good boys and girls.