THE words “Titanic moment” are probably the last thing you want to hear on a ship. But that’s exactly what one passenger on the Carnival Spirit cruise ship said last week, after the ship unexpectedly hit a giant iceberg.
No one was injured on board and the ship sustained no damage from the incident, which a Carnival Cruise Line spokesperson described as “a stray piece of floating ice.”
Carnival Spirit is sailing in Alaska’s Tracy Arm Fjord, a waterway south of the city of Juneau known for its spectacular beauty and floating icebergs.
Video of the incident circulated on social media, with several passengers recording the moment the ship collided with a large piece of ice.
Cassandra Goskie posted a video on TikTok in which someone can be heard saying: “If we die, it’s worth it, this is a Titanic moment,” moments before the ship hit the ice floe.
Meanwhile, passenger Saurabh Singhal described the ship stopping “for hours to assess the damage” in a post on Facebook.
“The assessment determined there was no damage to the hull and the ship is continuing its voyage with no impact to operations,” a Carnival spokesperson told CNN Travel.
Carnival Spirit completed a seven-day Alaska cruise on Tuesday without any problems, returning to Seattle, Washington. The ship then embarked on another 14-day Alaska cruise.
In 2022, Norwegian Cruise Line’s Norwegian Sun struck an iceberg while sailing off Alaska, causing damage to its starboard bow. No one was injured.
Alaska is a popular cruise destination, but there has reportedly been pushback in recent years from locals concerned about congestion in the region’s waterways.
Alaskan waters are also known as some of the most challenging for cruise ships to navigate.
“The ice is hard and can damage hulls or propellers,” Capt. John Herring, a marine pilot in southeast Alaska who rides ships in the region to help ensure safe passage, told CNN Travel in 2022. “Strong winds and currents make navigating icy waters more difficult.”
Despite these difficult conditions, “we very rarely, if ever, see problems related to sailing in icy waters,” said cruise expert Chris Gray Faust, executive editor of Cruise Critic, an online cruise review site and community.
“Modern cruise ships are purpose-built to navigate a variety of waters,” Gray Faust tells CNN Travel. “The ships that sail in Alaska are not only able to survive the icy waters, they also have experienced captains who are familiar with the landscape, which is why the reported incidents have not caused problems for the ship or its voyage.” (CNN/Z-3)
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