Key Aspects:
- A daughter became worried when she lost contact with her parents for several days after they embarked on a Royal Caribbean cruise.
- In an effort to confirm their safety, the daughter made a post on the Facebook page for the voyage asking if anyone could confirm their whereabouts.
- Fellow cruise guests not only confirmed her parents were safe, but continued to look out for them for the remainder of the 7-night Bahamas voyage.
Something that never ceases to impress me about the cruise community is the unwavering kindness of the people within it.
It’s this very kindness that helped one woman confirm her elderly parents’ safety and then made their 7-night Bahamas voyage extra special.
Jessica Cohn, a 42-year-old from Toronto, Ontario, Canada, loves to go on cruises with her family.
But when her parents, 76-year-old Carol Silverberg and 78-year-old Sol Silverberg embarked on Royal Caribbean’s Symphony of the Seas on August 31, 2025, their daughter was not able to join them due to scheduling conflicts.
However, the parents promised that they would keep in touch during the voyage and Cohn showed them how to connect to the onboard Wi-Fi to help them stay connected.
Royal Caribbean ships offer high speed VOOM packages that can be purchased in advance of setting sail.
But by three days into the sailing, Cohn was very worried because she hadn’t heard a peep from her vacationing parents.
By this point, the Oasis-class vessel would have begun calling on destinations like Nassau, Perfect Day at CocoCay (Royal Caribbean’s private island in the Bahamas), and Port Canaveral, Florida – where they should have had access to cell service and/or Wi-Fi.
“After three days, I hadn’t heard from them, despite my mom promising to write to let me know they were safely on board,” Cohn told PEOPLE.
“I got very worried, so I joined a Facebook group specific to their sailing and posted a photo of them, asking for anyone who saw them to please message me,” she said.
It wasn’t long before Cohn had confirmed that her parents were safe and well, essentially turning them into onboard celebrities in the process.
An Overwhelming Response
Within an hour, several people from the up to 5,518 passengers onboard sprang into action to reassure Cohn that her parents were doing just fine.
She received multiple responses in the Facebook group, as well as a photo of the happy couple smiling on the ship.
“Within an hour, I not only had a photo of them smiling on the ship, taken by a kind passenger, but replies from several people assuring me they were fine,” Cohn shared.
Later that day, a concierge onboard graciously allowed Carol Silverberg to call her daughter and personally confirm that everything was ok.
The couple, whom Cohn had said weren’t exactly known for being technologically savvy, were simply having trouble connecting to the internet.
Read Also: Do Cruise Ships Have Wi-Fi – 5 Things to Know
But even after confirming that the Silverbergs were okay, several passengers went above and beyond the line of duty to continue to keep tabs on the couple throughout the remainder of the sailing, sending Cohn updates along the way.
Another couple even befriended Cohn’s parents after recognizing the duo and joined them for a meal, which the family says made them feel like celebrities.
“In these times where many people feel so disconnected, I genuinely felt I had a community on board that ship linking me to my parents, and it was truly uplifting,” Cohn added.
Cohn’s decision to search for her parents via Facebook was ingenious, and the response renews my faith in humanity.
More From Cruise Hive
In the event you ever need to contact a loved one on a cruise ship and cannot reach them directly, the cruise lines do also provide emergency numbers and sometimes ship-specific contact numbers.
These can be found by going to the cruise lines’ websites or by calling their customer service departments.
