It is always a sad and tragic situation when a cruise guest passes away, and it was doubly sad on Celebration Key on Friday, August 15, 2025 with two separate drowning incidents less than one month after the port opened.

Lifeguards and emergency personnel at Carnival Cruise Line’s private Bahamian destination responded immediately to both situations, but in each case, the guests sadly passed away.

While little information has been released at this time, the cruise line did supply a statement to Cruise Hive confirming the individual events.

“Our lifeguards and medical team responded to two separate water emergency incidents at Celebration Key on Friday — one in the lagoon and one at the beach. Sadly, both guests have passed away,” Carnival confirmed.

According to Our News Bahamas, both guests were American citizens. One was a 79-year-old man, the other a 74-year-old woman.

One guest was snorkeling from the beach, while the other passed while enjoying one of the port’s freshwater lagoons. It is not clear whether the incident happened in the family-friendly Starfish Lagoon or the more laid back, adult-friendly Oasis Lagoon.

No further information about either guest has been released, though Carnival Cruise Line and Bahamian authorities are undoubtedly conducting a full investigation into each incident.

It is possible that each drowning may have been precipitated by medical incidents, or the guests may have overreached their own capabilities while in the water.

Worth Reading: Local Authorities Provide Update on Celebration Key Incidents

Two ships, Mardi Gras and Carnival Elation, were visiting Celebration Key on Friday. The cruise line has noted that one guest was from each vessel.

“One guest was sailing with family on Mardi Gras and one guest was sailing with family on Carnival Elation. Our thoughts and prayers are with the guests and their families and our Care Team is providing assistance,” the statement read.

It is not known which guest was a passenger on which ship.

Carnival Elation is currently sailing a 4-night Bahamas itinerary from Jacksonville, Florida. The ship departed on Thursday, August 14, and was at Celebration Key from 2:30-8:30 p.m. on Friday. The private port was the ship’s first destination on the cruise.

Meanwhile, Mardi Gras is sailing a 6-night Eastern Caribbean itinerary that departed Port Canaveral on Sunday, August 10. The visit to Celebration Key from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. was the Excel-class ship’s last port for the voyage.

Both ships have continued on their sailings. Cruise Hive’s thoughts are with the family members, friends, and crews aboard both vessels at this very difficult time.

Drownings Do Happen on Cruise Vacations

These are not only drowning incidents reported recently. On Friday, August 8, an elderly Vietnamese couple tragically drowned on Milos in Greece amidst strong winds and rough waves.

Though the couple was not swimming at the time, the woman was knocked into the water by the winds and the man jumped after her in a rescue attempt. Sadly, both individuals passed.

Drownings can happen when travelers overestimate their swimming abilities or are unfamiliar with currents, waves, and other factors as they enjoy tropical destinations.

In September 2023, a 26-year-old guest drowned on MSC Ocean Cay Marine Reserve, MSC Cruises’ private island in the Bahamas. It is possible an underlying medical condition was a factor in that incident.

In May 2023, a guest aboard Carnival Splendor drowned while swimming at Mystery Island in Vanuatu. A medical incident was believed to contribute to that tragic situation as well.

Cruise guests should always be cautious about their swimming abilities in unfamiliar waters and be sure to swim with companions in case of an emergency.

Key Aspects:

• A recent Carnival Cruise Line guest made the mistake of flying to their cruise port on embarkation day.
• Due to flight delays, they missed their flight and went through 24 hours of angst before they were able to meet the ship during a port call.
• The guest shared what they learned during the stressful experience in case it might help others who find themselves in the same unfortunate situation.

If you’re thinking about flying to your cruise port on embarkation day, please heed my warning that this is never a good idea.

At best, your cruise will start with a ton of stress (which really defeats the purpose of a vacation), and at worst, you might miss your cruise ship entirely.

Unfortunately, that’s exactly what happened to one recent Carnival guest who missed embarkation for their recent British Isles sailing after flight delays ruined their attempt to fly into the port on the first day of their sailing.

“We recently got back from the British Isles cruise and due to poor planning we missed embarkation day…We foolishly tried to fly in day if and due to flight delays, our window of time between landing and the bus leaving the airport was not enough time,” they admitted on Reddit.

Commendably, the cruiser did take accountability for their mistake, before trying to educate others on what happened next should they ever find themselves in the same boat (pun intended).

This guest was able to join the unspecified Carnival ship during a later port call in Cobh-Cork, Ireland, but spent a stressful 24 hours in limbo trying to work out the details first.

As far as dealing with the cruise line, their best tips were to save proof of the flight delays and ask for a supervisor sooner than they did.

“It wasn’t until the 3rd call that I got to speak to a supervisor. They did not give me a direct phone number, but I did get an email,” they said.

