Cruise ship out of service after striking unknown object

WPTV News coverage show ship listing heavily after its return to Freeport

NOVEMBER 3, 2014 — Celebration Cruise Line says that its one ship, Bahamas Celebration, is in dry dock and there will be no sailings for the first two weeks in November, after the ship struck an unknown object on a return cruise from the Bahamas on Halloween.

Delivered from Germany shipbuilder HDW in 1981 the ship, is listed in the Equasis data base as a Passenger/Ro-Ro cargo ship.

The Bahamas Celebration offers two night cruises to the Bahamas from West Palm Beach, FL.

On Friday, October 31, though, the ship struck an unknown object after leaving the Bahamas and was forced to return to the Bahamas.

“No passengers were ever in any danger and everything was handled in an organized and efficient way by ship, corporate, and Bahamian personnel,” Celebration Cruise Line said in a statement.

Some passengers didn’t see things quite that way.

“My trip with Bahamas celebration was a horrific cruise the ship hit ground and was sinking,” tweeted one.

“This trip has turned out to be an absolute disaster and it made us never want to go on a cruise ship again,” Joan Fischer, of Boynton Beach, Florida, told CBS Miami. “We all got stuck last night at 8 o’clock, the lights blew out (while) we were all eating. It became total chaos. There was no one able to manage what was going on. But they had us waiting for four hours this afternoon before we could get on the next boat. They gave us no food, they gave us nothing. There was chaos upstairs, chaos downstairs. There was no organization. It was the worst trip I’ve ever been on and I will never cruise again.”

After returning to Freeport, the 960 passengers were accommodated in resorts and were returned to Florida on Saturday night by Resorts World Bimini’s SuperFast ferry.