Cruise Ship Cancels Itinerary After Passenger Suffers Medical Emergency, Returns To Port

Carnival Dream, the lead ship of the Dream-class of cruise ships operated by Carnival Cruise Line based in Florida, has arrived back at her homeport of Galveston, Texas due to an onboard medical emergency involving one passenger. Carnival Cruise Line is the world's largest cruise line based on passengers carried annually, and total number of ships in fleet.

Carnival Dream was en route to the tourist island of Cozumel off the eastern coast of Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula when the medical emergency occurred. She was on a five-day western Caribbean voyage that departed Galveston on January 6.

Carnival Cruise Line said they have contacted the Fleet Operations Center in Miami. However, due to strong winds, air evacuation was not possible. A special debarkation will take place for the guest that suffered from the medical emergency.

"We do hope the person makes a full recoverym" said the cruise line in a statement.

“We left yesterday on time. About 2 am they had a medical response team call to a Cabin. And then today at about 10 am it was announced we are heading back to Galveston today for medical embarkation. The captain said it was too windy for a helicopter," one passenger told Cruise Hive.

Without the medical emergency, Carnival Dream would still be sailing towards the first port of call of Cozumel. The scheduled call to Cozumel on January 8 has been canceled and instead the Carnival Dream will have a full day at sea.

Due to the disappointment of missing Cozumel, Carnival is providing a 20 percent future cruise credit. Passengers are also having any pre-booked shore excursions through the cruise line refunded along with any port fees and taxes.

At 128,250 gross tons, Carnival Dream is the largest ship yet built for Carnival Cruise Line. She has a guest capacity of 3,646 at double occupancy. She has two sister ships: Carnival Magic and Carnival Breeze.

This is the second incident in recent months involving Carnival Dream. In October 2019, a man leapt overboard by jumping off his stateroom balcony a few hours after the ship departed Galveston. Carnival said "the ship's command promptly began search and rescue procedures, returned to the area near where the incident occurred and notified the US Coast Guard."

The search for the missing passenger was called off by the U.S. Coast Guard after 586 square miles was covered by the search in 48 hours.