From the Orlando Sentinel:
A video shows the newly debuted Disney Dream cruise ship came within feet of striking another ship near Port Canaveral days before its christening, but the cruise line insisted on Wednesday that the ship was never in danger of a crash. In a YouTube video shot by a passenger on the other ship, the Disney Dream is seen drifting very close to the Royal Caribbean ship the Monarch of the Seas. And on Wednesday, a spokeswoman for Royal Caribbean confirmed the near-collision.”Yes, we are aware of the incident,” Royal Caribbean spokeswoman Cynthia Martinez said. “Monarch of the Seas was anchored and the Disney ship casted off and drifted close to our vessel.”
Last week, before the video posted, officials with Disney Cruise Lines, Port Canaveral and the U.S. Coast Guard said they were unaware of any such incident. Reached Wednesday, a Disney spokeswoman said the ship was never out of control. “The ship was under the control of our captain the entire time,” spokeswoman Christi Donnan said. “There was never a safety concern.”
In the video, as the Dream approaches, a person who appears to be a Royal Caribbean employee tells the person shooting the video to stop. However, the person who posted the video online went into greater detail about the near-miss. According to the video’s description, the amateur videographer was standing on the Monarch during a safety drill when the Dream “began to turn around.”
“Mickey got closer…. and Closer…. AND CLOSER!!!!!” the descriptions says. “We were all certainly bracing for the BUMP!!!!” Martinez said Royal Caribbean does not have a policy against passengers taking photographs or filming onboard “unless the guest is in a restricted area.”
“I am not sure why the crew member would not allow guests to take pictures,” Martinez said.
Days after the near-miss, a Monarch of the Seas crew member told a Sentinel employee who was a passenger on the ship’s next voyage about the incident. The crew member said the Monarch crew was conducting a mandatory safety drill with passengers before sailing on a four-night cruise to the Bahamas when the Disney Dream, while practicing maneuvers in the harbor, came to within a couple of feet of hitting the Monarch’s side. That crew member told the Sentinel employee that it was a scary moment for passengers, many of whom believed the Dream was about to hit the Monarch.