On our first night at sea there was a tragic incident. There are still a lot of questions, but I've managed to assemble the following facts from various sources.
10:16pm there was an "Oscar, Oscar, Oscar" announcement. Those familiar with the maritime industry immediately knew that meant someone went overboard. Apparently people in some of the concerts (myself included) did not hear this broadcast.
10:??pm Royal Caribbean's Marc Walker made the following announcement (you can hear it on Jason Green's video at the 41:20 mark):
"Good evening ladies and gentlemen, if I may have everybody's attention please, if I may have everybody's attention please, uh, this is Marc, cruise director for Royal Caribbean in charge of your safety on board the Explorer of the Seas, uh, you may have heard an announcement earlier, uh, we do actually have a person overboard and just to advise you the captain has turned the ship around and we are actively seeking for the person who was reported to go overboard. We are following all our visual protocols and we will keep you updated with the progress. So once again we did have a situation with a person being overboard, we have turned the ship around and we are following our visual protocols to find the person who went overboard tonight. We do apologize for the inconvenience. We have closed deck 4 outer decks as we need them for our crew members and to launch the boats. so deck 4 is currently closed but we do have decks 11 and 12 outside decks open we will keep you updated and of course keep this person in your prayers. Thank you so much."
11:00pm JT Watters made an announcement that the 2026 line-up would be delayed due to the "passenger emergency" and ongoing search. You can hear the complete audio on a recording by Chuck Coverly.
"JT here, cruise director, yes, thank you, my arm is feeling better. I know we're being simulcast in Studio B and 80s 'R' Us as well Hey listen, I know many, many, many of you heard the announcement over the P.A. system Unfortunately yes we are dealing with a passenger emergency right now, so for that reason I do have to let you know that we are going to wait on the line-up announcement in case Royal Caribbean's security team needs to, uh, further, um, investigate the situation. So we are going to wait on the line-up announcement. Once again, we will do that tomorrow we're gonna keep the entertainment going tonight, but, hear me out- listen, we have to assist Royal Caribbean we have to make sure that safety remains the number one priority and for that reason we are not able to get on the P.A. system and do the announcement at this moment. I promise you we will do it, you will know it, as soon as Entertainment Cruise Productions is allowed to do it, we will make sure you know it, but for now all we can do is make sure that we keep the entertainment going, that you're having a good time, and we have to abide by what the Royal Caribbean security team needs us to do. We thank you so much for your understanding and we are gonna get the music going. We're going to keep the entertainment going so thank you again for your understanding and keep enjoying your night on the 80s cruise 2025 night number 1 we'll keep you posted with updates as we know it. Thank you so much."
Our ship, along with others, searched for several hours. The next morning, March 3rd, the ship’s captain made an announcement confirming someone went overboard, but that there would be no further updates or details released out of respect for the family.
On March 4th (2 days later) Kellie Burch announced on Facebook that her sister, Kimberly, had passed away. TMZ posted about it soon after. Kimberly was the fiancé of Faster Pussycat's lead singer, Taime Downe.
On March 7th (5 days later) Riki Rachtman posted a video on Facebook condemning the rumors surrounding Kimberly's death and suspicions cast about Taime Downe's involvement. (link to video)
So as you can see things unfolded slowly over several days. For this reason, and out of respect for the loved ones involved, I kept all posts out of the Meet & Greet group. There were a lot of rumors floating around - some involving completely different bands - and a lot of unnecessary speculation. Several journalists tried to join the group as well, no doubt looking for anything they could report on.
