British travellers’ hilarious reaction to flooding cruise ship goes viral

Velsen, The Netherlands - May 22, 2015: Ventura is a Grand-class cruise ship, owned and operated by P&O Cruises, built by Fincantieri, Monfalcone, Italy. It is 291.4 m (956 ft) long

The internet was very amused by the reactions of these British travellers when their cruise ship hit rough waters – or, rather, their distinct lack of reaction.

News.com.au has posted footage of a scene that unfolded onboard P&O’s Ventura as it made an attempt to dock at Cherbourg, France last week.

The video shows huge swells and stormy seas out the window, while water is thrown from the swimming pool in the ship’s atrium as some passengers gather around to watch and others stay seated, seemingly unphased as water laps around their feet.

It was posted to Twitter by Calum Lawson, a marine engineer, who according to News Corp captioned the post “Best part of this video is the amount of typical Brits so un-phased (sic) by any danger that occurs because ‘they’re on their jollies’ and nothing can spoil that … b****** ships flooding man”.

“Work on cruises ships they said … it’ll be fun they said. (1 storm later): There’s the pool gone.”

The tweet reportedly received around 32,000 likes and 4,000 retweets along with a fair share of bemused comments.

“Sitting tight and holding on to their beer,” one woman wrote.

Alison White-Sheen, 68, from Chichester, who was drinking coffee nearby the pool during the ordeal told News Corp that someone at reception told her some staff were very scared and one staff member was reduced to tears.

“I don’t really know how long the storm carried on for – about an hour,” she said.

“They turned the ship – something to do with balancing the ship.”

The receptionist reportedly also told White-Sheen that staff had drained the pool after the flooding but she speculated it was too little too late “as most of the water had already gone over the decks”.

Ventura is P&O’s second-largest ship and accommodates up to 3,192 passengers.

You can watch the video here.

Latest News