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Several Minnesotans are among the passengers on a Royal Caribbean ship hit by a huge storm on a cruise between New Jersey and Port Canaveral in Florida.


Tarra Grammenos was working as a sign language interpreter on the Anthem of the Seas, a nearly quarter-mile long cruise ship launched last year. There are more than 4,000 passengers and around 1,000 staff and crew. 


The St. Paul woman said she was traveling with three other Minnesotans for Passages Deaf Travel and has been on cruise ships before — although not like this one.


"One of the scariest moments in my life," she wrote on Facebook, as the ship headed back to port.


Royal Caribbean released a statement about the storm, saying its ship "experienced extreme wind and sea conditions, with wind speeds higher than what was forecasted."


Grammenos spoke about the experience on board via Facebook, while still at sea. 


She recalled that on Sunday as the storm caused the ship to sway, the staff and crew told passengers to use walls and guard rails to help steady themselves.


"Everyone was out and about until about 3:30," Grammenos said. "The rocking was swaying side to side so bad: things were falling from the walls, glasses and bottles were falling and the captain announced over the speaker that we all needed to get to our rooms as soon as possible. That's when the panic set in."


She said the captain made regular shipwide announcements, and said at several points that the wind had reached 150 mph outside. She said the ship's decks tilted sometimes more than 45 degrees and that she was unable to stand during much of Sunday night.


She said the boat rolled through the storm for 12 hours, "and there were times we thought we were going to flip, but we didn't."


Grammenos said the crew worked to keep the passengers as calm and comfortable as conditions would allow for the next 12 hours, including free access to the food and liquor in the minibars in their rooms, and allowing them to watch free movies in their rooms. The staff went door to door dropping off food, since passengers couldn't leave their cabins to reach the ship's dining areas.


"They took very good care of us," Grammenos said, although she added the experience was difficult for the dozens of deaf passengers she was traveling with. The crew communicated with people aboard over loudspeakers, which deaf passengers couldn't hear.


Grammenos said Royal Caribbean has an on-board smart phone app that allowed passengers to text each other for information, which helped. "That's one thing lacking on all cruise ships — access to the announcements," Grammenos said. "There needs to be someone doing real-time captioning of the announcements as they're happening and play them on TV."


Royal Caribbean said on Twitter Monday that its ship "sustained some damage to public areas & cabins, but ship remains seaworthy. Four injuries have been reported, none severe."


Grammenos said the captain described the storm in detail. "He said it was the worst storm he'd ever experienced."


The company said on Twitter that guests will receive a full refund and a future cruise certificate for half of the cruise fare paid.


The ship's experience prompted some, even some on board, to take to Facebook and Twitter to take issue with the cruise line's decision to put the boat to sea with such a storm looming.


The National Weather Service says its Ocean Prediction Center had issued an alert for a strong storm four days in advance of the cruise ship running into trouble in the Atlantic. 
 

Weather service spokesperson Susan Buchanan said the forecast for the Hatteras Canyon to Cape Fear area called for storm-force winds as early as Wednesday morning, with winds for Sunday expected to be about 51-63 mph and seas to 20 feet. 
 

The first official warning for the area the ship was scheduled to sail through came Saturday afternoon. It included a warning for hurricane-force winds, in effect through Sunday night.


The company said it knew of the oncoming weather, but hadn't anticipated its strength. The ship "encountered an unexpectedly severe storm off Cape Hatteras," the company said in a statement. 


Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., on Monday called on the National Transportation Safety Board to investigate the circumstances surrounding the cruise ship's decision to sail into the storm.


Anthem of the Seas turned around to return to New Jersey. It is expected to dock on Wednesday.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Disasters

Tim Nelson

Author

Tarra Grammenos said as conditions worsened, passengers were told to hold railings and walls, then to stay in their rooms.

'One of the scariest moments in my life': Minnesotan describes storm-tossed cruise

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