Royal Caribbean’s Oasis of the Seas reversed course back to the Bahamas after two passengers required urgent medical attention while the ship was sailing to New Jersey. No reports indicate the two medical emergencies are connected.
The first medical emergency developed early Friday morning, September 18, while the Oasis of the Seas was on the final stretch of its seven night Bahamian voyage. Ship tracking data shows the ship turning at around 2:30 a.m. while the ship was off the northeast coast of the Abaco Islands. The ship sailed towards Nassau, the capital of the Bahamas, which had the nearest hospital.
During the diversion, a second passenger identified as a 7-year-old child required emergency medical care. Tracking data shows the ship arrived in Nassau roughly seven and a half hours later at 10:00 a.m. Friday morning.
Royal Caribbean confirmed the two medical emergencies in a letter given to guests onboard, according to a Facebook post shared by a passenger. The cruise line told guests that its medical staff had determined that “two of our guests needed urgent medical attention,” and that it “successfully debarked” them so they could receive additional medical care.
Why the passengers were not medically evacuated by helicopter is unclear. Oasis of the Seas instead diverted for nearly eight hours before reaching Nassau, where both passengers were taken ashore for additional medical care. Helicopter evacuations from cruise ships are relatively common in the Caribbean and Central America.
Cruise passengers often face a difficult dilemma when they are seriously sick or injured at sea. Medical care aboard cruise ships is limited, and ships may be hundreds of miles from a hospital and even farther from a major U.S. medical center. Depending on the circumstances, passengers may receive care aboard the ship, be taken ashore for treatment at a local hospital, or require a medical evacuation, which can be extremely expensive.
Royal Caribbean has not publicly provided any details or updates on either passenger’s condition.
The Oasis of the Seas ultimately returned to New Jersey on September 20, approximately eight hours late. The delay carried over into the ship’s next voyage and resulted in the cancellation of its September 22 call at Port Canaveral.