Two adorable stowaways have become the most talked about passengers on a transatlantic cruise on Royal Caribbean’s Allure of the Seas.
When the ship departed Miami on Feb. 10 for a 12-night journey across the Atlantic to Barcelona, Spain, its crew didn’t know that two extra passengers had made their way onto the ship.
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Allure of the Seas is one of the world’s largest cruise ships, so it wasn’t difficult for the small, sneaky stowaways find a spot to hide out on board. But a few days into the transatlantic voyage, observant passengers discovered them in the ship’s Central Park area and began sharing photos and videos of the unexpected cruisers on social media.
“We were hunting ducks but found something better,” passenger mini.cruisers shared in a Facebook Reel about spotting the stowaways.
One passenger said they couldn’t believe their eyes when they realized the extra passengers were real and not lifelike features of the ship’s tree-lined, open-air Central Park.
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Two owls stow away on Royal Caribbean’s Allure of the Seas
A pair of small burrowing owls, which are native to Florida where the ship departed, took refuge in the ship’s park-like space and ended up tagging along on a cruise vacation across the ocean.
In the Royal Caribbean community on Reddit, one user has been sharing updates on the two cute stowaways' adventure through messages provided by their parents who are passengers on the transatlantic voyage.
“Two burrowing owls have stowed away on the cruise to Spain and have caused quite a ruckus,” wrote Reddit user GameSyns. “Here is what my parents sent to me regarding the situation.”
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“We have two burrowing owls and a tiny warbler that stowed away in Central Park to make the crossing,” the parents wrote. “Unfortunately, the owls have drawn so much attention that they now need to be caught and won't be allowed into Spain until quarantined and then... Deported? The tiny bird is hard to find so I don't even know if the ship is aware of it. One of the owls has also explored the Solarium and miniature golf course. It's been exciting!”
The Reddit user also shared an update from the ship’s captain about the game plan crafted to help the burrowing owls, which are designated as a threatened species in Florida.
Royal Caribbean crew work to care for owls until they can be returned to Florida
“The 2 owls have been collected and placed in temporary cages/boxes. It was stressful for them and less safe to be in Central Park as much as we enjoyed looking at them," the captain’s update stated. "They are now being fed and watered and cared for according to the animal experts' guidelines.”
Later, the update was edited to add that one of the two owls managed to escape and fly back to the ship’s Central Park. The owl was still evading capture on Feb. 19, a day before the ship reached its first port of call, Cartagena, Spain.
According to one passenger who commented in the Reddit thread, the owl was recaptured on Feb. 20 while the ship was in port.
The update from the captain also stated that the owls would be disembarked in Cartagena into the care of local authorities, who would handle the process of returning them to Miami where they could be safely released in their native habitat.
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As one Reddit user pointed out in the thread, this is not the first time an owl has been discovered in the Central Park area of one of Royal Caribbean’s Oasis Class ships.
“We had an owl stowaway on our Oasis cruise back in 2022,” wrote bundtkate. “The crew apparently looked after him. They called him Owly and made sure he had food.”
“He was just traveling the Caribbean so never really attracted that level of attention, but had apparently been on the ship for some time by our cruise,” bundtkate continued. “Looks like he could be the same breed [as] that. Wonder if something about Central Park attracts them?”
In 2023, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission also reported assisting Royal Caribbean crew in rescuing a wayward burrowing owl from Symphony of the Seas’ Central Park.
