Tragic death leads to cruise delays as man goes overboard on Disney Wonder

• A man went overboard on Disney Wonder on Saturday morning.
• The police have reported the man dead.
• Disney Wonder will be delayed in reaching New Zealand.

An elderly Melbourne man has died after going overboard on Disney Wonder. He was lost overboard at 4:30am on Saturday morning and the captain of the Disney Wonder turned the ship around to search for him at about 12pm.

The ship spent about five-hours searching for the man with thermal imaging technology, but was not able to locate him.

The police shortly confirmed his death. A police spokeswoman said that the man jumped from the cruise ship, rather than fell.

The spokeswoman said: “It is understood the man died after he jumped from a cruise liner into the waters in the Tasman Sea on Saturday, about 4.30 am”.

The ship was sailing a five-night cruise from Melbourne to Auckland.

A passenger onboard Mitch Talbot told NZ Herald: “The captain came on and updated the boat and basically stated that there was someone, a passenger had fallen overboard … [but] that they were unable to find them.

“It was quite sombre, and it was a bit eerie the rest of the day. A lot of the staff kind of took some time.”

Disney Wonder is expected to arrive one-day late to New Zealand, which will likely have a domino effect onto delaying its next voyage.

Disney Cruise Line is currently sailing its final cruises in Australia for the foreseeable future. The cruise line announced that it will not be returning to Australia for next season.