Think You Know What Happens to a Cruise Ship in a Tsunami? You May Be Surprised

A tsunami is a massive and fast-moving wave that is triggered by an earthquake. These waves can move at upwards of 500 miles per hour, by some accounts. They've been recorded making landfall at stunningly high levels — in 1958, an earthquake triggered a tsunami in Alaska where waves were recorded reaching 1,720 feet, according to data from the National Centers for Environmental Information — and have killed hundreds of thousands of people as a result.

But, what happens when you're at sea when one of these monster waves is triggered?

Keep reading to find out what happens to cruise ships in a tsunami, and where these boats find themselves most in danger.

There's good news for anyone who is out to sea on a cruise ship when tsunamis strike. Because of the depth of the ocean, many times cruise boats won't even feel the shifting water underneath them.

According to The Economic Times, the waves may only appear to be a few feet taller than normal when they roll across the deep ocean, which may barely register to anyone on a boat of that size.

The publication says that when a tsunami warning or advisory is issued, many ships are directed to sail to an area where the water is at least 180 feet. There, they should be safe from the worst of things and may even be able to avoid any disruptions or damage to the ships themselves and the people they carry.

Unfortunately, boats are in as much danger as everyone else is if a tsunami hits while they are near shore. That's because the waves begin to increase in size once they approach shallow water, and they can more than topple cruise ships. Remember that record-breaking tsunami from 1958 that brought waves over 1,700 feet tall on shore?

The average cruise ship measures around 1,000 feet in height, which means a docked boat could easily be taken over by waves that high.

While those megatsunamis are rare, even smaller ones can do a lot of damage, which is why many cruise ships carefully monitor weather risks and act accordingly. In fact, a July 2025 tsunami warning prompted a docked cruise to pack up and move out of Hawaii so quickly that the company actually left passengers behind in the chaos.

The travel website Beat of Hawaii says that Norwegian Cruise Line's Pride of America left more than 300 people behind when tsunami alarms began to blare.

Fortunately, nobody was hurt as a result of this particular incident, but it's an excellent example of why it's important to pay attention to travel protocol when you're aboard a cruise ship. And that's especially true of those boats that travel to areas that are no strangers to tsunamis, like the coast of Alaska, Hawaii, and Japan.