Ordeal over – now for a shower

After three days at sea without hot water, air conditioning or hot food, 3,299 passengers from the cruise ship Carnival Splendor finally stepped ashore on Thursday.
Six tugs guided the ship into port in San Diego, California to end the ordeal which began on Monday when an engine room fire crippled the vessel and left it without power.
Many of the passengers said the overall mood aboard the ship remained fairly upbeat, under the circumstances, with cold, makeshift meals being one of the chief complaints. “I never saw a hot dog salad before,” Tom Fisher told Reuters news agency. “We had yogurt on bread for dessert.”
But it turns out that most flush toilets had been restored to action after only 13 hours and – even more significantly – passengers did not have to exist on emergency rations of Spam. It turns out the cans seen on pallets being airlifted from the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan had been delivered by mistake and a Carnival spokesman said it had not been served to anyone.
There were some surprising reactions among the passengers desperate to take a hot shower and change into clean clothes. “This was the experience of a lifetime and I am just really excited I got to experience it, seriously,” Barbara Dillon told Paul Motter of CruiseMates. “This was my first cruise and I would do it again in a second.” Presumably with all facilities working next time, though.
“Carnival did a great job taking care of us and the crew were wonderful. Our cabin staff worked around the clock. Granted it wasn’t steak and lobsters and the food was certainly not as bad as what everyone has been saying,” said Cruise Critic member flyorange.
Newlywed Candice Vanleeuwan of Moreno Valley, California said the ordeal made for a colourful, if not blissful, start to married life.”Now we can beat anybody’s bad honeymoon story,” she said.
Carnival is providing hotel accommodation and transport home for all passengers, who will receive a full refund and a complimentary future cruise as compensation. Members of crew have been given the option of staying at hotels paid for by Carnival. Along with their normal pay, they are also being compensated for gratuities they would have normally received.
Carnival generators in the aft engine room had an internal malfunction, which he described as a crankcase that split and caused the fire.” The ship will be repaired in San Diego by Carnival technicians and Coast Guard engineers.