MIAMI — A Royal Caribbean cruise ship ran into high winds and rough seas in the Atlantic Ocean on Sunday, forcing frightened passengers into their cabins overnight as their belongings flew about, waves rose as high as 30 feet, and winds howled outside.
The cruise line says that although no one was injured and the ship suffered only minor damage, it’s turning around and sailing back to its home port in New Jersey.
“I was shaking all over,” Shara Strand of New York City said Monday. “Panic attack, things like that . . . I’ve been on over 20 cruises, I’ve been through a hurricane, it was never like this. Never.”
Sixteen-year-old Gabriella Lairson said she and her father, Sam, could feel the ship Anthem of the Seas begin to sway by 2:30 p.m. Sunday.
The captain directed passengers to their cabins. There, the Lairsons heard glasses shatter in the bathroom, and they put their belongings in drawers and closets to prevent them from flying across the room. They ventured to the balcony, where Sam Lairson shot video of wave after wave rising below.
“The winds were so strong that I thought the phone would blow from my hands,’’ Sam Lairson, of Ocean City, N.J., said in an e-mail.
The ship — with more than 4,500 guests and 1,600 crew members — sailed Saturday from Cape Liberty, N.J. It was scheduled to arrive for a stop at Port Canaveral, Fla., at noon Monday, then move on to other stops in the Caribbean. But Royal Caribbean said on its corporate Twitter account that the ship would turn around and sail back to Cape Liberty.