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>> what happens here, and i get back to the striking resemblance to the costa concordia disaster. what happened here is the vessel struck something. it struck a scholl or something in the water. there was a loud bang that was heard. eventually it listed and listed very severely. the captain did something which is by all accounts really horrible. that is he or someone else -- they're not sure whom was at the helm. it could have been this third officer at the helm at the time. but someone went on the pa system and announced and told everyone to stay in place, to keep calm and stay in place. that...

Time to bring people to their muster stations where they would kong congregate. on the other hand, if the vessel is in peril of sinking before you could actually get people to muster stations or ready the lifeboats to go over the side, then obviously passengers have to take it upon themselves, working with crew, and find a safe means of egress you sboo the water and away from a sinking ship. >> apparently it didn't work and they weren't able to get off as quickly as possible. what do you make of the fact that only one of the lifeboats seemed to deploy? >> there is some confusion on that point....

Now when i opened the door to our cabin about, that's when i smelled smoke. they instructed us to put on our life vests and go to our muster stations. >> reporter: that's not clear what caused the fire. it burned for two hours on the stern, destroying parts of several of the decks. the ship itself did not lose power and was able to dock in the bahamas on monday afternoon, martha. martha: what a mess. what is next for the passengers? >> reporter: royal caribbean officials were on the scene in the bahamas. they're arranging charter flights back to baltimore. that is where the cruise started. pas...

Royal caribbean says the ship never lost power. a substantial area caught fire on several decks and passengers report they lost air conditioning. with the hours passing the ship got hotter and hotter. steve harrigan is live in our miami bureau with that. how dangerous was this. steve? >> certainly disorienting and fearful for many of the passengers, staff members aboard that royal caribbean ship actually went cabin to cabin pounding at doors at 3:00 in the morning on memorial day. some of the passengers could see the flames but many of them could smell the smoke from the fire. >> the captain c...

>> announcer: from abc news, this is "world news now," with john muller and diana perez. good morning, everybody. back to work time, huh? >> sure is. tuesday. hmm. >> yeah, well, what are you going to do? let's begin this half hour with a nightmare, another one aboard a cruise ship. listen to this -- thousands of people forced to bring their luxury vacation to an abrupt end. >> this time frightened passengers had to scramble out of their beds after fire broke out on a royal caribbean cruise ship. abc's matt gutman has the latest. >> reporter: in the middle of the night, passengers aboard t...