Finally Back on Land, Carnival Spirit Passengers Recount Terrifying Ordeal in Australian Storm

Sean Breslin
Published: April 23,2015



 

It was 24 hours of hell that they never want to experience again.
As a large storm raged off the coast of Sydney, Australia, 2,500 passengers aboard the Carnival Spirit were caught in the middle of it with no option but to wait for the city's harbors to be reopened. Finally, a day after their cruise was scheduled to dock in Sydney at the end of a 12-day trip, the Spirit's passengers and crew returned to dry land.
"It was very scary, there were huge seas," said Melbourne resident Diane Armstrong, in a Canberra Times report. "Somebody said they came down the stairs and there were people in the stairwell huddled together, scared out of their wits.
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The fierce storm brought intense winds at least 60 mph and huge wave swells upwards of 40 feet off the coast, giving Sydney Harbor Master Captain Phil Holiday no choice but to close the port, stranding several ship off the coast Wednesday, including the Spirit, according to Cruise Critic. For about 24 hours, the ship and its thousands of passengers and crew waited in the turbulent water, tossed back and forth by the colossal waves.
"Most people have just been vomiting for the last two days. I did a load of laundry last night and there were people coming through just washing vomit out of their clothes," reporter Rachel Browne told the Sydney Morning Herald.
Carnival representatives told CBS News there were no medical emergencies on the liner, and their ship are built to sustain Mother Nature's blows that took their best shot at the Spirit. Still, Browne said in a separate SMH report that there was damage all over the ship, as many glass windows were blown out and water was coming onboard.
While some passengers wrote off the ordeal as bad luck, others said they'll take extra measures to ensure they're never in that situation again.
"This is the last [cruise]. If I want to go on holiday I will catch a plane. I will not take another cruise, never," Sydney resident Athanasia Georgoudakis told SMH.
MORE: Storms Slam Sydney