Big Waves Pound, Cruise Ship Diverts Course

 

Vacation-goers expecting to embark on a Carnival cruise to Mexico instead found themselves sitting on a shuttle en route to San Diego!

 

Big waves along the Southern California coast on Sunday forced a cruise ship to change course and led to at least 16 rescues, authorities said.

 

More than 2,000 guests with tickets to board the cruise ship Carnival Imagination in Long Beach were bussed 100 miles south due to dangerous conditions in the water, a Carnival spokeswoman said. 

 

The ship was forced to dock in San Diego because the high surf and long swells in Long Beach could have made it unsafe to keep a ship's gangway connected and potentially stress the ship's mooring lines, Carnival Cruise Lines said in a statement.

 

"Therefore, in the interest of caution, the cruise ship ... deviated to San Diego," the statement said.

 

Carnival Imagination's planned visit to Catalina Island tomorrow was also canceled. However, a scheduled visit to the coastal city of Ensenada, Mexico, would be extended an extra day and night, Joyce Oliva said, a Carnival spokeswoman said.