SAN DIEGO – They can call it a nightmare.
A cruise from hell.
Even a Spamcation.
Whatever they label it, the gruelling three-day journey of the crippled Carnival Splendor is over, and the nearly 4 500 passengers and crew members can forget about the backed-up toilets, darkened, stuffy cabins and bad food.
“I love being back on land,” said passenger Ken King, 42, of Los Angeles.
As the ship docked yesterday, people who had gathered on the decks and about 100 waiting onshore cheered loudly.
Along the harbour, tourists, joggers and fishermen stopped to snap photos.
Survived
Passengers snapped up $20 T-shirts being sold on land with the phrase: “I survived the 2010 Carnival cruise Spamcation.”
An engine fire aboard the 952-foot cruise liner on Monday morning knocked out power early in its seven-day trip to the Mexican Riviera, setting the ship adrift about 200 miles south of San Diego and 44 miles off the coast of Mexico.
No one was hurt, but passengers said they were jolted awake by the fire. Few of them panicked.
Smoke filled hallways toward the back of the ship, and a smokey odour reached the front cabins. Carnival said a crankcase split on one of the ship’s six diesel engines, causing the fire. (AP)