“Once I got an email, communication updates became easier and whenever I spoke to a new customer service representative, I was able to say who I emailed and it was easier to get updates.”

They were ultimately very laudatory about the quality of the customer service they received from the cruise line during this stressful situation.

Missing a Cruise Ship: What You Don’t Think About

One lesson that this guest learned, which we can all take to heart, is that having physical copies of important documents like passports, cruise ship boarding passes, and visas is absolutely essential.

In the age of smartphones, many people opt for digital documents, which can lead to delays in this type of scenario.

“Make sure you have all your boarding documents and passports. 2 of the folks traveling in our party forgot their printed boarding documents and it held everything up when trying to board and it was an unnecessary stressor,” the recent guest explained.

During disembarkation, the passenger and their group also had to go through extra steps with Customs and Border Control because they didn’t go through the normal identity verification process on day one.

This means their group also was not eligible for express or self-assisted disembarkation, which is the fastest way to depart and often a must for passengers with an early flight home.

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Additionally, guests who fail to arrive at the cruise terminal on time are responsible for making their own arrangements and paying their own way if they are given the green light to meet up with their ship later.

Travel insurance may help cover the expenses depending on the policy, but guests may first need to shell out a good chunk of change for hotels and last minute transportation before being reimbursed.

Guests also cannot expect to be refunded any of their cruise fare, as their tardiness is at no fault of the cruise line.

Of course, the most cost efficient option is to never miss your cruise ship in the first place. Arriving in your port city at least one day early (unless you already live there) is always a good rule of thumb.

Key Aspects:

• Carnival’s Brand Ambassador John Heald has asked guests for feedback on some critical cruise ship terms.
• Two old school choices are the clear winners in the recent poll, but newer terms can be more descriptive.
• Cruise travel is full of unique terminology and a vocabulary all its own.

Carnival Cruise Line’s Brand Ambassador, John Heald, offers assistance to thousands guests every week through his popular Facebook page. Now, however, the tables have turned and he’d like a bit of help himself.

His call for assistance comes as a poll, where guests have to choose which side of the issue they prefer.

What is the issue at hand? Or perhaps I should say the concern, subject, topic, controversy, or contention? In fact, it’s all about what terms guests use to call different things onboard their cruise.

Two specific cruise-related vocabulary terms are at stake: restaurant or dining room and tender or water shuttle.

“I am in a slightly argumentative discussion with a senior beard, and it’s all about terminology,” Heald explained. “Please help me and then if I lose, I will bow down before The Beard.”

In his poll, Heald then outlines the options for the two different terms. First up is whether the main eatery with assigned times is a dining room or a restaurant.

In July 2024, Heald and the senior beards actually had this same debate about what to call the space.

“I am always under pressure from a few beards to stop calling the dinning room a dinning room and move to the ‘official’ term of restaurant,” he explained at the time.

In recent years, Carnival Cruise Line has worked to modernize language and now prefers to call these spaces restaurants instead. But how do guests feel today?

For the beards’ choice, “The place where guests go for dinner most nights on the ship is called a restaurant,” just 2% (roughly 890) of the more than 44,500 votes cast agree.

In contrast, 49% of votes (more than 21,700) prefer “the place where guests go for dinner most nights on the ship is called the dining room.”

Personally, I also call it the “main dining room” or “dining room.” For me, the term “restaurant” refers to the extra-charge specialty restaurants onboard, such as Fahrenheit 555 or Cucina del Capitano.

The second vocabulary word up for debate is whether “tender” or “water shuttle” is the favorite for the small boats that ferry guests from the cruise ship to ports that don’t have larger docks.

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Ports like Grand Cayman, Half Moon Cay, and Cabo San Lucas all rely on these small boats for guests to visit.

While not quite as definitive as dining room versus restaurant, the old school term “tender” is still favored with 45% (20,000 votes) of the total. Meanwhile, “water shuttle” garnered just 4% (1,800 votes) of the total.

As I’ve been cruising for more than 20 years, I’m firmly in the “tender” group. They’re such fun as a great way to visit a port and get great photos of the ship besides.

Does Terminology Matter?

While some terms, such as a preference for dining room versus restaurant, may not make much difference, other terms can be a bit confusing.

I admit, the first time I heard the term “tender,” I didn’t understand what it meant. In that case, “water shuttle” may be more helpful to new cruisers, and it is certainly more descriptive.

While it’s fairly easy to learn port and starboard as well as fore and aft, some other cruise words can be equally confusing.

For example, do you call it a “muster drill” or a “safety drill”? Or how about another one Heald has debated in recent years: are they “stateroom stewards” or “cabin attendants”?

I suppose at least if we’re not debating butter or margarine, it doesn’t really matter what we call such things – we all know what we mean!