Severe East Coast Storm Causes Flooding on Carnival Ship
It’s raining, it’s pouring, it’s happening inside the cruise ship?
This is exactly what passengers experienced earlier this week when the 110,000 gross-ton Carnival Conquest was hit by severe weather.
The 1,000-mile-long atmospheric river, which has brought downpours to numerous southern states and multiple tornado threats, moved towards Florida and the Bahamas earlier this week.
Miami actually broke its daily rainfall record after getting 4.35 inches of rain on May 12, surpassing the previous record set in 1943. Throughout the day, there were numerous flash floods that affected low-lying areas in Miami-Dade County.
Despite this, Carnival Conquest departed from Miami on May 12, making its way to Carnival’s private island, Half Moon Cay — however, this put the ship directly in the path of the bad weather.
Debbie Smith, a current guest on this vessel, uploaded a video showing the severity of the storm while onboard.
“We left our door open on the balcony last night, because this is what it did all night,” Smith said, sharing her excitement about the weather, adding, “This is crazy — a storm at sea, but I love it.”
According to her video, the storm had started the night before and had not shown any sign of letting up. In an initial update from Smith, she shared that there was water running everywhere inside the ship, and deck 9 had flooded.
You can take a look at the video here:
She later posted a photo of the flooding in one of the dining rooms, also sharing that her balcony was flooding, nearly reaching her room.
Additionally, all of the vents on the 9th floor had to be closed, and deck 7 also became flooded.
Other passengers shared their experience on the flooding on Carnival Conquest, saying that the crew quickly stepped in to clean up the flooding and that no major damages were reported.
There were no reported delays caused by the weather, allowing for the itinerary to go on as originally planned.
The cruise line has yet to share more information, but it is likely that all outdoor activities were cancelled and the pool areas closed for the duration of the bad weather and flooding.
While the ship experienced the harsh weather while departing on Monday and while at sea on Tuesday, when it arrived in Half Moon Cay on Wednesday, May 14, it was finally sunny.
Read Also: When Is the Best Time to Cruise to the Bahamas?
The rest of the itinerary included a stop in Nassau on May 15 before disembarking in Miami on May 16.
While Carnival Conquest is an older ship, having been built in 2002, it has not previously had issues with flooding. However, Florida and the Bahamas are notorious for their extreme storms, so flooding on cruise ships in this region is not unheard of.
The Bad Weather is to Blame Again
Carnival Conquest now joins a list of vessels that have had flooding issues recently as the result of some less-than-ideal East Coast storm systems.
In late March, the 5,362-passenger Carnival Celebration was departing from PortMiami when a storm forced it to delay.
After waiting for 30 minutes, the vessel began to exit the port only to be hit even harder by a downpour of rain, causing the sail away party to be cancelled and the pool areas to flood.
Heavy Rain Hits Carnival Celebration (Credit: @
deiylydosediaries)
Thankfully, most cruise lines are aware of the weather in this region and do their best to avoid it for the passenger’s comfort and safety.
Bad weather causing flooding is not unheard of on cruises, but it does not happen often.
It is, however, the rainy season in the Bahamas — and while not every ship will encounter storms as bad as the ones Carnival Conquest or Carnival Celebration hit, some are bound to encounter heavy rain.
You know what they say, when it rains, it pours, just hopeful not inside of the cruise ship you are on.