Norwegian Prima Drifts From Dock After Lines Snap ...

Norwegian Prima is having a tough begin to her January 18, 2026 departure from Port Canaveral. Hours earlier than the ship’s scheduled departure, whereas visitors had been embarking, sudden wind gusts broke the ship’s mooring strains and he or she drifted away from the dock briefly.

The incident occurred at roughly 2 p.m. on Sunday. All through the morning, winds had been comparatively regular at 5-7 miles per hour, however simply after 9 a.m., winds started to rise to 15-20 miles per hour as a chilly entrance handed by means of the area.

Simply earlier than 2 p.m., sudden gusts had been recorded as excessive as 48 mph, and even regular winds had been famous as excessive as 30-35 mph.

The strains securing the 143,535-gross-ton ship to the pier had been shortly stretched past their load-bearing capability and snapped, inflicting the ship to float barely away from the dock.

Video posted of the incident reveals the strains breaking, in addition to two tugboats in place to maneuver the cruise ship again to the dock and maintain her in place safely whereas new strains could be connected.

Visitors onboard heard “Code Echo” known as over the ship’s public tackle system. It is a standard emergency code used to alert crew members to excessive winds impacting ship operations, together with when a vessel could start to float.

At no time was Norwegian Prima utterly free or at risk, and no damages or accidents have been reported from the incident.

“Issues appear to be good now, however that was a enjoyable begin earlier than we truly get began!” mentioned one guest on Reddit concerning the state of affairs.

Whereas Norwegian Prima was shortly introduced again beneath management and safely secured, there have been temporary interruptions to the embarkation course of and baggage supply operations till the state of affairs was resolved.

Itinerary Not Impacted

Norwegian Prima was docked at Cruise Terminal 5 on the west finish of Port Canaveral on Sunday. Whereas the strains breaking induced a slight disruption to operations on the time, the cruise ship was nonetheless anticipated to depart as deliberate at 6 p.m.

The itinerary is a 7-night Caribbean voyage, with calls to Nice Stirrup Cay within the Bahamas; Montego Bay, Jamaica; Grand Cayman; and Cozumel, Mexico earlier than the ship returns to central Florida on Sunday, January 25.

Presently, there isn’t a anticipated adjustment to the itinerary and regardless of the temporary interlude of robust winds, Norwegian Prima ought to have pretty easy crusing for her voyage.

The ship stays homeported from Port Canaveral by means of mid-November, providing quite a lot of Caribbean itineraries. In November, she’s going to reposition to San Juan for various sailings, together with Japanese Caribbean routes and visits to Barbados.

In April 2027, Norwegian Prima will head to Europe for the summer season season earlier than returning to San Juan that autumn.

Not the First Line Breaks for Norwegian Prima

This incident isn’t the primary time Norwegian Prima has damaged free from mooring strains. Actually, that is the third time such an incident has occurred with the primary ship within the modern Prima class.

In July 2023, Norwegian Prima broke free of her moorings while docked in Zeebrugge, Belgium for a port go to. In that incident, each her ahead and aft gangways had been dragged into the water, however nobody was injured. Visitors had been held ashore briefly whereas new gangways had been connected after the ship was introduced again right into a safe place.

The ship broke free from her moorings a second time during embarkation in Galveston in January 2024. Simply as with at present’s incident, robust wind gusts broke the strains and the ship was briefly free on the dock earlier than being firmly resecured.

It might appear regarding that that is the third time the strains have snapped for Norwegian Prima in her comparatively brief service life, because the ship solely started crusing in September 2022.

At 20 decks excessive (16 of these decks accessible to passengers), Norwegian Prima has a proportionally tall profile that may be notably prone to excessive winds. It is very important be aware, nevertheless, that the ship has take pleasure in many incident-free sailings and that any cruise ship could possibly be topic to uncommon circumstances that trigger strains to snap.

It’s a credit score to the crew members in addition to the quick actions of port staff in any respect three areas that none of those incidents led to any accidents and Norwegian Prima was in a position to safely set sail as deliberate.