Fire aboard Royal Caribbean cruise ship

More than 2,200 passengers were to be flown from The Bahamas back to Baltimore after a fire broke out aboard a Royal Caribbean ship on Monday.

The fire did enough damage that the rest of the cruise was cancelled the company said.

The fire that began at 2:50 a.m. was extinguished about two hours later with no injuries reported. A cause wasn't immediately known.

The Grandeur of the Seas, which left Baltimore on Friday, never lost power and was able to sail into port in Freeport, Bahamas, Monday afternoon. It had been planned to be a seven-night cruise.

Royal Caribbean said on its website and through social media that executives met with passengers in port and that the cruise line was arranging flights for all 2,224 guests on Tuesday. It said passengers will receive a full refund of their fare and a certificate for a future cruise.

Aboard ship early Monday, the captain announced that passengers needed to go to their muster stations.

Passenger Mark J. Ormesher, a native of England, who lives in Manassas, Virginia, said he and his girlfriend smelled acrid smoke as they went to their muster station, the ship's casino. The crew quickly provided instruction.

Passengers calm

"This encouraged calm among the passengers," Ormesher said. Passengers were required to remain at their stations for four hours, he said, and the captain "provided us as much information as we needed to stay safe."

Ormesher, who is 25 and on his first cruise, said the air conditioner had been shut off, and as the hours passed and the ship got hot, bottled water was distributed. The crew and passengers remained calm, and helped those who needed it.

In Freeport, Bahamas, passenger Andrea Sanders of Washington DC, said she slept on the deck with hundreds of other passengers as smoke billowed out of the stern of the ship. "I was terrified with it being my first cruise," Sanders told The Freeport News as she ate lunch in port.

Royal Caribbean said all guests and 796 crew were safe and accounted for. Spokeswoman Cynthia Martinez said in an email that the company was arranging 11 different charter flights for passengers. Photos show a substantial area of the stern burned on several decks of the ship, the length of about three football fields.

The company in a statement on its website said it is "deeply sorry for this unexpected development in our guests' vacation. We understand that this may have been a very stressful time for them. We appreciate their patience and cooperation in dealing with this unfortunate situation."

Carnival Corp also had trouble with fire aboard one of its ships earlier this year.

The 900-foot Triumph was disabled during a February cruise by an engine room fire in the Gulf of Mexico, leaving thousands of passengers to endure cold food, unsanitary conditions and power outages while the ship was towed to Mobile, Alabama. It remained there for repairs until early May when it headed back to sea under its own power .

The National Transportation Safety Board said in a tweet that it will join the United States Coast Guard in investigating the fire on the Grandeur.

Martinez said in a news release that a cruise aboard the Grandeur of the Seas set for May 31 has been cancelled so the ship can be repaired.

- AP