Carnival Cruise Passenger Wakes Up to Flooded Cabin

From the ocean itself to pools, hot tubs, waterslides, splash pads, and more, cruise ships are known for water. What is more unusual, however, is guests waking up in the middle of the night to water flooding their stateroom and pooling in the hallway outside as it rains down from the ceiling, but that is just what happened to guests aboard Carnival Radiance recently.

Videos Show Flooding on Carnival Radiance

Two new videos have been flooding – pun intended – social media showing soaked floors and the raining ceiling aboard what is reported to be Carnival Radiance.

Uploaded on TikTok by a woman named Amber, hashtags #carnivalcruise and #flooding help describe the videos, while the posted description indicates the incident occurred aboard Carnival Radiance. The hallway décor and brief glimpses of crew identification badges and nametags do indeed confirm that this was on a Carnival cruise ship.

The first video is just six seconds long and was posted in mid-October, showing the massive water accumulation in the hallway. That brief video already has more than 107,000 likes and more than 7,300 comments – many of which are making joking Titanic references.

The incident apparently happened in the early hours of October 17, 2023, the first night of a 4-night cruise out of Long Beach, California. The ship had departed Long Beach the evening before and would visit Catalina Island on October 17, followed by Ensenada, Mexico on October 18. After a day at sea, Carnival Radiance returned to Long Beach on Friday, October 20.

You can watch the footage of the flooding below:

The poster claims to have been woken up at 2 a.m. with water gushing into their stateroom, while the video clearly shows hallways and floors so soaked that the water is pooling on top of the carpet. The poster also indicates that they lost power at one point in the midst of the flooding, though the hallway clearly has power.

Both videos also clearly show water pouring from the ceiling in one section of the hallway, as if it were raining indoors on the ship.

Nearly a dozen crew members are busy in the hallway with cleanup efforts in the longer video, using specialized vacuums and squeegees to contain the deluge. A makeshift plastic curtain has also put in place to help block the area from additional water spray.

Read Also: How Do Cruise Ships Get Fresh Water?

Guests on the sailing have indicated that the incident happened on Deck 7 (Empress Deck) of the ship, but praised crew members for very quickly cleaning up the area, even in the middle of the night.

Some comments state that passengers in the affected area were moved to different staterooms, the deck smelled like sewage, and that clothes were sent to the laundry, but these reports are not confirmed.

Where Did the Water Come From?

At this time, there is no indication of what happened to create the internal flooding. As Deck 8 is also a staterooms-only deck and the incident appears confined to Deck 7, it is possible a water pipe burst, causing the immediate flooding.

It should be noted that Deck 7 is well above the waterline and there is no indication at all that there was any structural breach on the ship at any time. This appears to have been an internal issue only and has already been resolved.

No information is available about whether or not impacted guests are being compensated for any damage to their possessions or if any other compensation for the unusual circumstances has been offered.

The Sunshine-class Carnival Radiance was formerly Carnival Victory before a tremendous $200 million (USD) transformation in 2021. The 101,509-gross-ton ship can welcome 2,984 guests at double occupancy, or up to 3,873 guests when fully booked when all berths filled (not flooded).

Floods on Cruise Ships

This is not the first time a cruise ship has been inundated with unexpected water. On the maiden voyage of the world’s largest cruise ship, Royal Caribbean International’s Wonder of the Seas in March 2022, a sprinkler malfunction caused swift flooding on the Royal Promenade.

In another bizarre incident, a sudden turn caused a pool to overflow on Harmony of the Seas in January 2023, creating a six-deck waterfall in the ship’s center space.

Cruise ships occasionally have open spaces flood from less severe pool overflows, or when a vessel may be caught in a sudden, intense squall, such as happened aboard Carnival Sunshine in May 2023, which caused significant flooding, particularly in crew areas.

Water pipes can burst, drains clog, sprinklers malfunction, and other incidents happen that cause such unexpected waterlogging.

Fortunately, crews are well-trained to mitigate such incidents and quickly repair and clean up areas to restore them to dryness with a minimum of disruption. Carpeting can be swiftly replaced, huge fans are used to circulate air and speed drying, and other restoration methods are used to quickly dry ships out and ensure a fantastic, non-flooded time for guests.