what could have been to a ship like starcruises if it comes across the
tsumani like that on 26-12-04 in south east asia, when the ship
sailing in the sea with about 2000 passengers and 1000 crew members. i
was on this ship and in this very same region on 22-12 04.

Hello and thank you for your question.

From today's Wall Street Journal:

"In the deep ocean . . . .the wave crests often measure less than
three feet high and are hundreds of miles apart, so sailors sense
nothing amiss and typically don't even know that they are riding atop
a growing tsunami. . . . In shallower waters, though, the tsunami
usually wins...."

totally satisfying.

Not much would happen. On high sea, a tsunami is not a gigantic wave.

Scriptor

My compliments, scriptor, on your powers of discernment in translating
"have been" to "happen."  I recognize the special nature of those
diagonal leaps across the language barrier and am sometimes able to
make them myself, but I'm not in your league.

Archae0pteryx

Having taken the same cruise myself several years ago, this was
actually one of my own thoughts today as I reviewed the news coming
out of the region, in particular the news from Phuket. The time at
which the earthquake occurred in the morning coincided with the
typical time when the cruise ship would be coming into port, so the
effect of the surge from the tsunami would have been more pronounced
than if the ship were at sea. That said, a 5 metre wave isn't too
dramatic for a large cruise ship... it's the solid objects such as the
concrete piers that the cruise ship is moored to that will cause the
problem should the wave push the ship into the pier a little too hard.
Fortunately, this is all an academic point as the ship itenaries for
Star Cruises had their ships either in Singapore or on the open seas
at the time of the earthquake.

"Tsunamis are ocean waves created by earthquakes and undersea
landslides. A tsunami is actually a series of waves that can travel at
speeds averaging 450 (and up to 600) MPH in the open ocean. In the
open ocean, ships would not feel a tsunami because the wavelength
would be hundreds of miles long, with amplitude of only a few feet. As
the waves approach the coast, their speed decreases and their
amplitude increases. Wave heights have been known to be as large as
100 feet, with the average being 10 to 20 feet high. Time between the
waves varies between 5 and 90 minutes, with the first wave usually not
being the most significant. Areas of greatest risk are less than 25
feet in elevation and within one mile from the coastline."

http://www1.va.gov/emshg/apps/emp/7_2___sop_all/tsunami_sop.htm