From ABC News
Luckily no one was hurt in the fire that triggered the power outage, but many passengers aboard the 900-foot colossus said they smelled smoke and were living in fear.
"You didn't know if the ship was going to explode, catch back on fire. You know, for a day or so, we didn't see any kind of sign of life. And so that's pretty scary when you're out there on the water," Robyn Burgess said.
Carnival's original plan was to tow the damaged ship to Progreso, Mexico, because it was the closest port, but by the time tugboats arrived, the ship had drifted about 90 miles north due to strong currents, putting it nearly equidistant to Mobile, Ala.
Carnival added that it has canceled a dozen planned voyages for the Triumph and acknowledged that the crippled ship had been plagued by other mechanical problems in the weeks before an engine-room fire left it powerless in the Gulf of Mexico.
"No ships were coming, no boats, were coming, we saw no helicopters," said Jenkins. "It scared us because we thought the ship wasn't notifying or coming out to help us."
It took more than a day before the first tugboat arrived. As passengers got cell reception, they shared photos revealing squalid conditions - sewage seeping through the floors, plastic bags used for restrooms. Tent camps above deck, and mattresses sprawled out below. For some, the hardest part was losing contact with their family.
~
CBS News
My heart goes out to those poor passengers stuck on that floating bedpan in the Gulf of Mexico. For four days, 4,000 people stuck on a ship with foul odors, the toilets aren't working, and there's long lines for food. And here's the worst part. The karaoke machine is still working.
~
Jay Leno
I want to say if any of you are alone today (Valentine's), it could be worse. You could be on a cruise ship right now — the most miserable cruise in the history of the world.
~
Conan O'Brien
David Letterman ~ Carnival Cruise Top Ten
Things People Said When Getting Off the Hell Cruise
10.You know, it's not the worst cruise I've taken.
9. I loved everything about the cruise, except the raw sewage.
8. I didn't find love but I did catch Campylobacteriosis.
7. Thanks for nothing, Superman.
6. He looks taller in films
(oh sorry, that's what people say getting off Tom Cruise).
5. Maybe I'm just not a cruise person.
4. I need a hot shower, then a lawyer.
3. Next time, we're taking an Italian Cruise.
2. I waited in line for six hours for an onion and mayonnaise sandwich,
and I'm not leaving till I get one.
1. Damn, I missed my connecting cruise.
NEW ORLEANS - Someone who suffered through the debacle of the Carnival Triumph cruise wasn't through with his travel troubles after he got on dry land.
"The bus literally breaks down," said Clark Jones . . . Jones, along with thousands of others, endured no water and no working bathrooms on the Triumph while at sea. The boat docked on dry land early Friday morning in Mobile, Ala.
But then, his transportation back home to Dallas had more problems.
"It comes to a stop in the middle of the highway," said Jones, a musician.
"We have to pull over to the side. It's dark. All the lights on the bus go out."
Those on the bus who endured the cruise of the Triumph had various reactions, from anger to humor.
"My son Jacob and I, when we pulled over and realized the bus was broken, we just started laughing. People were giggling. Other people were not happy. I don't know what you can do about that. Buses break down all the time."
~
NBC News
The cruise company is making a gift to the travelers of the bathrobes they were using on the ship, the company announced Friday.
"Of course the bathrobes for the Carnival Triumph are complimentary," it said in a tweet on the official @carnivalcruise account.
But the announcement has been received with less than full-throated cheers.
"Who wants a stinky robe?!" tweeted a reporter in North Carolina, Astrid Martinez, while another user of the social media site, Natalie Eshaya, enthused sarcastically, "Oh how generous."
Another skeptic, Paul Nather, wondered "What do you think the going rate for a Carnival cruise bathrobe will be on eBay tomorrow?"
The white bathrobe has become an unlikely symbol of the nightmare of the cruise-goers, who donned them to attract attention as they stood on the drifting ship.
Others used the white terrycloth as a canvas to write messages, with one passenger proclaiming, "I survived Carnival's triumph redbags" -- a reference to the bags that substituted for toilets.
