"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," passenger Gordon Gilbreath told KGTV, the ABC station in San Diego.
The ship is expected to arrive in San Diego on Thursday afternoon, Carnival said in a statement this afternoon. The ship was headed for Mexico on Monday when an engine room fire disabled the vessel, cut its power and sent the cruise liner adrift more than 200 miles off the coast of San Diego. Now, two tug boats are towing the Splendor back to port.
As the ship nears the shoreline, passengers began to enjoy at least one modern convenience again: cell phone service.
In one call today, a passenger described long waits for food aboard the ship. "It's nothing like anyone expected, no," David Zambrano told 9News, the NBC station in Denver. "You stand in line for two hours just to get your food because everybody goes to the same place to pick up their food. And, so you stand in line and you wait, then once you get your food, you leave and you look for something to do."
No one was injured in the fire, but for the 4,500 passengers and crew who thought they were going to enjoy a plush trip to the Mexican Riviera, the botched journey has been anything but luxurious. The engine fire left the ship with limited running water, flushing toilets and air conditioning, conditions Carnival CEO Gerry Cahill admitted were "very challenging." In a statement, he apologized for the "discomfort and inconvenience our guests are currently enduring."
The USS Ronald Reagan tried to ease the burden Tuesday by air-lifting 65,000 pounds of Spam, Pop-Tarts and other supplies onto the deck of the Carnival Splendor -- "anything that doesn't need to be cooked or refrigerated," a Coast Guard spokesman told AOL News today. It's not caviar, but given the circumstances, it will have to do.
The food was nothing like the feast passengers thought they'd be getting from Carnival, which boasts on its website that travelers aboard the Splendor can "eat whatever you like, whenever you like. Hamburgers, hot dogs, pizza, salads, roast beef, chicken, fish, broccoli, rice, potatoes, ice cream, cake, pie, cookies. ... Do we need to go on?"
By Tuesday evening, most of the ship's toilets were working again, but the ship remained without air conditioning, phone service or hot food, Carnival said. The Coast Guard was on the scene as well Tuesday, making sure conditions remained safe aboard the 952-foot ship.
Carnival said it will give the Splendor's passengers a full refund, pay for their travel expenses and offer them another trip on a Carnival cruise liner at a discounted rate. For now, though, it just wants to make sure they get home safely.
"The safety of our passengers and crew is our top priority, and we are working to get our guests home as quickly as possible," Cahill said in a statement.
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Stranded at Sea
A Navy Seahawk helicopter brings supplies to the Carnival Splendor cruise ship in waters off the Baja Peninsula of Mexico on Tuesday. The 3,000 passengers are stranded on the ship, which lost power after an engine fire on Monday morning.
A helicopter from the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier brings supplies to the 952-foot vessel, which is being towed slowly by tugboats to San Diego.
The Carnival Splendor sits in front of the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier, seen from a Navy aircraft. The ship was headed out on a 7-day cruise on the Mexican Riviera at the time of the fire.
Instead of the luxury they were expecting, tins of Spam were delivered to the passengers. The ship is expected to arrive in San Diego on Thursday night.
