“We saw the staff all in their life jackets. So we ran back in our rooms and the attendant helped find ours. We had them buried underneath the suitcases,” said Winters, a Harrison Township resident.
Then staff rushed all the guests to the deck of the Grandeur of the Seas cruise ship where they waited for four hours and watched the sun come up. While they waited, rumors started circulating that a blanket had caught fire in the state room.
The women said they knew something was wrong when they got word that the crew was waiting for the captain’s instructions regarding whether to put the guests in life boats.
“Then we knew that something was pretty serious,” Winters said.
“We didn’t know that two Carnival cruises were not far from us and that they were going to load us onto those,” said DeCamp, a Brookville resident.
“We just thought we were going to be floating around in the lifeboat out on the ocean,” Winters said.
Eventually, the women learned the problem was caused by an electrical fire. Royal Caribbean International issued a statement Wednesday that said the fire started in the mooring area in the aft of the ship.
No injuries were reported, according to the women.
“It was scary because we didn’t know what was happening,” Winters said. “You could see the crew was really concerned, but no one ever told us that there was a fire burning for two hours.”
It was so dark, the sisters didn’t notice the ship was moving the whole time the fire was being put out.
“Because the smoke was coming back into the ship, they decided to keep the boat moving, so that the smoke went off the back,” Winters said.
Eventually the sisters were allowed back into their rooms to get some sleep before the ship docked at Freeport, Bahamas around 9 a.m.
Approximately 2,200 people came off the ship, they said.
“Someone said you need to take pictures of the back of the boat. And that’s when we realized how bad it was,” DeCamp said.
Royal Caribbean paid for hotel stays and airplane flights back home for all the cruise ship guests.
The women were told that Royal Caribbean would give them a full refund of their trip and said they would gladly take advantage of the free cruise voucher that Royal Caribbean officials offered them for next year. They said they would take another Royal Caribbean cruise because they were treated so well by Royal Caribbean staff.
“From the moment it happened until the day we left, they were just incredible,” Winters said of the Royal Caribbean staff.
“They put us first. Our safety first from the moment it happened,” DeCamp said.
The ship’s staff tried to keep the guests entertained and that Royal Caribbean staff recognized the firefighters onboard, the women said.
“We were just very very pleased with the way we were treated and the whole situation was handled,” Winters said. “We thought they did an excellent job.”
The cruise line’s statement said the cruise ship’s next six sailings were canceled.
Grandeur of the Seas is expected to return to service in July.
“We just thought it would be a great adventure,” Winters said.
“And it was,” DeCamp added.
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