Passengers on a US cruise ship that broke down in the Pacific recounted tales on Wednesday of sleeping on deck and lining up for emergency-issue Pop Tarts, as they were towed back home.
Some of the 3,299 mostly American travelers on the Carnival Splendor had to wait in line for two hours for food, while coping with a toilet breakdown for several hours after a fire left the vessel stranded on Monday.
“The only thing that made it really tough was when the facilities were all broken down and all the bathrooms weren’t working, and people were starting to get uncomfortable,” David Zambrano told Colorado TV station 9News.
The 103,000 tonne ship, with nearly 4,500 people on board including the 1,167 crew, was expected to dock in San Diego yesterday, three days after the emergency. It is being towed by two ocean-going tugs.
A US Navy aircraft carrier training in the area, the USS Ronald Reagan, diverted on Tuesday to supply the stricken vessel with emergency food supplies after it broke down off Mexico’s Pacific coast.
Helicopters ferried 2 tonnes of groceries to the stricken ship — from cases of bottled drinking water to bread rolls and canned Spam — to keep passengers from going hungry while the luxury liner was without power.
A spokeswoman for the Navy’s Third Fleet in San Diego, Tracy Feeney, said the supplies included Spam, Pop Tarts and bottled water.
Passengers were starting to be able to phone their loved ones on Wednesday, to let them know they were safe, as the cruise liner approached the coast and came in range of cellphone networks, Carnival Cruise Lines said in an update.
Gordon Gilbreath told ABC’s San Diego affiliate KGTV that the ordeal was particularly hard for passengers on cabins without a window.
“A lot of people that are in the inside cabins, it’s been pitch black for several days and most of those folks have been up on the decks and a lot of them have been sleeping on the decks with their blankets and so on,” he said. “You know it gets cold, like during the night it’s been pretty cold so the rooms get cold, so we’ve got a lot of extra blankets.”
“It’s been quite an ordeal, I have to tell you,” he added.
Zambrano, an employee of 9News, described the wait for food.
“You stand in line for two hours just to get your food because everybody goes to the same place to pick up their food,” he said.
“And, so you stand in line and you wait, then once you get your food, you leave and you look for something to do,” he said, adding that passengers kept themselves occupied by chatting, playing cards or strolling around the decks.
The fire erupted in the aft engine room at around 6am on Monday, and was extinguished with no injuries to guests or crew, but the ship was left without key services.
The engine failure left the passengers with no air conditioning or hot food, as the vessel only had auxiliary power, while toilet facilities were also disrupted for much of the first day of the emergency.
On Wednesday the cruise ship company said the ship was still only on backup power.
“Guests continue to be provided food and beverage service and a limited schedule of activities. Toilets continue to function in most staterooms and all public restrooms,” it said.
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