Cruises are a relaxing way to see the world and get away from it all. That does not mean they are completely without risk or dangers. One unnamed woman found this out the hard way after falling off of the 10th deck. She lived to tell the tale and sustained no injuries because of it.
The incident took place on June 25, 2023, aboard Royal Caribbean’s the Mariner of the Seas at around 5:44 p.m. The vessel was about 27 nautical miles south of Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic. The woman is an American citizen and 42 years old. She is also extremely lucky.
When the crew onboard the Mariner became aware of the incident, they immediately sprung into action. Other cruisers watched for an hour as they deployed a small rescue boat and successfully found her. The woman was uninjured, but out of an abundance of caution, she was brought to a hospital for further evaluation.
Royal Caribbean spoke to Fox35 about this scary ordeal. “The ship and crew immediately reported the incident to local authorities and began searching for the guest,” a representative explained. “Thankfully, the guest was successfully recovered and was brought on board.”
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Fellow passenger Matthew Kuhn feared the worst when he saw what was going on. “After we saw the life rafts or the life preservers and the smoke — I was like, someone just died,” he recalled. Thankfully he was wrong.
Matthew was on vacation with his family. When his fellow passengers heard what was going on, they tried to do their part. “I think it was amazing to see everyone was on their balcony,” he mused. “Everyone was trying to help, and the crew was very receptive to everyone.”
The whole ship was emotionally invested in the rescue, rooting for its success from afar. “To go from, ‘She’s probably not going to be found’ — and … it’s a body recovery, versus ‘Holy crap, they found her, and she’s alive!'” Matthew stated describing the wide range of emotions he experienced that day.
“When they found her, it was like — people were relieved,” Matthew recalled. “There was just a sense of, ‘OKAY, cool. No one died on our cruise.’”
The unnamed woman beat the odds. According to a Cruise Lines International Association report only 28% of people who fall overboard are rescued. The cruise continued without her. The vessel is scheduled to return to Port Canaveral, Florida, on July 1.
