EPPING — Tucker and Kim Nichols watched nervously as chairs and tables slid into a heap, glasses fell and shattered, and pool water flooded an elevator on the 14th deck.
The Epping couple and their family were among the 4,500 passengers aboard Royal Caribbean’s battered “Anthem of the Seas” cruise ship when it got caught in a powerful storm in the Atlantic Ocean last weekend.
With 30-foot seas and winds gusting to 180 mph, the Nicholses said they were ordered to their stateroom to ride out the nautical nightmare for nearly nine hours.
“We shut the curtain. We didn’t want to see outside. That ship was rocking so hard you would fall out of the bed,” Tucker said.
The seven-day cruise from New Jersey to the Bahamas was cut short when the storm forced the ship to turn around and return.
The ship departed last Saturday, but arrived back at the New Jersey port Wednesday night.
The Nicholses hoped to make some fun memories with their four daughters, Zoey, 6, Kaitlyn, 14, Ashley 18, and Angela, 22, and Kim’s parents, Ralph and Barbara Huckins of Sandown.
“It was just the vacation from hell,” Tucker said.
The Nicholses have been on 11 cruises and experienced rough seas before, but nothing compared to this storm.
When the ship tipped while turning around in the ferocious winds, Tucker said he “thought we were done.”
“Anthem of the Seas,” the Royal Caribbean cruise ship battered by an Atlantic storm, was met by a team of maritime investigators when it returned to its New Jersey port late on Wednesday, the U.S. Coast Guard said. (COURTESY)
At the height of the storm, the Nicholses said waves crashed over the lifeboats and flooded part of the ship.
While stuck in their rooms, the cruise ship opened up the mini bars so they had access to M&Ms, a Snickers bar, Pringles, water and soda from about 3 p.m. Sunday to 8:30 a.m. Monday.
“We wanted more than that to eat, absolutely, and I would have loved to have had food, but during that situation I don’t think too many people could have eaten a lot at that point. I couldn’t have eaten much,” Kim said.
They were stunned by what they saw when they were allowed out of their rooms after the ship made it through the storm.
They saw busted-up furniture, smashed windows, twisted pieces of metal on the floor, a satellite ripped off the ship and sitting on the deck and debris hanging from a collapsed ceiling.
Damage included a battered ceiling, top, and lots of broken glass. (Courtesy)
“There was glass everywhere, all in the pools, all in the hot tubs. There were chairs inside the pools. It was pretty crazy,” Kim said.
As frightening as the experience was, the Nicholses aren’t blaming the cruise line or its captain for what happened. They also said the crew kept them informed of what was happening throughout the ordeal.
“We don’t believe that Royal Caribbean or its captain would have put this ship into the storm on purpose. Northeastern storms just develop extremely quickly,” Tucker said.
Kim said she tried to stay calm for her kids and told them everything would be OK.
“It was really traumatic for the kids. I had a lot of faith that the ship wasn’t going to just tip over and we weren’t going to die,” she said.
Ashley said she was scared, but was calmed by the constant communication from the captain over the intercom.
“There were some points when it would tip and you didn’t think it was going to come back … It was scary in the moment,” she said.
Angela recalled breaking into tears and holding Ashley’s hand.
“When the whole ship tipped for two minutes and just stayed there it felt like it was just going to fall over,” she said.
All passengers were given a full refund and 50 percent off their next cruise.
Despite the nightmare, the Nicholses said the experience won’t stop them from cruising again. In fact, they’ve got another cruise planned in November, but they said they’ll never leave from a port in the Northeast again.
jschreiber@newstote.com
