FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. _ For the Whitten family of Jacksonville, being a family of five, instead of four, to fill the only remaining seats on a bus, proved a fateful fact earlier this week.
That bus, part of a cruise-sponsored tour to ancient Mayan ruins, went ahead of the one they eventually boarded. And it was the one that flipped over along a winding Mexican road Tuesday, causing the death of 12 people aboard.
"We missed it by 30 seconds," said Michelle Whitten, mother of Joss, 12, Colby, 8 and Sidney, 7, shaking her head.
Her husband, John, said, "We saw bodies on the road. There was blood everywhere."
The family was among thousands of Royal Caribbean's Serenade of the Seas passengers who disembarked Friday morning at Port Everglades after witnessing the tragedy in some way. A number of them saw the scene as they drove past, on their way to the ruins, and others heard it announced on the ship intercom.
Just one of the passengers aboard Serenade of the Seas, believed to be a Canadian woman, was among the 12 killed in the accident, passengers said. Her family _ a husband and two children _ did not get back on the cruise ship after the crash. Another 10 victims were passengers on the Celebrity Equinox, which returns to the Port of Miami on Saturday.
A Coconut Creek woman, Fanya Shamis, 78, her daughter, and her grandson, were among the dead who had been passengers on the Celebrity Equinox.
The driver of the ill-fated bus has been faulted _ and taken into custody _ for excessive speed along the road that had no guardrails or shoulder, according to reports.
Disembarking from the Serenade of the Seas, Pamela Presley, 48, and her husband, Glenn Wildenmann, 50, of Montreal, were puzzled over why they were suddenly getting messages that their relatives in Canada were calling on Tuesday. They dared not answer because of data charges, but then they heard the captain's announcement.
"At first, people were talking over what he was saying, like they always do, but then when we started to hear 'fatalities' and 'accident' it went dead quiet," Wildenmann said.
"I've never been in a place with so many people so quiet like that." Presley said.
Royal Caribbean allotted passengers 30 minutes of free internet time to contact relatives and reassure them, Wildenmann said.
At an earlier stop during the cruise, the couple had taken a bus snorkeling in Honduras, Presley said. That experience convinced them they didn't need to take any more tours.
"The roads there have no lanes," Wildenmann said. "They are narrow and treacherous."
Others disembarking the Serenade of the Seas were contemplating brushes with fate and why they hadn't gotten on that bus.
Nita Burg, a retired psychologist who splits her time between Fort Myers and Kentucky, said she planned to visit the ruins, but wasn't feeling well that morning. Later that day, she and her traveling companion were sitting at a bar around dinner time, having a drink when the news came.
"It's an awful thing _ it could happen to anyone," she said. "The room went silent for quite a while. We left our drinks at the bar."
Dining companions at their table had witnessed the crash's aftermath firsthand, she said.
"They were traumatized," she said.
The ship's departure from the Mexican port was delayed by two hours the day of the crash, passengers said. After that, though, all the regular activities went on as usual, they said.
Burg said the news cast a cloud over the proceedings, however. She loved the music on the cruise _ top notch performances, she said _ but when she sat to listen, tears began streaming down her face.
"There's so much pain in the world," she said. "And this could have been avoided."
