Passengers from Crippled US Cruise Ship Reach Shore

All 3,300 passengers who spent three days stuck on a crippled cruise ship are back on shore and headed for hot food, hot showers, and flushing toilets.Six tugboats pulled the ship into the port of San Diego, California Thursday.The vessel still had no working elevators and conveyor belts, forcing passengers to lug heavy baggage up narrow staircases and down the gangplanks.An engine fire early Monday knocked out all power to the Carnival Cruise ship Splendor, leaving it 80 kilometers off Mexico’s Pacific coast, unable to go anywhere.Passengers said with no air conditioning, their rooms quickly turned into saunas. Toilets would not flush and the hot food quickly ran out.
Passengers stood in lines for hours for canned meat, fruit, vegetables, and according to some reports, mayonnaise sandwiches.But Carnival opened the bars and the non-stop wine and beer kept guests in generally good spirits until they could be towed back to port.Carnival has apologized for what some passengers call the vacation from hell. The cruise line promises to refund the fares and give out vouchers for a future vacation. But some of the guests say it will be a long time before they plan to go on another cruise – Voanews