A passenger captured the haunting moment the cruise ship captain ordered all lights to be turned off and curtains drawn.
A tense moment aboard Cunard’s Queen Anne cruise ship was caught on camera by a passenger and quickly went viral online.
The traveler, who goes by the TikTok handle @lillydapink, was in the middle of a 111-night journey between Darwin, Australia, and Manila, the Philippines when the atmosphere suddenly shifted.
As the ship entered the Sulu-Celebes Sea, the captain delivered a bone-chilling announcement over the loudspeaker, alerting passengers that the area was “known for piracy threats”.
https://cdn.jwplayer.com/previews/T8wc3vVI
As a precaution, the vessel would be “operating at a heightened level of security alertness during this period,” which included the external promenade deck being closed overnight and “deck lights will be on to reduce the ship’s external lighting”.
The captain requested that everyone “turn off your stateroom lights when not needed, and close the curtains of your stateroom window or balcony,” and continued by delivering instructions in the event of a piracy-related emergency, emphasizing that the passengers and crew’s safety is the ship’s highest priority.
“I assure you that measures to prevent any unlikely incident have been well planned and the likelihood of this happening on a big ship like Queen Anne is absolutely minimal,” the captain added.
Watch the moment below:
“Idk why but every time I hear about real-life pirates I’m always shocked/amazed that they really exist,” one user wrote, while another quipped: “I’d lock myself in my room and order room service.”
A third shared: “I used to work on a cruise ship and there are a few areas where you get piracy. We used to get a special security company that used to come on board with g*ns when we go past Somalia. You’re safe.”
The TikTok user shared additional update videos documenting the ship’s safety precautions as they navigated the sea, including clips of the dark rooms with the curtains drawn.
“So all the blinds were shut, and the lights were down to the minimum last night. The security did an amazing job keeping watch over the ship last night. Well done guys,” the user wrote in the caption.
While rare, these types of security measures aren’t unheard of. Pirates typically target oil tankers or cargo ships, not luxury liners but when crossing through high-risk zones, even cruise ships don’t take any chances.
Cunard later confirmed the scare wasn’t based on any direct threat, telling Business Insider: “As part of standard maritime procedures, our Captains may make precautionary announcements when sailing through certain regions.”
“There was no specific threat to the ship or its guests, and our onboard experience remained uninterrupted,” the statement added.
The region between Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines has historically seen piracy and kidnapping-for-ransom cases, most notably involving the Abu Sayyaf Group, a jihadist militant and pirate organization, according to MarineInsight.
From late 2016 to mid-2022, ships were advised to steer clear of these waters due to high abduction risks. However, with no recorded abductions since January 2020, the region’s threat level was officially downgraded to “low” in January 2025, per the outlet.
The captain told passengers that the area they were passing through was “known for piracy threats”. Credit: Horacio Villalobos / Getty
The Queen Anne accommodates 2,996 guests, and 1,225 crew members and is 1,058 ft long.
The cruise began in Hamburg, Germany, on Jan. 7 and has made stops in England, New York, Hawaii, Mexico, New Zealand, Australia, China and more.
The ship will return to Hamburg on April 29, after stopping in Vietnam, South Africa, Singapore, and Malaysia.
