Luxury Cruising Editorial

An expedition cruise aboard Coral Adventurer has been disrupted after the ship ran aground off the east coast of Papua New Guinea, marking the latest incident in a difficult period for the vessel.

The grounding occurred early on Saturday morning, 27th December 2025, near Dreghafen Point, between Nussing Island and Kumbam Island. The location is approximately 60 miles from Lae, Papua New Guinea’s second-largest city.

Coral Adventurer had departed Cairns, Australia on Thursday, 18th December for a 12-night cruise along the Papua New Guinea coastline. Local authorities were alerted shortly before 6 am after the 5,536-gross-ton ship became stuck, with strong local currents believed to have contributed to the incident.

There are 80 passengers and 44 crew members onboard. The cruise line has confirmed that no injuries have been reported.

“All passengers and crew are safe,” a spokesperson for Coral Expeditions said.

Refloating Efforts and Inspections Underway

Plans are now in place to refloat the ship, with efforts being carefully coordinated around tidal conditions to provide natural assistance. Once the vessel is freed, a full inspection of the hull will be carried out.

“An initial inspection indicates no damage to the vessel,” Coral Expeditions said. “The incident has been reported to authorities and will undergo further official inspections to the hull and marine environment as a standard procedure.”

As part of those checks, authorities will assess the surrounding marine environment for any potential fuel leaks or damage to nearby coral reefs.

At this stage, there is no confirmed timeline for when Coral Adventurer may resume her itinerary.

The ship was scheduled to return to Cairns for disembarkation on Tuesday, 30th December. If refloating efforts are delayed or repairs are required, alternative arrangements may need to be made for guests, and future sailings could also be affected.

Incident Comes After Recent Passenger Tragedy

The grounding follows a deeply troubling incident earlier in the ship’s season. In late October, an 80-year-old passenger, Suzanne Rees, died after being left behind during a shore excursion on Lizard Island in Queensland.

Rees had been travelling solo and joined a guided hike during the first port visit of what was intended to be a 60-night circumnavigation of Australia. She reportedly separated from the group to rest and did not return to the ship before it departed.

Once her absence was discovered, Coral Adventurer returned to Lizard Island and search operations were launched. Rees was later found deceased some distance from the hiking trail.

In the aftermath, the remainder of the voyage was cancelled and guests were flown home on chartered flights. At the time, the cruise line said it could no longer deliver the experience guests had expected.

“It was increasingly apparent, given the circumstances of the last week, that we could not deliver on this promise,” said Coral Expeditions CEO Mark Fifield when confirming the cancellation.

The 18th December departure marked Coral Adventurer’s first sailing since that earlier voyage was cut short.

Why Groundings Can Happen on Expedition Cruises

While cruise ship groundings are rare, they are more likely to occur on expedition vessels that operate close to shore and in less-charted waters.

Submerged reefs, shifting sandbanks and changing currents can all pose navigational challenges, particularly in remote regions. Smaller ships may also be more vulnerable to strong currents or weather conditions than larger cruise vessels.

A similar incident occurred in September 2023, when the expedition ship Ocean Explorer ran aground in a remote fjord in eastern Greenland. That vessel remained stuck for three days before being freed during high tide.

As authorities continue to assess the situation in Papua New Guinea, attention remains focused on safely refloating Coral Adventurer and determining whether the ship can return to service without further disruption.

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A parent and her child have been rescued by cruise workers after going into the water alongside a cruise ship while docked.

While details of what happened are limited, a viral video shows a child being pulled from the water alongside Carnival Sunrise, shortly followed by a woman.

It isn’t clear what happened although a caption on the video claims that the woman is the child’s mother, and that she jumped into the water to rescue her child.

A Brave Rescue

The video is filmed on a neighbouring cruise ship at Celebration Key, and it starts with the rescue already underway.

Crew members are frantically keeping watch over the side of the ship, with a life ring thrown in to help them, while more crew members arrive with a ladder to hang over the side of the pier.

The child is shortly brought up, before being handed to presumably another family member and wrapped up for warmth. Soon after, the woman – understandably emotional – makes it back onto the pier herself, and is hugged by other members of her travelling party.

Onlookers can be heard applauding the efforts of the rescued guests and the crew, with shouts of encouragement and congratulations once the rescue was successful.

While there’s no official confirmation of what happened, it seems likely that the child fell off the edge of the pier before their parent jumped in to help keep them safe until rescue.

