“Yesterday was my worst day at sea,” the captain’s voice shook through the speakers. "Worst" is an understatement. I thought I was going to die in my stateroom.
On February 6, I stepped foot aboard my seventh cruise on Royal Caribbean’s Anthem of the Seas. Due to past experience with Royal Caribbean, I knew this was going to be a great week, with Port Canaveral, Florida and two stops in the Bahamas on the agenda. Welcome activities commenced on the ship, and everyone started to let loose. Little did anyone know that this would turn into a vacation from hell in the next 48 hours.
The second day already started off as a rocky one—literally. The boat had been rocking since we woke up that morning. I saw that it was raining and figured that the slight rocking was a given due to the weather. After a run and some breakfast, I met up with the rest of my family to spend some time in the jacuzzi. I heard the wind against the glass panels of the pool deck. Again, this was no big deal to us. The severity of the boat moving came later when we were at a show. For the safety of the actors, the show was canceled 20 minutes in. I didn’t see why until I got out of my seat and realized that I could barely stand because the boat felt slanted sideways. We went up to the 14th deck to try to not feel the boat move as much. This was around three in the afternoon.
Up on the pool deck, I started getting worried. People started holding onto the wall to walk. My family kept reassuring me that everything was OK. Even the captain's voice came over the speakers to tell everyone that it was OK. Not even five minutes later, I guess even the captain changed his mind because that’s when the crew ordered everyone to seek safety in their staterooms.
I was on the 14th deck, and my room was on the ninth. As I got up and went into the hallway and saw everyone panicking, I started having a panic attack myself and couldn’t breathe or move. It was scene right out of "Titanic." My mom was freaking out because not only was I not OK, but my sister was alone in the stateroom and her mother-in-law, who is elderly, was also having a panic attack. Actually, a lot of people were having panic attacks—even the cruise crew. My aunt was unsuccessfully trying to calm me down when a woman, whom I will dub my guardian angel, came up to me and started having a conversation with me. She was trying to distract me from the chaos while walking me down to the ninth deck regardless of living on the 13th. Despite being a complete stranger, she was able to get me calm enough to start breathing normally again. Amongst the chaos, I never got her name, but I am really thankful for her. It was now about four in the afternoon.
In the room, things weren’t much better. Our belongings that were on the vanity and in the bathroom could be heard sliding back and forth. Not only that but everything also started sliding and crashing to the floor. The tipping of the boat made my mom and me slide out of bed onto the floor. I was clutching my mattress for dear life and desperately waiting for WiFi signal to text my dad and boyfriend because I genuinely thought that it was the end; I thought I was going to die. My only distraction from the rocking and creaking of the ship was sleep at this point. The storm subsided at around two in the morning, about 12 hours after we had sought safety in our cabins. However, we weren’t allowed to leave the cabins until seven in the morning.
We later found out the boat was tipping about 30 degrees each way. The captain was trying to get the ship away from the eye of the storm, but 150-miles-per-hour winds and 30-foot waves were making that difficult. The storm was about the strength of a Category 5 hurricane. The ship suffered broken glass, a fallen ceiling, water damage, and a bunch of other superficial damage. During the storm, the captain assured us that the ship did not suffer anything other than cosmetic damage. After docking back on land three days after the storm (it only took us one day to sail into the storm), we realized we had been lied to and that the ship had suffered a mechanical issue to the propulsion. The captain also said that the strength of the storm had not been forecasted and that it took the crew by surprise. Once the storm made headline news, however, many weather outlets said that this storm was highly forecasted and that the captain should have never sailed into it.
Thankfully, only four minor injuries were reported, but there shouldn’t have been any. Royal Caribbean decided to refund each guest in full plus an additional 50 percent off what we paid for our next cruise, but was that enough? They put about six thousand people, including their crew, in a life-threatening situation. I am very thankful that the captain safely got us out that horrible situation, but a lot of lingering questions remain. I signed up for a relaxing Caribbean cruise, and instead, I almost died on vacation. Being back on land never felt so good.
