Arizonans await word from stranded Carnival cruise ship

by Dawn Gilbertson - Nov. 9, 2010 03:34 PM

The Arizona Republic

Arizonans with family and friends on the Carnival Splendor are still awaiting word from the stranded passengers.

Jayne Feiner of Sedona said she hasn't heard from her mother and sister since they boarded the ship in Long Beach, Calif., on Sunday for the week long cruise on the Mexican Riviera.

Feiner heard about Monday's engine room fire from a friend's message on Facebook. He was due to meet her mother and sister in Puerto Vallarta during their stop there.

"He said, 'Is this your Mom's boat?' And I'm like, 'Yes, that would be my Mom's boat."'

Feiner said her mother and sister, who live in California, love cruises and were on the Splendor with a group of about 20 people.

"They were trying to have a good time," she said.

There were no injuries but Carnival canceled the cruise because the ship was operating on auxiliary power and engineers were unable to restore additional power. There is no air conditioning or hot food service. The bathrooms didn't work initially but that service was restored.

AAA Arizona has some clients on the Splendor but has had no way to reach them because there is no telephone or Internet service on the ship, according to senior vice president Jim Prueter.

The ship is being led to Ensenada, Mexico, where passengers are expected to disembark and be bused to southern California.

Carnival is not releasing a break down of passengers by state.

Mexican Riviera cruises out of southern California are popular with Arizonans because there are great deals and the trip doesn't require a plane ticket, said Hilarie Brown, a travel specialist with Holiday Cruises and Tours in Scottsdale. Most Caribbean cruises, in contrast, depart from Florida.

Brown called the compensation Carnival is offering passengers "pretty generous."

They will receive a refund for the aborted cruise, reimbursement for transportation home, and a free cruise in the future.

"You're sort of doubling your money," Brown said.

Prueter said he was stunned when he heard Carnival's offer to passengers.

"I've never seen a cruise line do this before," he said. "It's really a remarkable offer."

Prueter said more typical compensation when a cruise is disrupted include a discount on a future cruise.

"They generally just declare, "Well, it was an act of God and it wasn't our fault," he said.

Carnival said those with family and friends on board can contact its Family Assistance Support Center at 888-290-5095 or 305-406-5534 for the latest information.

Source

Passengers await help on crippled cruise ship

Nov. 9, 2010 06:41 PM

Associated Press

SAN DIEGO - The nearly 4,500 passengers and crew of the Carnival Splendor have no air conditioning or hot water. Running low on food, they have to eat canned crab meat and Spam dropped in by helicopters. And for at least another 24 hours, they have no way out.

What began as a seven-day cruise to the picturesque Mexican Riviera stopped around sunrise when an engine room fire cut power to the 952-foot vessel and set it adrift off Mexico's Pacific coast.

No one was hurt and, by Tuesday, U.S. Navy helicopters were ferrying 70,000 pounds of supplies, including the crab meat, croissants, Pop Tarts, Spam and other items, to the stricken ship.

Mexican tugboats, meanwhile, were rushing out to the vessel to begin towing it 150 miles to the port of Ensenada, about 50 miles south of the U.S.-Mexico border. The Splendor could reach the port as early as late Wednesday.

Accidents like the engine room fire are rare, said Monty Mathisen, of the New York-based publication Cruise Industry News.

The last major cruise accident was in 2007 when a ship with more than 1,500 people sank after hitting rocks near the Aegean island of Santorini, Mathisen said. Two French tourists died. "This stuff does not happen," he said. "The ships have to be safe, if not the market will collapse." The Splendor, which left from Long Beach on Sunday, was 200 miles south of San Diego at the time of the engine fire, according to a statement from Miami-based Carnival Cruise Lines. It began drifting about 55 miles off shore.

The 3,299 passengers and 1,167 crew members were not hurt and the fire was put out in the generator's compartment, but the ship had no air conditioning, hot water, cell phone or internet service. After the fire, passengers were first asked to move from their cabins to the ship's upper deck, but eventually allowed to go back to their rooms. The ship's auxiliary power allowed for toilets and cold running water.

Bottled water and cold food were provided, the company said.

The temperature in the area was 62 degrees and there were scattered clouds, according to the Coast Guard.

Toni Sweet, of San Pedro, Calif., was frustrated when she couldn't reach her cousin, Vicky Alvarez, aboard the ship. She said she called her cell phone and did not get an answer.

