Florida Woman Who Is ‘Struggling With Her Faith’ Gets On Cruise Ship. Then She Looks Up Into The Sky One Night

A Florida woman has sparked discussion after claiming she saw an angel off a cruise ship—and she got it on video.

In a video with over 134,000 views, TikTok user Riley Nipper (@itsmamariles) says she saw an angel off the balcony of her cruise ship in December 2023.

For some backstory, Nipper says she was unsure of her beliefs.

“I was struggling with my faith really bad,” she starts. “I was raised super Christian, all the things. But for the last few years before this, I just didn’t know what was what and all the things. But I was also going through a really tough time in my relationship and everything at the time as well.”

Then, she was on a cruise ship at around 3 or 4 in the morning. After a bit of drinking, she says her child’s father came in from the balcony. Something was immediately amiss.

“He’s bawling his eyes out, all the things,” Nipper starts. “‘You need to see this.’ Like, ‘It wants you to come out.’ He was, like, talking all philosophical.”

She Sees The Creature

When Nipper went outside, she saw what her child’s father saw—a winged creature in the sky, glowing.

Describing it as similar to a phoenix, she says it could not have been a bird, as they were too far into the ocean.

“This bird was so big, or whatever you want to call it, and it was—there was a literal light on it, and it wasn’t a drone,” she states.

As evidence, she shows a brief clip that she says depicts the creature.

“Can you see how large this thing is compared to the boat? This was not a bird,” she says.

So, What Is This Creature?

Bird.

In all seriousness, if one looks closely at the alleged “angel,” it becomes clear that this is a known animal, not an otherworldly creature.

Skeptics of this idea may claim, as Nipper did, that birds are not present over the ocean. This is simply not true; numerous studies have noted that some types of birds can take weeks-long trips over oceans. In fact, the great frigatebird can fly for two months without landing.

This can also explain the size. Many birds are much, much larger than people think. For example, the aforementioned Great Frigatebird can have a wingspan of around 91 inches. Even common seagulls—known as American herring gulls—can have wingspans of almost 5 feet.

As for why it was illuminated, it’s possible that lights from the ship were simply reflecting off of the bird. While we can’t be sure why this would happen, it makes significantly more sense than “bird-shaped angel.”

That’s Not What Angels Look Like

If this experience brought Nipper closer to her faith, that’s perfectly fine. However, it should be noted that what she saw in no way matches with the Bible’s depiction of angels.

In the Bible, angels can be pretty grotesque. For example, the book of Ezekiel describes an angel as a “wheel in the middle of a wheel” covered in eyes.

In Isaiah 6, the seraphim that stand above God’s throne are a little more bird-like. Still, it’s not one-for-one with a bird. These creatures have six wings: two to fly, two to cover their faces, and two to cover their feet.

Regardless, this may have been a meaningful experience for Nipper, regardless of whether the explanation is natural or supernatural.

Commenters Don’t Believe It

In the comments section, some users weren’t buying Nipper’s angel explanation.

“Girl I hate to break it to you but it’s a bird,” wrote a user. “I saw several of them when I went on a cruise in March. You should probably look into things before having people think it was an actual angel.”

“It’s a bird! The light from the ship is reflecting!” exclaimed another. “I have the same footage from my cruiseship balcony posted on my Channel as well! I was convinced it was a UFO!

That said, some insisted the TikToker encountered a real, bird-like angel.

“I believe you! I know a lady who saw an angel in a hospital room, and the nurses even told her that it was an angel that she had seen, that they saw them all the time,” said a commenter.

“I was in Anna Maria Florida and I seen 2 angels in the sky. I looked over at a guy on the beach and said do you see this and he said yes. Two angels playing in the sky,” claimed a second.

BroBible reached out to Nipper via Instagram, Facebook, and X direct message.