Talking about the Titanic or any maritime disaster is often considered taboo on a cruise. It's kind of an unspoken piece of cruise ship etiquette.
Earlier this year, TikTok star Marc Sebastian, who sailed on Royal Caribbean's nine-month Ultimate World Cruise, shared in a viral video that he found out the hard way when he mentioned the Titanic during lunch with other passengers. .
“I mentioned to a whole room of people having lunch that our ship is only 100 feet longer than the Titanic, when I tell them the utensils fell out. The waiters gasped. It's silent,” Sebastian explained in the TikTok video.
Related: Video: Royal Caribbean ship saves family and dog in daring rescue
Just as airplanes have traditionally avoided showing films depicting plane crashes due to their potentially disturbing nature, cruise ships offering entertainment programming related to sinking ships is considered a big “no-no.”
But it looks like Royal Caribbean may have let a poorly chosen song slide. According to passengers aboard a recent transatlantic cruise from Barcelona to Miami on the Explorer of Seas, the ship's Celine Dion tribute show includes a performance of “My Heart Will Go On,” the theme song from the 1997 film “Titanic.” “.
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Royal Caribbean ship experiences 'Titanic' moment during 'Titanic' song
Passengers watching the performance on Explorer of the Seas on Nov. 7 reported that they thought the show had special effects when the ship suddenly tilted severely while the song was being performed on stage.
Royal Caribbean attributed the ship's abrupt listing to an unexpected gust of wind near Tenerife, Spain. One passenger was injured and required additional medical attention. The ship stopped in Las Palmas, Spain for a medical disembarkation, which caused its arrival in Miami to be delayed three days.
Related: Video: See the Explorer of the Seas when it was hit by a huge wave
Miami's WPLG Local 10 News spoke with passengers as they disembarked the ship on Sunday, November 17.
“We were in the theater and they were playing a Celine Dion song from 'Titanic' and we really thought it was part of special effects,” passenger Simon Goodenough told WPLG. “The ship started tilting to one side, all the bottles and glasses fell off the bar and we thought, wow, this is incredible! And then we realized: look at the teams' faces, this is not special effects.”
Related: Another Royal Caribbean cruise rocked by 'raging waves'
“It was like the Titanic,” another passenger, Dan So, told Kennedy News and Media. “I thought this might be the end and the boat was going to fall into the water.”
Earlier this month, Royal Caribbean's Odyssey of the Seas also hit rough seas on a liner sailing from Rome to New York. Passengers aboard that ship were fortunate to receive advance warning from the ship's captain about the bad weather. He told the passengers to remain seated because the ship would change course and there was a possibility of it listing.
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