Celebrity Edge Breaks Loose in Crowded Alaska Port During Storm
A cruise port at maximum capacity and a stormy day is exactly the time when port authorities and cruise lines cross their fingers that nothing will go wrong. But in Juneau, Alaska, these were the perfect ingredients to cause chaos.
On the afternoon of June 16, 2025, Celebrity Cruises’ Celebrity Edge broke free from her mooring lines – likely as a result of inclement weather. Video taken by witnesses shows heavy rain and wind.
“Ship broke away from [mooring] and supposedly slammed back into the dock. No communications from Celebrity whatsoever,” a current passenger reported.
Assuming this is accurate, it’s unclear what damage (if any) may have been done to the 130,818-gross ton ship and/or to the pier.
“Celebrity has an app but is not posting any communications. The bus driver to take us back to the ship has been giving us some updates,” the passenger continued.
The cruise line was likely focused on managing the situation and making announcements for the guests already onboard before updating the app – as the stormy weather and a ship becoming unexpectedly adrift is very precarious.
Four other cruise ships were also docked nearby Celebrity Edge – which could have collided with one of the other vessels – as well as a smaller ship with a capacity for only 62 guests called National Geographic Sea Lion.
The other cruise ships in Juneau included Holland America’s Eurodam and Koningsdam, Princess Cruises’ Royal Princess, and Carnival Cruise Line’s Carnival Luminosa.
In fact, video footage shows Carnival Luminosa backing up before cruise tracking data shows that the vessel was supposed to depart – which suggests that the Spirit-class ship was trying to get out of the way to avoid a possible crash.
“There was a huge extreme wind storm with hail that came in. We were on the ship next to it as it drifted towards us,” another cruiser stated without specifying their ship.
The crew members onboard were likely doing their best to keep control of Celebrity Edge, but the rough waters and wind can make navigating the port much more risky than normal – especially as they may have had to wait to figure out a contingency plan before re-docking.
Getting Back on Track
By the late afternoon, the up to 2,908 guests onboard were notified of a plan to re-dock the ship for the remainder of the port call.
“I’m on the ship. They are going to redock on the port side. First, they need to remove the snapped ropes from the water. That is what has been reported over the announcements,” said one passenger who was onboard when the cruise ship went adrift.
As this update came at around 4:20 p.m. local time and cruise tracking data shows that the Celebrity ship is expected to be in Juneau at 10 p.m., there is likely plenty of time to re-secure the vessel and allow guests to board and still make a timely departure.
The remainder of the 7-night Alaska itinerary – which embarked from Seattle, Washington, on June 13, 2025, and still has calls to make in Skagway and Victoria, B.C. – is thus far unaffected.
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Cruisers who will also be sailing on Celebrity Edge in the near future also likely do not have to worry about having the same experience – as snapping mooring lines are relatively uncommon even though it has happened to multiple ships this year.
Recently, the gangway collapsed on Holland America Line’s Westerdam in Ketchikan, Alaska, when the mooring lines broke on May 30, 2025 – though thankfully, no guests or crew were injured.
Once again, the culprit was high winds – with the Alaskan port experiencing strong wind gusts of 30 to 70 miles per hour that day.
Within the same couple of days, NCL’s Norwegian Epic and MSC Cruises’ MSC Seascape experienced their own mooring line failures in other parts of the world – with all incidents coming as a result of extreme wind.
But all that said, these ships have operated thousands of sailings where their mooring lines have done their job perfectly – making these incidents one-off events.
Celebrity Edge Breaks Loose in Crowded Alaska Port During Storm