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Royal Caribbean's 4,180-passenger Anthem of the Seas.(Photo: Simon Brooke-Webb, sbw-photo)
One of the world's newest and<span style="color: Red;">*</span>biggest cruise ships on Sunday was caught in a storm so powerful<span style="color: Red;">*</span>that the captain ordered passengers confined to their cabins for safety.
Royal Caribbean's 168,666-on<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Anthem of the Seas<span style="color: Red;">*</span>experienced "extreme wind and sea conditions" that were not expected as it was sailing south from the New York area to Port Canaveral, Fla.,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>according to a Royal Caribbean statement sent to USA TODAY.
Passengers tweeting from Anthem describe hurricane-force winds and giant waves that rocked the vessel wildly, overturning<span style="color: Red;">*</span>furniture, smashing<span style="color: Red;">*</span>glassware and collapsing<span style="color: Red;">*</span>part of a ceiling in a public corridor. Photos posted by passengers show damage to several areas.
"I'm not going to lie:<span style="color: Red;">*</span>It was truly terrifying," said Robert Huschka, executive editor of the Detroit Free Press, part of the USA TODAY Network, who is on board the ship with his family.
Huschka said the captain of the vessel made an announcement at about<span style="color: Red;">*</span>3:30 PM on Sunday that passengers should remain in their cabins, saying the<span style="color: Red;">*</span>strength of the storm had surprised everyone and that the ship would hold position and try to turn into it.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>The captain then was unavailable for announcements as the storm raged into the evening.
"A very nervous cruise director kept coming on. He didn't sound very reassuring. He said, 'We are okay,'" Huschka said.
The situation began to improve late in the evening, and by 1:00 AM on Monday the ship had resumed sailing toward Florida.
"The captain told everyone this morning that the day was among his most challenging --<span style="color: Red;">*</span>if not his most challenging --<span style="color: Red;">*</span>at sea," Huschka said.
Huschka says most of the damage to the ship appears<span style="color: Red;">*</span>superficial, with "lots of broken glass, especially on the pool deck." <span style="color: Red;">*</span>Water came in through some balcony doors and now is being mopped up or dried with blowers, he added.
One thing that was unaffected by the storm: The TV signal bringing in the Super Bowl.<span style="color: Red;">*</span><span style="color: Red;">*</span>It was a "perfect picture during the height of the storm," Huschka said. "That certainly improved my mood."
In its statement, Royal Caribbean said<span style="color: Red;">*</span>there had<span style="color: Red;">*</span>been no reports of serious injuries, and the damage<span style="color: Red;">*</span>to public areas and cabins "in no way affect the sea worthiness of the ship."
Passengers posting on message boards at CruiseCritic.com<span style="color: Red;">*</span>report waves crashing as high as the<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Deck 5 promenade<span style="color: Red;">*</span>with<span style="color: Red;">*</span>water seeping into the ship through the doorways<span style="color: Red;">*</span>before watertight doors were closed, and a large white structure broke off the top of the vessel and landed in a pool. A screen of the wind gauge on cabin TVs that a passenger posted on Twitter shows wind speeds<span style="color: Red;">*</span>of 90 knots, the equivalent of 103 miles per hour.
A buoy in the Atlantic about 260 miles south of Cape Hatteras reported wave heights of 30 feet and wind gusts of 74 mph late Sunday, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Anthem is carrying 4,529 passengers and 1,616 crew, according to a spokeswoman. It's on a seven-night voyage from its home base in the New York area to Florida and the Bahamas that began on Saturday.<span style="color: Red;">*</span><span style="color: Red;">*</span>
Christened in April 2015, Anthem<span style="color: Red;">*</span>is<span style="color: Red;">*</span>the third largest cruise ship ever built.
USA TODAY Cruise was among a handful of U.S. media outlets to get early access to Anthem before its christening in Southampton, England. For our deck-by-deck tour of the vessel's interior areas and cabins, scroll through the carousels below.
Contributing: Doyle Rice
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