Carnival Mardi Gras Rescues Nine From Disabled Boat Off Florida
Crew saw a distress flag and people waving near Sebastian Inlet, used a small boat to reach the craft, and gave the adults food, water and medical evaluations onboard.
Carnival Cruise Line’s Mardi Gras rescued nine adults from a disabled boat off Florida’s central east coast on Saturday, May 16, after crew members spotted distress signals near Sebastian Inlet less than three hours after departing Port Canaveral. The ship notified the U.S. Coast Guard, brought the nine aboard and later transferred them to Bahamian authorities in Nassau.
The operation did not disrupt the seven-night Eastern Caribbean sailing, but it placed the cruise ship in a search-and-rescue role shortly after the voyage began.
Distress flag spotted off Florida
Mardi Gras left Port Canaveral at 3:30 p.m. EDT for the Eastern Caribbean itinerary. Around 5:45 p.m., while about 33.5 nautical miles southeast of Canaveral, crew members saw a vessel showing a distress flag and people waving for help near Sebastian Inlet.
The ship slowed, and crew members used a small boat to reach the disabled craft and assess the situation. “The ship’s crew spotted the vessel displaying a distress flag, notified the U.S. Coast Guard, and safely brought all nine adults aboard,” a Carnival spokesperson said.
The rescued adults received food, water and medical evaluation onboard. Mardi Gras resumed speed at 6:18 p.m. and was making 16.8 knots by 7:29 p.m. while bound for Nassau. The U.S. Coast Guard later retrieved the disabled vessel.
Carnival did not disclose what caused the boat to fail, how long it had been adrift or where it had been headed.
Nassau handover and rescue obligations
The nine remained onboard overnight and disembarked with Bahamian authorities on Sunday. Vessel-tracking data from MarineTraffic placed Mardi Gras in Nassau at 9:13 a.m. and alongside by 9:30 a.m., ahead of its scheduled 10 a.m. arrival.
Mardi Gras is one of Carnival’s Excel-class ships, a 180,800-gross-ton, LNG-powered vessel built by Meyer Turku that entered service in 2021. The ship is about 1,130 feet long and has a reported maximum capacity of 6,500 passengers.
The rescue falls under the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea, or SOLAS. Chapter V, Regulation 33 requires the master of a ship able to assist to proceed as quickly as possible after receiving information that people are in distress, regardless of nationality or status. People taken aboard from a distress situation must be treated humanely within the ship’s capabilities.
Carnival ships have made other rescues this year. Carnival Legend rescued a man and his cat from a disabled sailboat during an April voyage to Cozumel, and Carnival Celebration rescued five people from a sinking makeshift craft during a Western Caribbean cruise in February. John Heald, Carnival Cruise Line’s brand ambassador, wrote in a June 2025 Facebook post that “we will always rescue those in peril on the sea.”
Mardi Gras remains scheduled to call at Amber Cove in the Dominican Republic, Grand Turk in the Turks and Caicos, and Celebration Key in the Bahamas before returning to Port Canaveral on May 23.