And despite there being no official statement on the condition of either the child or the adult, both seemed to be without serious injury, though the onboard medical teams will no doubt have assessed them further.

Similar Pier And Overboard Incidents

While dramatic, this type of incident is not entirely without precedent, particularly when ships are docked and guests are moving between the pier and the vessel.

In November 2025, a cruise passenger received an unscheduled swim after falling from the pier beside a ship operated by Norwegian Cruise Line during an unexpected call to Nassau. The ship had originally been scheduled to visit Great Stirrup Cay, but rough seas made tendering unsafe, forcing a diversion to the Bahamian capital.

As guests were returning to the ship that afternoon, a man reportedly lost his footing and fell into the narrow gap between the pier and the hull – an area lined with floating rubber fenders designed to protect both structures.

Videos shared online showed the man clinging to a life ring as bystanders shouted for help, before crew members arrived with a ladder and pulled him safely from the water within moments.

There were no reports of injury, and it was never confirmed whether the individual was a passenger, crew member, or port worker. Witnesses suggested he either slipped from the dock or misjudged his step while approaching the gangway.

More serious, though far rarer, are true overboard incidents at sea. In June 2025, a five-year-old girl fell approximately 50 feet from Deck 4 of a ship operated by Disney Cruise Line during a Bahamas sailing, prompting her father to immediately jump in after her.

A subsequent police investigation revealed the child had been asked to pose for a photo in front of an open porthole window that was not fitted with glass or plexiglass.

The mother mistakenly believed the opening was sealed, and the child fell straight through. Surveillance footage corroborated the parents’ statements, and the ship’s crew launched an immediate man overboard response.

Both father and daughter were rescued within an hour. While prosecutors described the mother’s actions as negligent, they concluded the circumstances did not meet the threshold for criminal culpable negligence, and no charges were filed.

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A US-based IT professional has revealed that he now spends most of the year living onboard a cruise ship, claiming the lifestyle works out to be comparable in cost to paying rent and household bills on land.

Ryan Gutridge, a cloud solutions engineer from Florida, says he spends around 300 days a year sailing aboard Royal Caribbean ships, primarily Freedom of the Seas, after realising the numbers made financial sense.

Gutridge, who had worked remotely since 2012, said the shift towards fully remote work during the pandemic gave him the confidence to test whether his job could be done reliably at sea.

Trial Cruises Turn Into Long-Term Lifestyle

In 2021, Gutridge booked two four-night cruises on Freedom of the Seas, both sailing in September, as a trial run to see if onboard WiFi and connectivity would support his workload.

He later told Insider that the short cruises were designed to test whether he could realistically “take my job with me on a short cruise” and still work effectively.

After crunching the numbers, Gutridge calculated that spending roughly 300 nights a year onboard worked out “almost neck-and-neck” with the cost of his rent back home. Once drinks, internet access and meals were factored in, the cruise lifestyle became increasingly appealing.

He set himself a base cruise budget of around $30,000, or approximately £22,000, per year. With his cruise fare covering WiFi, drinks and most meals, he found his day-to-day expenses were lower than when living on land.

“My drinks and internet are free,” Gutridge said.

Loyalty Perks Make Cruises Even Cheaper

By committing to one cruise line rather than switching between brands, Gutridge has also benefited from Royal Caribbean’s loyalty programme, which provides additional perks as guests move up the tiers.

“If people are going to do something like what I do, I recommend trying different brands because they all offer something different,” he explained. “But once you commit to one, you should stick to it so you reach those loyalty levels.”

“I found that Royal Caribbean has, by far, the most valuable benefits to me – discounts, free internet, and free drinks.”

Beyond the financial benefits, Gutridge says the lifestyle offers obvious perks, including constant travel and access to entertainment, dining and destinations that would otherwise require separate holidays.

A Growing Trend Among Long-Term Cruisers

Gutridge is far from alone. A small but growing number of people have sold most of their possessions and opted to live onboard cruise ships for extended periods, sometimes moving from sailing to sailing throughout the year.

Those who have embraced the lifestyle often acknowledge a few downsides. Food can become repetitive over time, and building long-term friendships can be challenging when most fellow passengers are only onboard for a week or two.

Even so, many long-term cruisers agree on one thing: when accommodation, utilities, food and entertainment are combined, life at sea can be surprisingly competitive with the cost of living on dry land.

For Gutridge, the equation is simple. As long as he can work remotely and enjoy the journey, the ship has become his home.

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