The Party is Cancelled as Heavy Rain Floods Carnival Ship’s Deck
Did you know that Florida’s nickname is the Sunshine State?
It may seem a bit ironic considering it ranks fifth among the rainiest states in the US, averaging about 54-55 inches annually.
Florida is also a global hub for cruise lines, and its seven major ports hosted 29.8 million passengers in 2024.
While the weather frequently includes rain, thunderstorms, and high humidity, cruise lines work to ensure passengers are not affected by storms as best as possible.
Of course, Mother Nature is unpredictable, and sometimes the weather is not in the cruise lines’ favor, despite their best efforts to avoid it.
This was the case on the 5,362 passenger Carnival Celebration, which was set to depart from PortMiami on March 30, 2025, at 4 p.m. EST — that was until a storm caused delays and flooding.
While departure was only delayed roughly 30 minutes, the vessel was continuously hit by the storm while exiting the port.
It was recorded that Miami-Dade County received up to 7 inches of rain in some areas on this particular day (March 30), which accounts for 11.5% of the area’s total annual rainfall.
According to local weather reports, there were two separate flash flood warnings in effect and even a tornado warning for areas more inland. If you ever wondered if these warnings apply to cruise ships, they sure do!
Several passengers took to social media to share what was happening — and the videos revealed extensive flooding on upper decks.
TikToker deiylydosediaries posted a short clip of the water pooling near the bars, something that put a damper on the start of her cruise celebrating her 26th birthday.
Commenters asked what happened, and the TikToker replied saying, “just was raining very heavily + as the boat was rocking the water just flooded the common areas.”
Cruise influencer Dennis Post of PostCard Travel Planning was also aboard Carnival Celebration when the flooding occurred, and he shared some insight into the issues caused by the storm.
The sail away party was fully cancelled, and it was raining so hard that water from decks 17 and 18 were flooding down into the pool area on deck 16.
Post also shared that, “supervisors were on all the decks as the rain was coming inside — at deck 18 they had to block doorways with piles of towels to stop water from coming into the elevator lobby.”
The internet was fully shut down on the ship as lightning continued to strike close by. Additionally, the ship’s horn had to be sounded by the captain as they finally exited PortMiami in the low visibility conditions.
Read Also: How to Stay Safe and Enjoy Your Cruise Vacation
Of course, the crew tried to step in to help by attempting to sweep the excess water out of the guests way, but considering the rate of the rainfall this was largely unsuccessful.
In a later video shared by Post you could see just how much the vessel was rocking before it was even out in the open ocean as the water in the flooded decks sloshed around.
Out of precaution, ‘caution, wet floor signs’ were placed on affected decks to alert passengers about the pretty obvious flooding situation.
So far, no injuries or major damages have been reported. Thankfully, the weather has cleared up and the ship is currently sailing to its first stop in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic, as planned.
The rest of the cruise includes visits to San Juan, Puerto and St Thomas in the US Virgin Islands before returning to Miami on April 6, 2025 — where hopefully the ship will encounter better weather.
Is this Kind of Weather Common?
The short answer is yes, but also no!
As mentioned above, Florida can experience quite a bit of rainfall every year.
However, this weather is most common from May to mid-October, which is when the area is prone to tropical storms and hurricanes.
There were only six days in 2024 when Miami-Dade County saw more than 7 inches of rainfall, and all of them fell between June and mid-August. So yes, not uncommon — but not the typical during the spring cruising season.
Ships were aware of the unusual late March storm, but PortMiami only hosted nine cruise ships on March 30, which is very typical.
Other ships included Carnival Spirit, Carnival Magic, Symphony of the Seas, Norwegian Encore, Norwegian Escape, MSC Seaside, Scarlet Lady, and Explorer of the Seas. The majority of these ships opted to depart later on in the evening to avoid the storm.
As everyone aboard Carnival Celebration is now enjoying better weather conditions, surely they will not forget their stormy experience anytime soon.
Hopefully, the remainder of their voyage only has sunny days ahead!
The Party is Cancelled as Heavy Rain Floods Carnival Ship’s Deck