It may not be the most appealing feature of a cruise, but ships have strict and discreet procedures to follow if someone dies on board.
If you ever hear crew discussing Operation Bright Star, that means there is a medical emergency onboard, while Operation Rising Star means a passenger has died.
Cruise lines may not shout about it but they are prepared if the tragic situation of a passenger death arises – many of the major vessels will have a morgue on board to store a deceased person.
There have been a few high-profile cases of passengers dying on a cruise in recent months.
Read more: What happens when someone falls off a cruise ship?
A passenger died in December 2024 after attempting to jump overboard from a Princess Cruises ship while en route back to Florida after a pre-Christmas cruise around the Caribbean.
In a separate case earlier that month, a Royal Caribbean cruise ship passenger died after being detained on board in Los Angeles for ‘drunkenly attacking crew members.’
An MSC Virtuosa passenger went overboard in October 2024 while the ship was sailing to Southampton.
These types of cases attract a lot of attention and there is even a morbid urban legend spread by TikTok users recently that ships will host free ice cream parties if they need to make more space in the freezer for a dead body.
Despite the media interest and social media commentary, it is actually pretty rare for someone to die on a cruise ship.
Here is what really happens if someone dies while on a holiday at sea.
How often do people die on cruise ships?
Research by the International Journal of Travel Medicine and Global Health between 2000 and 2019 – based on 78 ocean and river cruise lines, such as Carnival and Royal Caribbean – recorded 623 deaths during the nine-year period.
Out of all deaths, 89 per cent were passengers and 11 per cent were crew.
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Falls overboard or onto lower decks, cardiac incidents and suicides were the main causes of passenger deaths.
This figure may have been skewed in recent years by the pandemic and a higher likelihood of people catching coronavirus onboard, particularly as cruises can attract an older clientele.
However, the figure is small when placed in the context of the 30 million people that go on a cruise each year.
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