A Mediterranean cruise turned into a rescue mission early Monday morning when the MSC Orchestra, en route from Ibiza to Sardinia, encountered a drifting motorboat carrying 16 migrants off the southwestern coast of the Italian island.

According to reports confirmed by Italian authorities, the nearly 300-meter-long cruise ship spotted the small vessel near the coast of Sant'Antioco around 2 a.m. while it was sailing toward Cagliari for a scheduled stop on its seven-day Western Mediterranean itinerary.

A weeklong Alaska cruise aboard the Norwegian Bliss was marked by a series of medical emergencies.
Among the most serious incidents was the U.S. Coast Guard emergency medevac of a 54-year-old male passenger experiencing stroke-like symptoms. The rescue took place offshore of Cape Flattery, Washington. The man was airlifted from the vessel and transported to Olympic Medical Center via local emergency medical services.

A 30-year-old crew member aboard the cruise ship National Geographic Venture, operated by Lindblad Expeditions, was medevacked by the U.S. Coast Guard on Easter Sunday after experiencing severe medical symptoms while the ship was sailing approximately 15 miles off the coast of Coos Bay, Oregon.

An 84-year-old German man was airlifted off the cruise ship Mein Schiff 3 after suffering a serious heart attack while sailing in the middle of the Atlantic.

The rescue unfolded on April 20, 2025, when the cruise ship was about 180 nautical miles (roughly 315 kilometers) northeast of São Miguel Island in the Azores. The call for help came in around 11:30 a.m., and the Portuguese Navy’s Ponta Delgada Maritime Search and Rescue Coordination Center (MRCC Delgada) sprang into action.

A cruise aboard the Hanseatic Spirit took an unexpected turn when the ship became trapped in thick sea ice off the coast of Kemi, Finland. With more than 200 passengers on board, the vessel operated by Hapag-Lloyd Cruises required assistance from icebreakers to continue its journey.

A medical emergency has prompted the cruise ship Sun Princess, to head at full speed towards Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Canary Islands.

The ship’s captain made an announcement informing guests and crew that a passenger required urgent medical attention on land. Given the ship’s current location in the mid-Atlantic, air rescue operations are not feasible, making it necessary for the vessel to expedite its journey.

Spain maritime rescue services evacuated a British passenger who fell ill aboard the cruise ship Sky Princess as it sailed off the country’s northern coast.

The passenger, suffering from a heart condition, was airlifted Wednesday evening by a rescue helicopter as the vessel traveled five nautical miles southwest of Cape Silleiro in the Galicia region.
Authorities confirmed the woman was transported to Álvaro Cunqueiro Hospital in Vigo for urgent medical care. No further details were released about her condition.

German and Colombian media report that an incident involving 38 tourists occurred off the coast of Colombia when an excursion boat capsized near the Barú Peninsula. The passengers, 36 German tourists and 2 Austrians, had boarded the excursion boat at the port of Cartagena after arriving on the cruise ship AIDAbella.

A maritime rescue was performed 100 miles off the coast of Tenerife on Sunday March 23,  as the Helimer 202 helicopter successfully evacuated a crew member from the luxury cruise ship Seabourn Venture.

The emergency operation was coordinated by the Maritime Rescue Centre in Tenerife, which swiftly mobilized resources after receiving an alert from the vessel. Responding to the distress call, the rescue team was deployed to conduct an urgent medical evacuation.

New Caledonian rescue services carried out a series of four medical evacuations from Royal Caribbean’s Quantum of the Seas within a 24-hour period, an unusual and nearly unprecedented sequence of events.