Watch Massive, 30-Foot Waves Batter This Cruise Ship

Everybody wants a few surprises on their vacations, but there's a big difference between finding fresh flowers and towels folded into a swan in your hotel room and what happened to these cruise ship passengers. Surely they thought they were booking passage to paradise. But when the ship encountered a storm of surprising strength on the way, their vacations were cut short. It takes one mighty storm to turn back a big, modern ship, but as one passenger's footage shows, this one fit the bill.

This is what Stephen Burke, an entertainer on board Royal Caribbean's Anthem of the Seas, can usually see out his third-deck window: the calm, clear seas of tropical paradises.

Anthem of the Seas is a huge ship, sporting more amenities than a lot of cities. And having launched in 2015, it's about as state-of-the-art as you'll find in any cruise ship fleet. You'd think it could weather just about anything – and that idea was definitely put to the test. 

Stephen took some incredible footage when Anthem of the Seas hit a patch of rough weather on a journey to Port Canaveral, Florida.

How rough? This was the view from Stephen's third-deck cabin. We're talking about hurricane-force wind speeds. 

Remember, he's typically 30 feet above the water, and yet the ocean slams against his window. 

Passengers on board the ship – all 4,500 of them – and the 1,600 crew members were told to stay in their rooms overnight while the ship headed back to port instead of moving on to Florida.

Just look at these waves wash over the window!

Scary!

The ship did indeed suffer some damage in the storm. It wasn't pretty. Thankfully, only four people were injured during the storm, and none severe.

All the passengers received a full refund and a discount on their next trip.