Key Aspects:
- Celebrity Equinox snapped her lines and drifted in Buenos Aires on Saturday, December 20.
- The incident happened during embarkation for a 14-night sailing and guests were delayed 2-3 hours.
- The ship remained overnight in Buenos Aires but departed on Sunday morning.
Celebrity Equinox‘s 14-night New Year’s cruise is off to a rocky start as the ship broke its mooring lines and drifted slightly. According to a post on Reddit, the cruise ship rubbed alongside a refueling tanker before colliding with a nearby pier.
The incident happened while the ship was in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on Saturday, December 20, 2025, as guests were embarking for that day’s departure.
At the time, Weather Underground notes that wind speeds suddenly increased to 20-25 miles per hour, with gusts measured as high as 37 miles per hour. Throughout the morning, winds had been no more than 10 miles per hour, though the weather had been stormy with ongoing rain.
With the lines broken, Celebrity Equinox‘s bow swung out and away from the pier, causing the aft of the ship to contact the pier. The embarkation gangway broke loose from the pier and dropped into the water, but remained attached to the ship with the loose end submerged in the water.
“The gangway went off the pier and was hanging against the ship partially submerged. Crazy situation,” one guest noted.
As the bow swung around, the ship also contacted the pier on the other side. A refueling vessel’s bow also appeared to scrape along Celebrity Equinox‘s hull, leaving a long scratch that guests shared through social media posts.
Fortunately, the ship did not remain adrift for long. According to passengers onboard, tugboats were quickly dispatched to bring the 121,878-gross-ton, Solstice-class cruise ship back into docking alignment.
As the incident happened during embarkation, boarding was naturally delayed for 2-3 hours. Guests were accommodated in the cruise terminal as the ship was resecured and a new gangway put into place.
No injuries to guests, crew members, or port personnel were reported.
Celebrity Equinox can welcome 2,850 guests aboard and is also home to more than 1,200 international crew members.
Departure Delayed
Because of the delay in embarkation and to ensure the safety and seaworthiness of the vessel, Celebrity Equinox did not leave Buenos Aires as scheduled on Saturday evening.
Instead, the ship remained docked overnight. Satellite tracking confirmed the ship ultimately departed before 11 a.m. local time on Sunday. Guests onboard report that the first port visit, to Montevideo, Uruguay, is also delayed but not cancelled.
Celebrity Equinox was to have been in Montevideo from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday, December 21. Buenos Aires and Montevideo are just 125 miles apart across the Rio de la Plata estuary.
There are no further confirmed changes to the ship’s Patagonia and Antarctica itinerary, which includes visits to the Falkland Islands, Cape Horn, Ushuaia, Punta Arenas, Puerto Madryn, and Punta del Este.
While this particular voyage does not cross the infamous Drake Passage, it is sure to be a memorable one for guests nonetheless.
The ship will return to Buenos Aires on January 3, 2026 and she remains homeported from the capital of Argentina through March 2026.
At that point, she will return to Europe to homeport from Barcelona and Civitavecchia for the summer in the Mediterranean, before returning to South America in December 2026.
Mooring Line Incidents Not Rare
While uncommon, it is not unheard of for cruise ships to break their mooring lines, particularly during blustery wind conditions when sudden gusts can put too much strain on the already tense ropes.
Furthermore, such incidents are not unique to Buenos Aires and can happen wherever strong winds might occur.
For example, in May 2025, MSC Seascape broke free in the Bahamas while the ship was docked at MSC Cruises’ private island destination, Ocean Cay.
As with Celebrity Equinox, MSC Seascape‘s gangway dropped into the water and both embarkation and debarkation were temporarily halted until the ship could be resecured.
Similarly, MSC Sinfonia broke free of her mooring lines in early January 2024 when gale force winds impacted the ship in Syracuse, Italy. Fortunately, the vessel was out of service at the time for maintenance and no guest operations were therefore impacted.
In August 2023, Queen Mary 2 broke free of her moorings in Civitavecchia with both forward and aft gangways collapsing, and in July 2023, Norwegian Prima snapped her lines in Zeebrugge, Belgium with the gangways also falling into the water.
It is very fortunate that no injuries were reported from any of these incidents. Crew members overseeing embarkation and debarkation watch weather conditions very carefully and will halt guest movements if there appear to be any safety risks.
