Celebrity Equinox Breaks Loose in Buenos Aires, Ca...

Superstar Equinox‘s 14-night New 12 months’s cruise is off to a rocky begin because the ship broke its mooring traces and drifted barely. In line with a post on Reddit, the cruise ship rubbed alongside a refueling tanker earlier than colliding with a close-by pier.

The incident occurred whereas the ship was in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on Saturday, December 20, 2025, as visitors have been embarking for that day’s departure.

On the time, Weather Underground notes that wind speeds out of the blue elevated to 20-25 miles per hour, with gusts measured as excessive as 37 miles per hour. All through the morning, winds had been not more than 10 miles per hour, although the climate had been stormy with ongoing rain.

With the traces damaged, Superstar Equinox‘s bow swung out and away from the pier, inflicting the aft of the ship to contact the pier. The embarkation gangway broke unfastened from the pier and dropped into the water, however remained hooked up to the ship with the unfastened finish submerged within the water.

“The gangway went off the pier and was hanging towards the ship partially submerged. Loopy state of affairs,” one visitor famous.

Because the bow swung round, the ship additionally contacted the pier on the opposite facet. A refueling vessel’s bow additionally appeared to scrape alongside Superstar Equinox‘s hull, leaving an extended scratch that visitors shared by means of social media posts.

Luckily, the ship didn’t stay adrift for lengthy. According to passengers onboard, tugboats have been shortly dispatched to deliver the 121,878-gross-ton, Solstice-class cruise ship again into docking alignment.

Because the incident occurred throughout embarkation, boarding was naturally delayed for 2-3 hours. Company have been accommodated within the cruise terminal because the ship was resecured and a brand new gangway put into place.

No accidents to visitors, crew members, or port personnel have been reported.

Superstar Equinox can welcome 2,850 visitors aboard and can also be dwelling to greater than 1,200 worldwide crew members.

Departure Delayed

Due to the delay in embarkation and to make sure the protection and seaworthiness of the vessel, Superstar Equinox didn’t depart Buenos Aires as scheduled on Saturday night.

As a substitute, the ship remained docked in a single day. Satellite tv for pc monitoring confirmed the ship in the end departed earlier than 11 a.m. native time on Sunday. Company onboard report that the primary port go to, to Montevideo, Uruguay, can also be delayed however not cancelled.

Superstar Equinox was to have been in Montevideo from 8 a.m. to five p.m. on Sunday, December 21. Buenos Aires and Montevideo are simply 125 miles aside throughout the Rio de la Plata estuary.

There are not any additional confirmed modifications to the ship’s Patagonia and Antarctica itinerary, which incorporates visits to the Falkland Islands, Cape Horn, Ushuaia, Punta Arenas, Puerto Madryn, and Punta del Este.

Whereas this specific voyage doesn’t cross the notorious Drake Passage, it’s certain to be a memorable one for visitors nonetheless.

The ship will return to Buenos Aires on January 3, 2026 and she or he stays homeported from the capital of Argentina by means of March 2026.

At that time, she is going to return to Europe to homeport from Barcelona and Civitavecchia for the summer season within the Mediterranean, earlier than returning to South America in December 2026.

Mooring Line Incidents Not Uncommon

Whereas unusual, it’s not unparalleled for cruise ships to interrupt their mooring traces, notably throughout blustery wind circumstances when sudden gusts can put an excessive amount of pressure on the already tense ropes.

Moreover, such incidents should not distinctive to Buenos Aires and might occur wherever sturdy winds would possibly happen.

For instance, in Might 2025, MSC Seascape broke free in the Bahamas whereas the ship was docked at MSC Cruises’ non-public island vacation spot, Ocean Cay.

As with Superstar Equinox, MSC Seascape‘s gangway dropped into the water and each embarkation and debarkation have been quickly halted till the ship may very well be resecured.

Equally, MSC Sinfonia broke freed from her mooring traces in early January 2024 when gale drive winds impacted the ship in Syracuse, Italy. Luckily, the vessel was out of service on the time for upkeep and no visitor operations have been subsequently impacted.

In August 2023, Queen Mary 2 broke free of her moorings in Civitavecchia with each ahead and aft gangways collapsing, and in July 2023, Norwegian Prima snapped her traces in Zeebrugge, Belgium with the gangways additionally falling into the water.

It is rather lucky that no accidents have been reported from any of those incidents. Crew members overseeing embarkation and debarkation watch climate circumstances very fastidiously and can halt visitor actions if there seem like any security dangers.