"We know everything is fine, but we're just worried," Sweet said. "She was nervous about going on a cruise ship even before this happened and now with this, I don't think she'll ever go again." Carnival spokeswoman Joyce Oliva said the ship's command is able to communicate with outsiders on a backup system.

On Tuesday, U.S. sailors loaded cargo planes with boxes of crab meat, croissants and other items for the stranded passengers. They were to be ferried to an aircraft carrier at sea, where helicopters will pick them up and drop them on the ship.

The U.S. Coast Guard deployed aircraft and ships, and the Mexican Navy was also helping but did not release details of its contribution The U.S. Navy diverted the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan from training maneuvers to help.

The Splendor only had enough food to last through midday Tuesday because refrigerators on the ship stopped working after the power was knocked out, Navy Commander Greg Hicks said.

Hicks said 50,000 pounds of food had already been delivered by Tuesday afternoon.

"Without being there and I'm glad I'm not, I think they're probably uncomfortable," Coast Guard Capt. Tom Farris said. "They're being protected from being burned by the sun and kept warm."

The tugboats were expected to arrive back at the port with the ship around 8 p.m. PST Wednesday, Coast Guard Petty Officer Kevin Metcalf said. Metcalf said the tugs and a Coast Guard cutter escort must move slowly because the ship is so big.

From Ensenada, passengers will be driven 50 miles by bus to the California border, said Oliva, who added that she was unaware of any safety concerns from passengers or their families about traveling by land in Mexico.

The country is mired in a war between drug cartels and the military.

Ensenada Port Capt. Carlos Carrillo said some bus companies that normally work with cruise ships docked at the port already take passengers to the border, but officials were discussing taking extra precautions. Among them are federal police escorts to ensure they arrive safely to San Diego, across from the Mexican border city of Tijuana, he said.

Oliva said Carnival is working out the logistics and she did not know the details.

Ramon Inzunza, owner of the tour bus company Calibaja Tours, said he was helping Carnival find 90 buses with permission to cross the border and was asking the Mexican government to urge U.S. authorities to allow the bus drivers to cross.

Carnival Corp.'s stock was down about 1 percent Tuesday.

Mathisen commended the cruise line for its handling of the situation, saying officials responded quickly. But he said the accident could damage an industry already hurting from a drop in trips to Mexico because of the drug violence.

It also will be costly for Carnival, which is refunding passengers, offering vouchers for future cruises and may have to dry dock the ship if the damage is extensive.

Once passengers are dropped off, the Splendor will be towed back to Long Beach, Calif., a journey that will take days. That's why the passengers will be dropped off in Mexico first.

"We know this has been an extremely trying situation for our guests and we sincerely thank them for their patience," Carnival President and CEO Gerry Cahill said in the statement.

Source

Disabled cruise ship: Passenger 'hell' on Carnival Splendor, or just unpleasant?

By Jane Engle Assistant Los Angeles Times Travel Editor

November 10, 2010|3:50 p.m.

Passengers' reports from the stranded Carnival Splendor cruise ship, which was being towed Wednesday toward San Diego after an engine fire left it powerless, are starting to reach the outside world. Onboard life is either hell or just unpleasant, depending on who's talking.

Scarfing Spam instead of caviar and Pop-Tarts instead of freshly baked pastries may not qualify as tragedies. But such images have set the blogworld atwitter -- and tweeting furiously.

In a post on Cruise Critic Wednesday morning, the husband of a Splendor passenger said he got a phone call from her: "She said 'This is a cruise from HELL!' ... She said there is no light in her cabin, toilet only got restored yesterday and stinks beyond belief. People are hoarding food, taking platefuls."

But another passenger, an employee of a Denver television station, called his employer to report that passengers were standing in long lines for food but were otherwise doing reasonably well -- chatting, playing cards and walking the open-air decks, according to a post by Los Angeles Times' staff writer Tony Perry.

“The only thing that made it really tough was when the facilities were all broken down and all the bathrooms weren’t working and people were starting to get uncomfortable,” David Zambrano told 9News.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Coast Guard, which sent technicians to the ship, said the more than 4,000 passengers and crew members were "safe and healthy." That may not be the highest bar to set for a cruise, but under these circumstances, it's good to hear.

