Passengers onboard a luxury cruise ship can usually sit back and relax and make the most of their trip worry-free. But guests recently reported being instructed to close their curtains due to a potential threat.
Those onboard the Cunard Queen Anne ship were told of a unique danger during their 111-night maiden World voyage. The cruise embarked from Germany and stopped at a number of ports in Penang, Hawaii and Cape Town, no name a few, but were informed of a danger more serious than just a bout of sea sickness.
A recent TikTok video showed passengers being warned by the captain of a “heightened level of security alertness” due to “piracy” threats.
These potential threats meant that passengers were told to close their curtains and turn off their lights.
These passengers were also told to stay alert for piracy as they passed through the waters from Darwin in Australia to Manila in the Philippines through the Sulu-Celebes Sea.
Passengers were informed via a loudspeaker warning that “this area is known for piracy threats” and were thus “operating at a heightened level of security alertness during this period”.
This warning also included the overnight closing of the ship’s external promenade and the deck lights remaining on in order to “reduce the ship’s external lighting,” Mail Online reports.
The announcement also revealed only “essential” lights would stay on in the ship’s communal external areas with the external promenade closing from 9pm to 5pm for a two-day period.
The captain stated that “measures to prevent any unlikely incident have been well-planned” with the likelihood of a possible pirate attack occurring remaining “absolutely minimal”.
TikTok user @lillydapink shared the video of the Queen Anne cruise ship warning with a caption that read: “I didn’t know there were pirates around this area. We are crossing from Darwin to Manila”.
Commenters on TikTok regarding the eerie cruise warning included a mix of dismay and shock.
One user wrote: “People pay for this???? That’s crazy”, with another adding how the clip has now “unlocked a new fear”.
Although pirate attacks on cruise ships remain unlikely they’re not impossible as evident back in 2005.
This was during the attack by pirates on the luxury cruise ship Seabourn Spirit off the coast of Somalia.
The pirates were unsuccessful in boarding the cruise liner however they did fire corkcet-propelled grenades alongside machine guns being shot towards the ship’s direction.
Of the 230 pirate attacks on ships, only six of the 230 recorded attacks were against cruise ships with none of them resulting in capture.