Four passengers were injured during the event, though none seriously, according to spokeswoman Cynthia Martinez.
Passengers tweeting from Anthem describe hurricane-force winds and giant waves that rocked the vessel wildly, overturning furniture, smashing glassware and collapsing part of a ceiling in a public corridor. Photos posted by passengers show damage in several areas.
“I’m not going to lie: It was truly terrifying,” said Robert Huschka, executive editor of the Detroit Free Press. Huschka is on board the ship with his family.“A very nervous cruise director kept coming on. He didn’t sound very reassuring. He said, ‘We are okay,’” Huschka said. Huschka said the captain of the vessel made an announcement at about 3.30pm on Sunday as the storm raged that passengers should remain in their cabins, saying the strength of the storm had surprised everyone and that the ship would hold position and try to turn into it. The captain then was unavailable for announcements as the storm continued into the evening.
The situation began to improve late in the evening, and by 1am on Monday the ship had resumed sailing toward Florida.
“The captain told everyone this morning that the day was among his most challenging - if not his most challenging - at sea,” Huschka said.
A buoy in the Atlantic about 400km south of Cape Hatteras reported wave heights of nine metres and wind gusts of 118km/h late Sunday, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. A of the wind gauge on Anthem cabin TVs posted by a passenger on Twitter shows wind speeds as high as 106 knots, the equivalent of 195km/h per hour.
A passenger posting on a message board at CruiseCritic.com reported waves crashing as high as the Deck 5 promenade, with water seeping into the ship through the doorways before watertight doors were closed. Another passenger posting at CruiseCritic.com said a large white structure broke off the top of the vessel and landed in a pool.
Still, Huschka said most of the damage to the ship appeared superficial, with “lots of broken glass, especially on the pool deck.” Water came in through some balcony doors and now is being mopped up or dried with blowers, he added.
In its statement, Royal Caribbean said there had been no reports of serious injuries on Anthem, and the damages to public areas and cabins “in no way affect the sea worthiness of the ship.”
Royal Caribbean said in its statement that the wind speeds that Anthem experienced on Sunday were “higher than what was forecasted” for the area. But federal forecasters from NOAA’s Ocean Prediction Center had warned of a strong storm in the Atlantic for four days before Sunday.
The centre’s first alert was issued on Friday at 1pm for “developing hurricane-force winds” for Sunday, according to NOAA spokeswoman Susan Buchanan.
The first official warning product was included in the offshore waters forecast at 3:34 p.m. on Saturday, Buchanan said. It included a warning for hurricane-force winds increasing to 63-75 mph, in effect through Sunday night.
Anthem is carrying 4,529 passengers and 1,616 crew, according to a spokeswoman. It’s on a seven-night voyage from its home base in the New York area to Florida and the Bahamas that began on Saturday.
Christened in April 2015, Anthem is tied with sister vessel Quantum of the Seas as the third largest cruise ship ever built.
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