Girl, 5, fell from Disney cruise ship after mom asked her to pose for photos on the railing: police
A five-year-old girl who fell overboard on a Disney cruise ship in June had been posing on a railing in an open porthole at the behest of her mother, a Florida police report published in mid-October revealed.
Although the woman’s actions were investigated as a possible case of child neglect and found to be “irresponsible” by the state attorney’s office, she won’t face any criminal charges related to an accident that could have proved fatal had her husband not dove into the Caribbean sea to save his daughter.
Video of their subsequent rescue by the vessel’s emergency responders quickly proliferated across social media and made headlines around the world.
According to the Broward County Sheriff’s Office report obtained by National Post, the family, non-Florida residents experiencing their first cruise, was exploring the Disney Dream as it steamed back to Florida on the morning of June 29 after a four-day visit to an island resort in the Bahamas.
Based on family statements and security footage, as the family of three were walking along Deck 4 at 11:29 a.m., the mother allowed her daughter to sit on the railing in the porthole for a photo.
Once on the railing, the girl “lost her balance and fell backwards” over the port side to the water’s surface nearly 50 feet below.
The father, walking just ahead of them, was unaware of what happened until he heard his wife’s “desperate” scream and rushed around to find his daughter missing and his wife telling him she’d fallen into the sea.
After a brief moment of panic, the man leapt in after her, thereby activating the ship’s man overboard sensors that the little girl’s slight body didn’t set off in her descent.
Once in the water, the man initially couldn’t see his little girl among the rolling waves off the 340-metre-long ship moving at about 10 knots, but he called out her name and swam to her as she responded.
Records and social media footage used by investigators show that the vessel came to a stop and began turning around. The rescue boat was deployed 11 minutes after the girl fell in and both she and her father were plucked from the water nine minutes later.
Wow, total chills watching this rescue of father and daughter after the dad jumped in to save her when she fell overboard off of The Disney Dream cruise ship. Dad of the year right there. pic.twitter.com/JzxPdaSTg3
— Jimni38 (@Jimni38) June 30, 2025
Both were sent to the ship’s medical centre for treatment and the father ended up needing to be hospitalized for an undisclosed injury. The girl, who had taken swimming lessons but couldn’t swim according to her mother, escaped her precipitous drop without injury.
The morning after the accident, Deputy David Argenti “observed her eating breakfast and interacting normally for a five-year-old,” but made the mandatory report to the state’s abuse hotline, which in turn dispatched the special victims unit to investigate.
The mother would later tell Special Victims Unit Detective Christopher Favitta that she “assumed the porthole had a window or Plexi-glass” that would stop the girl from falling and provided numerous photos taken in other covered portholes on the ship.
“(The mother) Stated that she felt like there should be coverings on the windows, and cited that Disney is responsible for what had occurred,” he wrote.
Favitta visited the vessel and found that the opening where she’d fallen was “blatantly” unprotected.
Favitta wrote that while it appeared to be an accident, he deemed it an “avoidable” one.
By assuming it was safe to put her daughter in that position, he noted the mother’s actions in putting the child in a “life-threatening situation” could constitute a “failure to supervise” under the state’s child neglect statute and therefore recommended charges.
State prosecutors, however, declined to follow through in mid-September.
“While the defendant`s conduct is arguably negligent and irresponsible, it does not rise to the egregious level of conduct necessary to establish criminal culpable negligence,” assistant state’s attorney Melissa Kelly stated in her decision.
Disney, in a statement to National Post the day after the incident, commended its crew for their quick action to save the pair.
“We are committed to the safety and well-being of our guests, and this incident highlights the effectiveness of our safety protocols.”
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