A cruise expert who was recently on the Royal Caribbean ship that had a fire on board says passengers should know what to do in case of an emergency.
A fire that aboard the Grandeur of the Seas did enough damage that the rest of the cruise was canceled. The ship's more than 2,200 passengers will be flown from the Bahamas back to Baltimore, where the trip began, Royal Caribbean said.
Southlake travel agent Steve Cosgrove was on board the Grandeur of the Seas just days before Monday's early-morning fire broke out.
"Beautiful ship; great captain; the crew is fantastic," said Cosgrove, the president of Dynamic Travel and Cruises.
Shortly after leaving on a cruise, the crew conducts a safety drill, sending passengers to their assigned muster stations.
"Just like when you're on an airplane -- pay attention to the flight attendant as they're giving the emergency drill so you know where the exit is in case something happens on the airplane; same on a cruise ship," Cosgrove said.
"When I went on this cruise last week, they scanned each of us with our room key to make sure we had 100 percent at the muster stations," he said.
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The fire began at about 2:50 a.m. A cause wasn't immediately known.
Cosgrove, who spent seven days on the Grandeur of the Seas, said he has a pretty good idea what caused the fire in the stern.
"This is usually a place where they keep a lot of the solvents, cleaning stuff, rags and stuff like that, and probably what had happened [is] a spark caught the rags on fire," he said. "We've had these kind of fires happen on other ships over the years, in that same spot in fact."
The fire was put out within two hours, and the ship was able to sail into port in Freeport, Bahamas, on its own power.
The more than 2,200 passengers on board the Grandeur of the Seas will be flown from the Bahamas to Baltimore at no charge and will get a full refund and a free future cruise.
