Florida authorities say a five-year-old girl who fell from the fourth deck of a Disney Dream cruise ship in June was posing for a photograph at her mother’s request when the accident occurred.
According to a report obtained by CBC News from the Broward County Sheriff’s Office, the mother asked her daughter to sit on a porthole railing to take a photo while the family was walking along the ship’s port side. The child lost her balance and plunged approximately 49 feet into the ocean, prompting her father to leap overboard seconds later in an attempt to save her.
The Disney Dream was returning from the Bahamas to Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale when the incident happened around 11:29 a.m. on June 29. Security footage reviewed by investigators shows the father jumping into the water about 45 seconds after the fall.
Cruise staff launched a rapid rescue effort, and within 20 minutes, both the father and child were recovered by a rescue boat. The child was treated for hypothermia, while her father sustained a spinal fracture during the dive.
In a statement to police, the mother said she had not realized the porthole was open to the air and assumed it had a glass barrier. She told investigators she believed Disney should have “coverings on the windows” and held the company partially responsible.
The sheriff’s office called the fall an “avoidable accident”, saying the mother’s actions placed the child in danger. However, the Broward County State Attorney’s Office determined the conduct did not meet the threshold for criminal charges. “While the defendant’s conduct is arguably negligent and irresponsible, it does not rise to the egregious level necessary to establish criminal culpable negligence,” wrote Assistant State Attorney Melissa Kelly in her report dated July 31.
The harrowing rescue was captured by passengers and widely shared on social media, showing Disney crew members deploying emergency boats as onlookers cheered when the father and child were pulled safely aboard.
Incidents like this are extremely rare. Data from the Cruise Lines International Association shows that between 2009 and 2019, only 212 people fell overboard from cruise ships — representing just 0.00004% of all passengers and crew — and nearly half were rescued. Most cases, the report noted, stemmed from “intentional or reckless acts.”
The Disney Dream resumed normal operations after the rescue, while the family remained in Florida to recover from their injuries.