The dad of Levion Parker, the 20-year-old Florida outdoorsman who drunkenly leaped to his death in front of his family on a Royal Caribbean cruise last week, is now questioning how his son was able to get so drunk despite being underage.
In an interview with his hometown newspaper, The Daily Sun, Francel Parker insisted that his son wasn’t suicidal and that they weren’t arguing before his fatal plunge—a statement that contradicts what others onboard told the New York Post they witnessed.
Instead, Francel told the paper his son’s spontaneous jump was done out of drunken ignorance—something he suggested should have been avoidable.
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“We don’t drink,” he told the Sun. “I’d like to know how my son was served so much alcohol.”
Despite being over international waters at the time of the fatal plunge, roughly midway between Grand Inagua Island and Cuba, cruises that depart and return from U.S. ports are barred from serving alcohol to anyone under 21. Royal Caribbean has released a statement on the incident, but has not addressed witness statements that claimed Levion was drunk.
Parker added that he’s holding out hope his son, an outdoorsman who won a saltwater fishing tournament just last month, is still alive somewhere in the Caribbean—despite Thursday making it a full week since he disappeared into ocean, and two days since the U.S. Coast Guard called off its search.
“As soon as he went off the side, I prayed over him,” he said, adding that his son was a skilled diver. “I was confident the prayers I said over my son were heard. I stand on the word of God. I believe he is alive.”
The tragedy unfolded around 4 a.m. on April 4, on the 11th deck of the massive Liberty of the Seas cruise liner. Witnesses told the Post last week that Levion was hanging out in a hot tub with his brother when he was approached by his dad, who appeared angry that he’d been drinking.
After what he perceived as being an argument, the witness Bryan Sims told the Post he heard Levion tell his dad, “I’ll fix this right now.” Moments later, he jumped into the dark ocean below—an incident Sims described as being an “impulsive leap.”
Sims added that the ship was moving “pretty fast” and that Francel screamed for staff to alert the captain, which brought the ship to a complete stop within 20 minutes. The vessel launched rescue boats, but to no avail—Levion was nowhere to be found.
Francel told the Sun he flung six life rings off the ship hoping one would reach his son, who he said accompanied him on board along with his younger brother to take a break from his work on a commercial fishing boat.
Social media posts showed Levion graduated from North Port High School, in southwest Florida between Sarasota and Fort Myers, in 2022. He played football there, and regularly posted about fishing and hunting.
In in its lone statement on the incident, Royal Caribbean said last week it was “providing support and assistance” to Levion’s family.
“The ship’s crew immediately launched a search and rescue effort alongside the U.S. Coast Guard,” it said, adding, “For the privacy of the guest and their family, we have no additional details to share.”
