A Royal Caribbean cruise ship bound for Cancun veered off course and traveled 500 miles up the Mississippi River to Helena. The Majesty of the Sea, an 880 foot long ocean liner left Miami last week and made a scheduled stop in Key West before setting its course across The Gulf of Mexico for Cancun.
A spokesperson for Royal Caribbean said the ship is one of the older ships in their fleet and had reported malfunctioning navigation and GPS equipment on a previous voyage, but technicians had corrected the problem before clearing the ocean liner for the Cancun cruise.
The ship encountered a storm en route to Cancun, which is on Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, and entered the mouth of the Mississippi River Monday night. Thick fog and torrential rain may have played a role as well as darkness and malfunctioning equipment. In addition to that, the captain and crew were on their first Miami to Cancun voyage. The previous crew had made the trip numerous times but had all fallen ill with norovirus. The current crew was a last-minute replacement.
“We woke up Tuesday morning ready to hit the beach, but it looked awful muddy,” said Edith Goldstein, who was on her first cruise. “We got off the ship and looked around, but it didn’t look like Mexico with all those old pre-Civil War houses and stuff.”
Many of the 2,200 passengers on board had never taken a cruise before. When several of them complained about the lack of Mexican cuisine, the cruise line rented buses to shuttle them to the nearest Taco Bell. “There wasn’t enough room in there for all of us, so we had to take our lunch back to the ship,” added Goldstein.
At 880 feet the Majesty of the Sea is slightly smaller than the average Royal Caribbean cruise liner. It typically is used for short voyages around the Gulf of Mexico. Helena Harbor isn’t large enough for the vessel to turn around and will be at its current location until a tow boat arrives to help with backing it into the river so it can head south toward the gulf.
It was unclear as to whether the cruise ship would continue to Cancun or return to Miami. The debacle will likely mean a three-day detour for the cruise, which was originally intended to last nine days total. Royal Caribbean management has yet to determine what kind of compensation, if any, will be offered to passengers.
A spokesperson for the cruise line commented, “Not everybody gets a cruise up the Mississippi River thrown in. But we won’t charge them extra for it.”
22 Comments
Everybody knows Helena is a tourist destination.
Lordy, I bet they were surprised! But they at least can visit lots of historical things in Helena!
Funniest thing I have seen in awhile…we cruise Royal Caribbean a good bit, and someone did some research for this article. Keep em coming. Pat, they REALLY didn’t land at Helena. Man, I wish we could get on one there…LOL
Oh, my gosh! What a trip…if I had known this I would have taken Jewel to see it! t
These folks got 2 cruises for one!
People pay good money just to cruise The MISS. aboard a Paddle Boat. What a trip — TWO FOR ONE. After a guided tour of Helena, a play at the tables in West Helena, a wee bit of stake money, a lot of free booze and you will have happy campers.
Leslie Chin…I did look….I just thought it was hilarious and I needed a good laugh today! Guess I should have clarified that before I posted….LOL
this is fake….no way a cruse ship could make it all the way to helena…could not make it past the hughey P. long bridge
no way it made it under bridge in nola
Even if it’s BS, it’s obvious this guy has never been to Helena. I live here!
You can’t see any pre-Civil War houses from the river and there’s no Taco Bell unless you drive about 50 miles north to Marianna or west to Brinkley.
Can someone please explain why this site exists other than to be some skewed blog for a guy who obviously thinks this crap serves a purpose?
Even if it’s BS, it’s obvious this guy has never been to Helena. I live here!
You can’t see any pre-Civil War houses from the river and there’s no Taco Bell unless you drive about 50 miles north to Marianna or west to Brinkley.
Can someone please explain why this site exists other than to be some skewed blog for a guy who obviously thinks this crap serves a purpose?
Mississippi River isn’t wide enough to turn that ship around!!
Closest Taco Bell is in Marianna !!!! That’s a long way to go for .99 cent tacos! Wonder what an excursion like that cost?
Actually, one of the most amusing things about this is the number of folks who did not recognize satire. A fun story.
What kind of compensation? Well! the passengers should be happy to pay a fee for the side trip!
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Where ain’t no way the ship made it up the Mississippi this is a joke
Now that is just funny!
Really?? does The Capt. have a license? Not knowing North from South??
There is also some ocean front property for sale at For Sale: 24 Holiday Hills Dr. Helena, AR 72342.you buy this you get a free cruise.
The old Mississippi isn’t deep enough….This a funny story…..shame they didn’t get up to St, louis and tie up to arch. Any further they might have an ice breaker to lead the way….
Good story but that what it is. The ship would never got pass New Oleans because I’ve seen the turn one around at the twin bridges. But just saying they had no barriers to stop them and the river was deep enough. There is one thing that would and been glad to do it. USA Coast Grard. That would of been a large feather in their hat.
MY dad was a great captian of the river and i worked on the mississippi and theres no way a boat could do this the river is not deep enough