Source

Cruise passengers call, text from disabled ship

by Dawn Gilbertson - Nov. 10, 2010 05:27 PM

The Arizona Republic

Reports are starting to come in from some of the nearly 4,500 Carnival Splendor passengers and crew who have finally been able to call or text relatives and friends.

A Goodyear man posted on Cruisecritic.com that his wife called on Tuesday morning from the ship. "She said, 'This is a cruise from HELL!' " he wrote.

The man, identified only as Gary on the CruiseCritic message board, wrote that his wife, Ronda, told him there is no light in the cabin and that it "stinks beyond belief" since toilet service was restored only yesterday.

She also told him people are hoarding food.

"I would have asked more," he wrote in his post. "But she needs to conserve her cell battery because there is nowhere to plug in for power."

The Splendor left Long Beach on Sunday for a seven-day trip to the Mexican Riviera. An engine fire on Monday disabled the ship. It is being towed to San Diego, and is expected to arrive at about mid-day Thursday.

When newlyweds Daniel and Kendall Gill headed from Phoenix to Long Beach on Sunday morning to board the Splendor, the biggest worry Dawn Gill had was whether they might get seasick.

The couple, married on Saturday in north Phoenix, were on their first cruise and were concerned about the motion.

"They were our (cruise) guinea pigs,'' said Dawn Gill, Daniel's mother.

Turns out seasickness likely has been the least of their troubles.

Gill hasn't heard from the couple since the ship's engine room caught fire on Monday morning, the first full day of their honeymoon cruise. There is no hot food or air conditioning on board.

Daniel Gill, an assistant manager and opening coordinator at Chuck E. Cheese in north Phoenix, doesn't even have his cellphone with him. He left it in his tuxedo pocket after the wedding. Kendall, a sales associate at Dee's Dancewear, has her cellphone but hasn't called yet.

Dawn Gill said she doesn't think the two, both 20 and graduates of Paradise Valley High School, are flustered, even though their vacation plans of relaxing and trying out ziplining and snorkeling have been dashed.

She said Daniel is the oldest of five siblings and is used to chaos, at family events and at Chuck E. Cheese.

"I think they're going to take it in stride. They're just durable, roll-with-the-punches people,'' she said.

Check back frequently for updates. And if you know passengers on board the ship, contact us at dawn.gilbertson@arizonarepublic.com.

Source

Cruise passengers endured stench, cold food

AP

By ELLIOTT SPAGAT and JULIE WATSON, Associated Press Elliott Spagat And Julie Watson, Associated Press – Fri Nov 12, 7:55 am ET

SAN DIEGO – Karen Blocker's dream cruise began disintegrating at dawn when her cabin started rattling "like an earthquake."

"I told my daughter: 'This boat is not moving anymore. We've got to get out,'" Blocker said.

She opened the door to find a hallway filled with smoke and crew members telling passengers to head for the lifeboats.

The boats turned out to be unnecessary, but the scare was just the start of a three-day ordeal for the 50-year-old Blocker and nearly 4,500 other passengers and crew aboard the stricken Carnival Splendor.

It wasn't until tugboats hauled the 952-foot cruise liner into a San Diego dock Thursday that weary passengers were able to tell their stories to the world.

Their ship lost power after an engine fire Monday and was adrift about 200 miles outside San Diego and 44 miles off the coast of Mexico.

At that distance from land, it was out of cell phone range for much of the ordeal. The fire left the ship without air conditioning, hot water or hot food. The casino was closed and, for a time, so were the bars. The swimming pool was off-limits because the pumps wouldn't work.

Mark and Ginger Kalin and their 9-year-old daughter Parker were on the cruise as part of a magicians' convention.

"The worst part was not knowing ... what was going to happen and how many days we were going to be like this," Ginger Kalin said Friday on the CBS "Early Show."

"Considering the situation, everyone was pretty well behaved. I think we all made lemonade out of lemons. What are you going to do?" she said.

For Edward Warschauer, of Reno, Nev., the worst part of the incident was the backed-up toilets. He said he had to bail out the family's toilet in their cabin several times using a cup.

"Let's put it this way: For me, this was my worst nightmare, my phobia, to be on the sea in a ship and get stuck," Warschauer said.

Newlywed Stacy Noreiga told ABC's "Good Morning America" the situation was particularly concerning for her because she's pregnant.

