Royal Caribbean Cruise Ship Enters Seward With Dead Whale on Its Bow

Royal Caribbean’s Ovation of the Seas sadly arrived in Seward, Alaska on Friday, June 19, 2026 with a 61-foot female fin whale that the ship may have struck and killed en route to its northern homeport.

The Quantum class ship had departed Vancouver, British Columbia for the one-way Alaskan cruise on Friday, June 12. On her way to Seward, the ship visited Sitka, Juneau, and Skagway, as well as enjoyed scenic glacier cruising.

Ovation of the Seas is offering the north-south route for the Alaska season through mid-September, with departures from Vancouver (northbound) and Seward (southbound) every other week.

Upon arriving in Seward this time, however, the whale was draped across the ship’s bulbous bow, the projection of the hull just under the forward waterline that helps with ship stability and reduces drag.

According to SAKtown News, immediately after the ship docked as planned, the whale carcass was draped with a tarp to keep it from view and to preserve the body for examination.

On Friday evening, the carcass was towed to a protected lagoon at Lowell Point, roughly three miles south of the Seward cruise terminal. A marine wildlife expert team from the Alaska Sealife Center and NOAA performed a necropsy (animal autopsy).

Part of the investigation was to determine if the whale was killed by the ship or if the animal may have died of other causes and was snagged by the ship as the vessel entered Resurrection Bay.

Samples from the carcass must be examined for evidence of bacteria or illnesses that may have caused the whale’s death, and other signs of trauma will also be noted.

Cruise Hive has reached out to Royal Caribbean about the incident but has not yet received a response from the cruise line.

Fin whales (Balaenoptera physalus) are the second-largest species of baleen whale and can reach up to 90 feet long. Since the killed whale was just 61 feet, it was a smaller member of the species and may have been a juvenile.

These whales are considered at risk and vulnerable on environmental ranking scales, making the loss of a young whale especially devastating to local populations.

As the Dale R. and Carol Ann Lindsey Alaska Railroad Terminal in Seward only opened to welcome guests on June 10, this unfortunate incident is especially troubling.

Cruise Hive has already reported that the 4,180-guest Ovation of the Seas is the first Royal Caribbean ship to use the new terminal. Despite this troubling incident, there was no delay to the ship’s schedule and the vessel departed on its next sailing on time.

Not the First Whale Incident

Startlingly, this is not the first time a fin whale has been dragged into Seward on the bow of a cruise ship.

In 2016, a similar incident occurred with Holland America Line’s Zaandam, which snagged a young male fin whale in nearly the same location. In that incident, the cruise line was determined not to be at fault, as the ship had been proceeding at recommended speeds with lookouts posted.

Comparing the two cruise ships, however, Zaandam is just 61,396 gross tons. The 168,666-gross-ton Ovation of the Seas is more than double the size of the Holland America Line vessel.

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It is unknown whether or not the ship’s overall size could play a stronger factor than anticipated as a threat to marine wildlife.

More recently, MSC Cruises’ MSC Meraviglia arrived in New York with a whale on its bow in May 2024. At 171,598 gross tons, MSC Meraviglia is even larger than Ovation of the Seas.

Cruise ships use several different tactics to minimize noise in the water, including hull shape, specialized paint, and reduced speeds. These steps are meant to minimize disruption to marine ecosystems but also can make it more challenging for larger animals, including whales, to notice the ship and get out of its path quickly enough to avoid a collision.

Local opinions are mixed on this incident. In a popular Reddit thread, more than 230 comments are discussing the whale’s death.

Some note that, while unfortunate, such incidents do happen.

“Former maritime worker. This is a not uncommon cruise ship reality,” one commenter explained. “I worked on a vessel in Norway for a while and it happened there, too. I wish it weren’t so.”

One person succinctly compared the incident to hitting a deer with a car. Tragic and unfortunate, but such accidents do happen. Others compared the situation to wildlife killed by planes or trains.

Nevertheless, a full investigation will undoubtedly consider how Ovation of the Seas approached the harbor and the speed the ship was traveling, as well as its exact route.

No official cause of death for the whale has yet been released, and it may be some time before full results are available.