UPDATE: Royal Caribbean has confirmed that a small fire was extinguished swiftly by the ship’s crew. This resulted in a brief power loss but did not impact the ship’s operations, and the voyage has continued as normal.
Original Details and How the Story Developed
Multiple reports have been spreading across social media about a possible explosion and fire aboard the world’s largest cruise ship, Royal Caribbean International’s Icon of the Seas.
The 248,663-gross-ton vessel is currently docked in Costa Maya, Mexico, on day four of a 7-night, Western Caribbean sailing that departed Miami, Florida on Saturday, June 22.
The ship’s visit to Costa Maya was planned for 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Tuesday, June 25. While Icon of the Seas arrived and docked as scheduled, at approximately 3 p.m., guests onboard reported a shuddering or shaking, followed by the emergency code “Bravo Bravo Bravo” over the public address system. That code is typically used to indicate a fire.
At the same time, power failed throughout the ship, including elevators, stateroom doors, pool pumps, and air conditioning. Due to the outage, guests who were off the ship were not permitted to reboard the vessel, as security and identification scanners would not be able to function.
Further details have emerged that the incident may have happened in the ship’s engine room, and different announcements mentioned “I-95” which is a nickname given to one of the main crew corridors on most vessels. Various crew members were also seen wearing fire suppression gear. All cruise ships have a fire team onboard at all times, ready to respond to any emergency as needed.
The power outage continued intermittently throughout the ship for as much as an hour, though some areas were restored in as little as 20 minutes. Some of the ongoing outages could also be due to repairs or inspections in the aftermath, as well as how emergency generators may operate in different areas.
To be clear, while crew members responded to the emergency calls according to established protocols, there was never a call for passengers to assemble at their muster stations, and there have been no reports of any injuries.
This is a developing story and updates will be made as more information is verified. No official statement has yet been released.
Satellite tracking data does show Icon of the Seas remained docked well past her time to have left Costa Maya, but there is no confirmation about whether or not the ship’s itinerary will be significantly impacted. The ship did pull away from the pier at approximately 6:30 p.m. Eastern Time.
Icon of the Seas is scheduled to visit Cozumel, Mexico on Wednesday, June 26, from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. As Cozumel is only 130 miles (210 kilometers) north-northeast of Costa Maya, there is plenty of time for the vessel to complete any necessary protocols while docked before departing for her next port of call without impacting the schedule.
The ship has already visited Roatan. After Cozumel, she will spend a full day at sea en route to CocoCay, Royal Caribbean International’s private island destination in The Bahamas for a visit on Friday, June 28. The ship will return to Miami on Saturday, June 29.
Second Power Loss in Recent Weeks
This is the second power loss reported aboard Icon of the Seas in just over a month. On Sunday, May 19, power was lost at just after 12 p.m. At that time, the ship was at sea and propulsion was obviously impacted, as well as elevators, speaker systems, lighting, and water slide pumps.
As with the Costa Maya incident, the power loss appeared to be relatively intermittent. This may have been due to the different experiences of those onboard reporting the situation, or else emergency generators may have restored some services at different times. The ship was not delayed and continued its Eastern Caribbean itinerary at that time without any schedule changes.
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