Anthem of the Seas Hits Headwinds Again

Just weeks after getting caught in a fierce winter storm, the Anthem of the Seas had to cut another sailing short this weekend because of bad weather and illness.

On Saturday, Royal Caribbean tweeted that the ship was headed back to Port Liberty, NJ, in order to avoid “a severe storm [and] provide guests with a comfortable journey back home.”

#AnthemoftheSeas will head back to Cape Liberty immediately to avoid a severe storm & provide guests with a comfortable journey back home.

— RCLcorp (@RCLcorp) February 27, 2016

The ship was on its way to Barbados and St. Kitts when it made the decision to turn around because of a storm developing off of Cape Hatteras, off the coast of North Carolina. It is now expected to return to port by Wednesday morning.

The Associated Press also reported that the ship is suffering a norovirus outbreak that has affected 9 or 10 people per day (out of the 6,000 on board) and has caused staff on the ship to increase their sanitation efforts. 

The decision to turn the ship around comes just weeks after the ship made headlines when it was hit by hurricane-force winds and 30-foot waves due to a winter storm. After that incident, Royal told TMR that it was adding a new shoreside team to monitor the weather as another “double-check process.”