Despite Pirate Worries, Carnival Will Always Rescue Refugees
It’s common knowledge that cruise lines have a legal obligation to render aid to refugees while at sea. Even if it wasn’t mandated, offering help is the moral and ethical thing to do – and could mean the difference between life and death.
Under Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS), which is a set of international maritime standards, cruise ships must offer assistance as quickly as possible to other crafts that appear to be in danger.
However, one recent guest of Carnival Paradise has complained that rescuing refugees might put the passengers onboard at risk in the event that the strangers aren’t as innocent as may appear.
“I read that passengers onboard the Queen Anne ship were told to take precautionary measures like turning off their cabin lights and closing their curtains due to the heightened risk of pirates,” she wrote to Carnival Ambassador John Heald on his public Facebook page.
The guest was worried that a Carnival cruise ship might accidentally rescue dangerous pirates after Cunard Line’s Queen Anne took precautions to deter pirates while sailing in the Sulu Sea in March of 2025.
But while pirate activity is still present in areas like the Philippines, the Indian Ocean, the South China Sea, and off the coast of West Africa, it’s much less common in the Western Caribbean – which is where the Fantasy-class ship has been sailing.
“Carnival keeps plucking these people from the rafts and boats and bringing them onboard. I was on Paradise when this was done…What if they had been pirates or terrorists?” she continued.
“Carnival put all their passengers at risk. Cruise on and let the Coast Guard deal with these people,” she asserted.
It’s not clear when the anonymous passenger was onboard, but the 2,124-guest Carnival Paradise most recently came to the rescue for five people in distress who were spotted on a small boat near Cuba on May 14, 2025.
And in April of 2024, the 71,925-gross ton vessel made an even bigger rescue – this time saving 27 refugees while sailing off the coast of Cuba.
Carnival Won’t Stop Rendering Aid
Understandably, Heald was rather disturbed by the cruiser’s message and her lack of empathy for people in need – and he said Carnival would continue to help people in distress.
“Let me start by saying that I had to stop myself from saying that we are all doomed that people think like this,” Heald initially responded in a video for his Facebook followers.
“We have a commitment to rescue those in peril on the sea…What I can say is we will always rescue those in peril on the sea,” Heald confirmed.
Heald also tried to provide some reassurance to the perhaps misinformed cruiser that refugees are not simply given a free cruise or unlimited access to the ship.
Instead, the crew members follow strict security protocols while also providing their unexpected passengers with food, water, and any necessary medical care.
“Let me tell you that we have the very strictest rehearsed protocols and that we never let anybody that we rescue have free roam of the ship…We will never ever do anything but make sure that they’re safe and our guests continue to be safe as well,” he said.
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And to be clear, the Queen Anne sailing that spurred the passenger to send her concern to Heald never actually encountered pirates.
Precautions were taken out of an abundance of caution because the young ship was sailing in an area where pirates were known to be active, but passengers never saw pirates or were ever in any active danger.
Additionally, the last pirate attacks on cruise ships occurred more than a decade ago and were not successful – and security measures have only improved in the time since.
Despite Pirate Worries, Carnival Will Always Rescue Refugees