Cruise Ship Enjoyed By Texas Guests Suffers Halloween Horror

Have you ever been on vacation during a "holiday"? I know a lot of Texas folks like to get out of town when everyone else is coming to their town. For example, some folks in Austin might want to avoid the chaos of SXSW, and folks in the Dallas area might want to skip town when the State Fair of Texas is happening. And Lord knows that rattlesnake thing in Big Spring will wear you out.

Many people use holidays such as Mardi Gras, Christmas, Thanksgiving, and even Halloween as a reason to book passage on cruise ships. I personally have never been on an ocean-going vessel over a major holiday but I do know they spruce up the ships quite nicely for Christmas so I can only imagine what the guest relations teams might come up with for Halloween. 

Many Texas cruisers are familiar with the Royal Caribbean Ship the Symphony of the Seas. It's one of the largest cruise ships currently sailing and just happened to be underway on a seven-night Caribbean itinerary out of New Jersey during Halloween week.

I am sure cruise guests were elated to have the opportunity to celebrate All Hallows Eve on such a luxurious ship. From what we understand the vessel's Royal Promenade was decorated to the hilt for Halloween but what unfolded as the special effects kicked in was probably not what the ship's party planners actually planned.

Based on what we can see in the video posted by YouTuber Tracy Mayer the dry ice used to create a spooky ambience on the ship tripped vessels smoke detectors. If you're not familiar with cruise ships, fire is a big deal, so the fire mitigation system connected to those smoke detectors went into full action.

According to witness accounts the Royal Promenade was suddenly filling with water as the ship's fire suppression system closed fire and watertight doors. Many guests became trapped in the confusion. From what we understand there were no injuries but there were quite a few upset passengers.

The Royal Caribbean crew had the entire debacle cleaned up and cleared out of the way by the time guests awoke the next day. Needless to say, there will likely be changes made for next year's Halloween cruises.