Cruise nightmare: 'Terrifying' moment water gushes through Carnival ship

A family's holiday was completely ruined by the "terrifying" moment water flooded through a ceiling into their room on a Carnival cruise ship, which they described as being like a "scene out of Titanic".

Two dramatic videos show water gushing through the deck's ceiling, pouring down walls and flooding a hallway, while staff members wade through huge puddles attempting to mop up the mess.

The TikToker named Amber who posted the footage said her family was woken at 2am on October 17 with "water gushing into our room from the ceiling on deck seven of the Carnival Radiance", after the ship left Long Beach, California.

"Security in this video telling me I can't record," she added. "It was absolutely terrifying. Still waiting on corporate to contact us."

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In one of the clips, which spans an inundated cabin with extensive water damage and soaked property, a man can be heard saying, "I don't know if we have power. Everything's destroyed."

Crew members can be seen using specialised vaccums and sponge mops to contain the water, while a plastic curtain helped to reduce extra water spray.

Water 'ruined everything'

The woman's partner Ryan McGuyer took to Facebook to slam Carnival and the actions of staff during the incident, which he said occurred on the first day of the family's three-day cruise.

He said their cabin was flooded with 45cm of water, they had to swap rooms twice in 14 hours and only had the clothes they fled in, so were left wearing pyjamas for two days.

"We just went to sleep, there was water pouring down all the walls. It ruined everything, it ruined all our luggage," Mr McGuyer wrote.

Children 'traumatised' by incident

"There were people yelling and screaming down the hallway with life vests, we thought the boat was going down. Literally seemed like a scene from Titanic and Carnival did nothing for us, told us to send them an email to guest services on the boat, did nothing for us."

Mr McGuyer said the 272m cruise ship, which can carry 2,984 passengers and 1,108 crew members, was heading to Catalina when the water pipe burst. He further claimed Carnival refused to help the family get off the boat and return to port despite being just 40km from Long Beach.

"That was our first cruise, our kids are traumatised and will never want to go on another cruise," Mr McGuyer wrote in the post.

Amber claimed she was left waiting four hours for Carnival staff to contact her. And no announcements about what was happening were made. "I'm so angry," she added.

In the comments, one viewer said she was also on the Radiance in June and it had leaking issues, closing entire floors for broken pipes. "Water was everywhere," she claimed.

One TikToker wrote, "Another fear of why I won't go on a cruise."

A third wrote, "I've been on several Carnival cruises and never had an issue but if I saw that much water, I would absolutely panic. So sorry this happened to you."

Yahoo News Australia has reached out to Carnival Cruise Line for comment.

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