A grand piano slid across a stage, bottles fell and broke on the ground, and furniture drifted on the deck while people were yelling and running, according to witness videos and reports from a recent cruise.
One injured passenger received medical care in Las Palmas on Spain’s Canary Islands after the incident occurred on a Royal Caribbean Odyssey of the Seas cruise ship.
Cruise ship passengers got a scare when the vessel listed, a term used to describe when a ship leans to one side, with one man saying the theme song for the film “Titanic” had played during the ordeal.
Simon Goodenough says he was in a theatre when he heard Celine Dion’s song “My Heart Will Go On” as the cruise ship began to tilt.
“We actually thought it was part of special effects,” Goodenough told Local 10 News in South Florida as he disembarked in Miami on Sunday. “The ship started to tip to one side, all the glasses and bottles fell off the bar and we thought, ‘wow this is amazing.’ And then we realized and looked at crew’s faces that this isn’t special effects.”
Goodenough was among thousands aboard the Royal Caribbean cruise ship when it listed on Nov. 7 during its transatlantic voyage from Barcelona to Miami.
Royal Caribbean told Local 10 News the chaos resulted from “an unexpected wind gust” off the coast of Tenerife, part of Spain’s Canary Islands.
Watch the video above to see the cruise passengers’ ordeal.
With files from Local 10 News Photojournalist Sam Darbouze and Reporter Trent Kelly