Princess Cruises crew member dies after overboard incident from Fort Lauderdale ship

Princess Cruises confirmed Monday that a crew member aboard Regal Princess died after going overboard while the ship was sailing near Cancun, Mexico. The ship had left Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale on Saturday, July 11, turning a routine South Florida departure into a maritime emergency far from Broward County.

An active search-and-rescue operation had been underway in waters off Cancun before the death was confirmed. The crew member’s identity was not released. Regal Princess, a Royal-class ship that entered service in May 2014, carries 3,560 guests and 1,346 crew, according to the line’s fact sheet.

The voyage was a seven-night itinerary that included Mexico, Belize and Honduras, a familiar route for Fort Lauderdale sailings. That matters in Broward because Port Everglades is one of the county’s defining economic anchors and its cruise gateway. The port says it is one of the three busiest cruise homeports in the world, handled more than 4 million cruise guests in fiscal year 2024, and posted a preliminary guest count of more than 4.7 million in fiscal year 2025.

Port Everglades also says cruise and related activity generate about $48.3 billion in annual economic impact and support nearly 300,000 jobs across Florida. That makes a death involving a crew member on a ship that left Fort Lauderdale more than an isolated tragedy at sea. It reaches back into the local tourism economy, where dock workers, hotel employees, travel professionals and port contractors all depend on the steady movement of cruise traffic through Broward.

The incident also shows how quickly a shipboard emergency can become an international response once a vessel has left Port Everglades and entered the western Caribbean. Princess Cruises said its condolences went to the family and friends affected by the loss as maritime authorities handled the overboard emergency off Mexico’s coast.