Earthquake rocks Margaritaville at Sea cruise ship sailing near Cuba
As I sat at my desk in my home office in Tampa, Florida writing about cruise news on the afternoon of June 8, I asked my husband if he had heard about the devastating 7.8-magnitude earthquake that hit the southern Philippines earlier in the day. Moments later, the large desk we share and the computer monitors sitting atop it started to gently wobble back and forth.
I quickly got up to see what could be happening outside - maybe just construction work, I thought, but what if a sinkhole had opened up nearby?
Imagine my surprise about an hour later when I learned that the shaking I felt at my desk in Tampa was the result of a 6.1-magnitude earthquake off the coast of Cuba. After checking in to see where else in Florida the earthquake was felt, my cruise writer brain jumped to cruise ships.
The earthquake occurred very close to the route ships take daily through the Western Caribbean. And it turned out that the Margaritaville at Sea Islander, which sails from Tampa, was passing Cuba en route to Cozumel at the moment the earthquake hit.
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Margaritaville at Sea Islander shook by earthquake off Cuba coast
The earthquake's epicenter appeared very close to where the Margaritaville at Sea Islander was sailing. Coincidentally, Mike Boylan of Mike's Weather Page on Facebook was cruising aboard the ship as the earthquake hit.
"Did you just feel an earthquake, Florida," Boylan wrote on his Facebook page. "We just did on our ship. Literally we were on top of this earthquake just now. Everything shook. Panic definitely was in the air. Thought we lost a motor. 6.1+ magnitude reported as of now. Craziest thing ever experienced, no doubt."
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Despite the panic and proximity to the epicenter, the earthquake's impact on the cruise ship was minor. Boylan reported to FOX Weather that paintings fell from the walls in the ship's art gallery, ceiling tiles shifted, and plates fell from tables in the dining room. Passengers didn't have to wait long to find out what was happening though.
"The captain came on right away, which was amazing. They let everybody know that, hey, we just had an earthquake and the ship's fine. So that was great that they came on right away," Boylan told FOX Weather.
Luckily, no major damage or injuries were reported and the ship was able to continue on its way to Cozumel.
Cruise ships are safest at sea during an earthquake
Although rare and shocking to have a cruise ship rocked by an earthquake, it's much safer for a ship to be at sea during an earthquake than to be docked where the impact could be felt more intensely.
In cases where a ship is above the epicenter, like Islander was, the ship may experience a "seaquake" though. Seaquakes occur when seismic waves from an earthquake "emerge from the seafloor as an acoustic (sound) wave that travels through the ocean toward the surface and can strike a ship," according to Dave Chadwell, a researcher with UC San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
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If an earthquake triggers a tsunami, cruise ships sailing close to land or docked in port face significant threats from the impact of the tsunami's monster wave. Those in deep water, however, feel minimal effects of a tsunami, which travels quickly at sea with a long wavelength. It isn't until a tsunami reaches shallow water and reduces speed that it rises to threatening heights.
That's why if there's a tsunami alert following an earthquake, cruise ships in the affected area have to leave port quickly to get out of harm's way, like Norwegian's Pride of America did during a tsunami scare in Hawaii in summer 2025.
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This story was originally published June 8, 2026 at 8:00 PM.