~
Agence France-Presse via Raw Story
They’re doing everything possible to make you forget that you’re on a boat. So what’s the point of having a boat? It’s just a hotel that might sink.
~
Steve Kornacki on MSNBC's The Cycle
I have a deep blood memory aversion to getting on a big boat. Maybe a little boat but not a big boat. They keep talking about nightmare cruise, I’m like, ‘Hello, the Middle Passage, that was a nightmare cruise."
~
Touré on MSNBC's The Cycle, referring to Slave Ships of the Middle Passage from Africa
Carnival Snooze
Oh, you were on a cruise for 8 days instead of four, and you didn’t run out of food or water, and you had trouble charging your cellphone, and all you got was a full refund, $500 bucks, a night in a hotel, and another free cruise? Yeah, you get 3,000 tiny violins, and a case of Purell®. Even white people are like, “Those are some white people problems.”
~
Mediaite
Happy Valentine's Day. I'd like to give a shout-out to all the lovers out there, some of whom are clearly lying . . . all the lovers out there who thought it would be a good idea to take their significant other on a cruise for the holiday and ended up stranded at sea for six days crapping into a plastic bag. Or as the Germans call that "The Love Boat."
. . . CNN has been on the case, for some reason giving this boat crisis wall-to-sh*t-covered-wall coverage, treating a stalled cruise ship like it's the Shackleton Expedition (to Antarctica).
(Plays CNN clip of people waving from ship to loved ones on shore.)
Yeah, you're not heroes, guys. It's not a hostage situation or a baby in a well. You reconnected them? They weren't supposed to see each other. They were on a cruise for a few days.
Meanwhile, the "ship of stools" enjoyed 24-7 coverage and a slow tugboat job back to Mobile, Alabama.
~
Jon Stewart of Comedy Central
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CNN Transcript 2 ~ The Erin Burnett Show Feb. 14, 2013
BURNETT: I mean, we've heard about it was listing. I mean, there had to be moments where you said, I'm vulnerable out there? Did you never feel that way?
KENNY: Yes, I mean, a little bit. You know, like I said I -- my personality is I have to take things in stride. I don't -- you know, I don't want to worry too much, but I don't want to get overexcited, but you know what I do remember is when you're on going through the, you know, the muster station drills and the safety procedures and they're talking about the worst thing that could happen on a ship is a fire, and you're like, yes, well, that's not going to happen.
BURNETT: Yes.
KENNY: And then, of course, you know, you're woken up at 5:30 a.m. by the captain saying Alpha team and you're putting two and two together, and then you smell smoke, and so, yes, that was a little unnerving so I think at that point you're like, we are out here in the Gulf and, you know, there's nothing out here. You know? And that was -- that was a little -- a little scary. We were dead in the water, I mean, for the -- you know, no other way to put it so.
SAVIDGE: And the isolation factor you described, this is the same sort of thing many people have gone through Katrina in New Orleans, those that were left behind, they never heard anything either. And it's -- your mind begins to race, you wonder if anybody knows the circumstance you're in. You think you're all alone and of course any rumor becomes solid fact and it spreads in a very closed environment so I imagined it's something very similar.
KENNY: Yes. But, you know, let's put that perspective. I mean Katrina was a major devastation.
SAVIDGE: True.
KENNY: We're on a freaking cruise ship and we were just all having a good time. So, you know, from that angle, and I get it because it is an isolation of communication, but two different things, you know, two different things. And it's just --
SAVIDGE: What was it like when you first were able to talk to someone?
BURNETT: Yes.
KENNY: That was great. Getting through to my wife, you know, being able to talk to my kids just for a little bit, just to say, hey, I'm out here, I'm all right, you know, was awesome to be able to do that. And you know, I mean, it's -- you know, you speak to them a couple of days, you're on a cruise, you know, and -- so that was good just to be able to have that, knowing that hey, I'm OK, you know, the ships were still here, we're not sinking or anything like that.
BURNETT: So would you -- will you go on a cruise again?
KENNY: I would.
BURNETT: Yes?
KENNY: Yes, I mean, you know, it's going to take a while. It's not going to be like next week or anything so --
(LAUGHTER)
