Key Points:
- Norwegian Prima broke freed from her mooring traces whereas docked in Port Canaveral on Sunday, January 18, 2026.
- Sudden wind gusts as much as 48 miles per hour contributed to the stress that snapped the ropes holding the ship.
- No accidents had been reported within the incident and the ship’s 7-night Caribbean itinerary shouldn’t be impacted.
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 friends had been embarking, sudden wind gusts broke the ship’s mooring traces and she or he 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 via 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 traces 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 exhibits the traces 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 traces could be hooked up.
Friends onboard heard “Code Echo” known as over the ship’s public handle system. It is a commonplace emergency code used to alert crew members to excessive winds impacting ship operations, together with when a vessel might start to float.
At no time was Norwegian Prima fully 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 visitor on Reddit concerning the state of affairs.
Whereas Norwegian Prima was shortly introduced again beneath management and safely secured, there have been transient 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 traces breaking brought on 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.
At the moment, there is no such thing as a anticipated adjustment to the itinerary and regardless of the transient interlude of sturdy winds, Norwegian Prima ought to have pretty clean crusing for her voyage.
The ship stays homeported from Port Canaveral via mid-November, providing a wide range 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 time season earlier than returning to San Juan that autumn.
Not the First Line Breaks for Norwegian Prima
This incident just isn’t the primary time Norwegian Prima has damaged free from mooring traces. Actually, that is the third time such an incident has occurred with the primary ship within the progressive Prima class.
In July 2023, Norwegian Prima broke freed from her moorings whereas 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. Friends had been held ashore briefly whereas new gangways had been hooked up after the ship was introduced again right into a safe place.
The ship broke free from her moorings a second time throughout embarkation in Galveston in January 2024. Simply as with at the moment’s incident, sturdy wind gusts broke the traces 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 traces 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 inclined to excessive winds. It is very important word, 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 traces to snap.
It’s a credit score to the crew members in addition to the quick actions of port staff in any respect three places that none of those incidents led to any accidents and Norwegian Prima was in a position to safely set sail as deliberate.
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