Don’t panic.
Take three deep breaths.
Orient to your surroundings.
Use Your Phone to Get Help
Do you have your phone?
If not, see the next section.
If yes, turn on roaming and dial 911. It will probably give you a recording that says to dial 911 from the ship’s phone (it’s ok, don’t panic), but it’s worth a shot.
If 911 doesn’t work, look on the cruise ship’s app for ways to contact the staff—can you order room service? can you send a chat? Can you submit feedback? Say that you are trapped on the balcony, give your stateroom, and ask to send help urgently.
You can also try looking up other passengers to chat with on the cruise ship app (if it allows). Search for generic names and send your urgent plea for help to anyone and everyone—few passengers check their app chats but it’s worth a shot.
After you’ve done everything you can to try to reach anyone onboard, try to text or call someone from home to let them know your situation and that you need help. They can try to contact the cruise line, but this could take a while.
If you have enough service to google the contact number for the cruise line, or your travel agent, try calling them for help.
If you don’t have a phone: don’t panic and see below.
Yell & Make Noise to Draw Attention
If you are at a dock, yell and scream for help from others down on the dock.
If you are at sea, yell and scream for help from anyone in a neighboring balcony or deck. Bang on the partition walls to grab someone’s attention with the noise.
Yell, scream, and bang the walls for help in intervals so you don’t tire yourself out too quickly or send yourself into a panic.
Avoid Desperate Measures
DO NOT TRY TO CLIMB ONTO ANOTHER BALCONY OR DECK, ESPECIALLY IF IT IS WINDY OR RAINY.
I know the risk of falling overboard seems better than waiting and freezing to death, but it’s not.
If you are out in the freezing open ocean, do whatever you can to conserve body heat while you wait for rescue. And do not panic.
For me and my husband, we were eventually rescued because Guest Services saw our desperate feedback submission. But had we been stuck out there even longer, these are the ideas that crossed my mind (please do not attempt as these risky ideas have definitely not been tested):
- Try to break down the balcony partitions with brute force… very unlikely to succeed and likely to injure ourselves or fall overboard
- Throw the balcony chairs and ottomans overboard to hopefully get someone’s attention if they’re looking out the window… but this could be dangerous, and the furniture could be blown against the ship in the wind and injure someone else
- Throw clothes or shoes overboard to try to get someone’s attention… but you risk freezing to death even faster
The Aftermath
After surviving, I asked the crew what one is supposed to do in an event like that, if one didn’t have a phone, and all they recommended was to yell and scream for help. I can confirm that that method has very slim chances of working when out at sea, especially in cold weather…especially in the Bering Sea.
I was shell shocked that there is literally nothing you can do other than hope to be rescued, and how lucky it was that we had a phone and survived, which is what compelled me to write this survival guide. I also wrote a long letter to Holland Corporate imploring them to implement safety measures such as emergency buttons on stateroom balconies for accidents such as this.
Hopefully, you can still enjoy the rest of your cruise (follow these cruise tips) after surviving something like this.
Has this ever happened to you? If so, how did you survive?