"It was very difficult, especially because the smells were unbelievable," she said. "It seemed almost like every floor we went up there was a different odor."

Navy helicopters flew in Spam, Pop Tarts and canned crab meat and other goods.

Karyn and Ed van Latum, both 61, flew from Holland to take the cruise and spend time with their son. They booked the cruise with their daughter-in-law's parents after arriving from Alphen aan den Reijn, their hometown.

They were on the first bus to arrive in Long Beach after leaving San Diego and were head to West Covina with their in-laws before returning to Holland on Tuesday.

The van Latums had a first-floor interior cabin and when the fire began, the area filled with smoke and the lights went off, making their room pitch-black. They were afraid the situation was much worse.

"We had to go to the upper deck and we took our life jackets and some people were in pajamas or bathrobes," Ed van Latum said. "But the crew was very, very, very good."

After the initial danger passed, they said, they struggled with the darkness in their cabin, even in the daytime.

"Some people said it was like a coffin, it's so dark," Karyn van Latum said. "We left our front door open, so that we had some little light, but it looked like a coffin. We stayed on the deck."

Many passengers passed the time by staying on deck, looking up at the starry sky or out at the USS Ronald Reagan, the Navy aircraft carrier that was assisting in the delivery of supplies to the ship.

Others chatted in their dark, stuffy cabins. Others simply went to bed early. Very early.

"We slept all day, the first day," Geoffrey Klinge, who was honeymooning with his new wife, Sabrina Klinge, said Friday on NBC's "Today" show.

Passengers on lower decks had to climb as many as nine flights of stairs to get to the cafeteria only to meet long lines that stretched on for hours. By the time those at the end got to the food, they were left with tomatoes and lettuce, Haslerud said.

Some passengers carried food to those who used walkers and canes and couldn't climb stairs to reach the food lines.

"We have not had a hot cup of coffee in four days," said passenger Fahizah Alim, 26, of Sacramento, who ate at night by flashlight. "This was my first cruise and it was no luxury, no fun."

On Thursday morning, people clutched those cold cups of coffee and cheered when the San Diego horizon came into view.

But Klinge complimented both the crew and Cruise Director John Heald, saying they maintained their professionalism despite trying circumstances.

"The best was John ... he kept everyone calm and even kept us laughing," Klinge said.

The National Transportation Safety Board said the probe into the fire's cause would be conducted by Panama. Panama agreed to let the U.S. Coast Guard join the investigation because most of the passengers were U.S. citizens and two NTSB experts would assist, the NTSB said.

The incident will be costly for Carnival, but it won't have to repay the Navy for delivering food from the carrier. The Reagan was nearby on a training mission, and responding to the ship was nothing more than a "minor distraction," said Chief Petty Officer Terry Feeney.

Passengers will get a refund, including airfare, and a free cruise. Those holding reservations on the next Splendor cruise, which was scheduled to depart Sunday but was canceled, will be offered full refunds and a 25 percent discount on a future cruise.

After arriving on terra firma, Blocker stood in the sun outside the cruise ship terminal waiting for her ride home and said, "I just want warm food. Mexican food."

But even with the offer of a free cruise, Noriega and her husband, Joe, say it may be a while before they take another.

"Probably not anytime soon," Joe Noriega told "Good Morning America." "It'll probably be a couple years at least before we get on a boat again."

Before the cruise Homeland Security has to check for warrants

"San Diego port spokeswoman Marguerite Elicone ... says all passengers on international cruises are routinely checked for warrants"

Remember the American Government is at war with it's citizens. All these laws they passed to stop alleged terrorists are mostly used to jail Americans, not terrorists.

Source

Woman on disabled cruise returns to dry land in cuffs

Nov. 12, 2010 11:48 AM

Associated Press

SAN DIEGO - Thousands of passengers were happy to be freed from a broken-down cruise ship that finally reached San Diego this week, but confinement continues for one woman who was taken ashore in handcuffs.

Harbor Police Officer Adam Miles says 40-year-old Wendy Singleton was arrested when the Carnival Splendor docked Thursday after four days at sea without power because of a fire.

Singleton is wanted in Las Vegas on a felony grand theft warrant and remains jailed Friday.

San Diego port spokeswoman Marguerite Elicone says a routine customs check led to the arrest. She says all passengers on international cruises are routinely checked for warrants.