Watch man being rescued by Disney cruise ship after falling off a different vessel only hours earlier

The man had a lucky escape after a passenger on board the Disney Magic heard his screams and alerted the crew

The man swims to the lifeboat

This is the dramatic moment a man was saved by a Disney cruise ship after he fell off the side of another vessel and ended up the sea.

It is thought that the 22-year-old man was in the water for around five hours before he was spotted by the second ship and a lifeboat was deployed to pick him up.

The rescue was captured on camera by David Hearn, a passenger on board the Disney Magic cruise liner, and shows the man flailing in the ocean as the orange lifeboat arrives. He can be seen swimming through the choppy water and towards the boat and eventually getting on.

"He was incredibly lucky," Hearn told ABC News and added, "If we had been a little bit further away we never would have heard him screaming."

The man was travelling on the Oasis of the Sea, owned by Royal Caribbean, when tumbled off the side of the vessel last Thursday (8 January).

The passenger fell into waters off the coast of Cozumel, Mexico but says that he does not remember how it happened. The man was taken to a local hospital where he was treated before being flown back to the US.

Scott Campbell, another passenger on board the Disney Magic, raised the alarm at around 6.30am after he heard the man’s screams and spotted him in the ocean. Mr Campbell was on the balcony of his cabin with his daughter at the time when they saw the man.

A statement from Royal Caribbean said that company officials "are grateful for the other ship's assistance" but did not give further details.