Carnival cruise ship hosting music festival at sea hits Jamaica pier, leaving passengers stuck on land
Passengers on a music festival at sea had the blues when severe weather caused their Carnival cruise ship to hit a pier in Jamaica, damaging it so badly that cruisegoers were stuck on the island a lot longer than planned.
The incident impacted the Carnival Magic ship at 11 a.m. Tuesday in Ocho Rios, reports said.
“Strong winds and swells caused the pier fender to collapse under pressure,” a Carnival spokesman told USA Today.
The ship had to leave the area where it was docked, dock at another nearby pier later on and guests who were ashore were then able to rejoin the ship, the spokesman said.
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The trip was part of what was billed as ShipRocked 2024, a music festival at sea consisting of “six terrifying nights of music & madness,” according to its website. As it turned out, they got more madness than they bargained for.
“We’re watching our ship sail off into the rainstorm. We’re like — nobody knew what was happening,” passenger Dyllon Price told FOX 35 Orlando.
Passenger Adam Muddleton said the storm caused him and his group to be stuck on the Caribbean island for nearly 12 hours.
“We had a couple thousand people just out in a field in the pouring rain and no shelter, no food, no drinks. I think there was one toilet,” Middleton told FOX 35.
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The ship left Miami on Sunday, according to CruiseMapper. It was scheduled to be in Ocho Rios from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. local time Tuesday.
Passengers told FOX 35 the mishap caused them to spend another day in Jamaica, and crews spent Wednesday inspecting the damage.
“I don’t think we ever should have docked,” Price said. “It might have been a bummer to skip Jamaica, but not as bad as it was to be stuck on the island for 12 hours.”
No injuries were reported, and the ship remained operational.