Posted on 11/10/2010 11:00:53 AM PST by inflorida
SAN DIEGO (AP) — A Coast Guard official says one of two tugboats tasked with pulling a disabled cruise ship to San Diego didn't have enough power and was forced to turn back.
Coast Guard Petty Officer Jetta Disco says a Mexican company has sent a third tugboat to the scene but authorities are trying to determine whether it would be better to leave the one tugboat alone while it slowly makes headway.
--snip--
Instead of lavish buffets, passengers on the Carnival Splendor were subsisting on Spam, Pop Tarts and canned crabmeat flown in by Navy helicopters.
People were trying to keep their spirits up by singing, socializing and playing cards, said passenger David Zambrano, who managed to get cell phone service Wednesday and called his employer, Denver TV station 9NEWS.
The ship's bars, casinos, pools and the upper deck were closed. Rooms in the interior of the ship were pitch black and passengers propped open their doors to let in air and emergency lighting from the hallways.
"So really, all we're going is just kind of hanging out on a boat waiting for the next mealtime," Zambrano said.
But when mealtime comes, there's a two-hour wait for food, which is cold.
(Excerpt) Read more at orlandosentinel.com ...
Picking a cruise is a crapshoot,, you may get glorious seas the whole trip or have to sit with a barf bag in your hand and beg for a shore visit..
We’ve skirted hurricanes and storms and such and had substitute stops as well.
mostly RCCL and Princess, never Carnival. hope to take a world cruise someday..
Isn't that 1.35 x the square root of the water line length (feet), with the result being in knots? So, a 64 foot long tug would have a top hull speed of just over 11 knots? 10 hours would get you 110 nautical miles or so, so the actual speed must be much lower than that.
Agreed.
Yup. There is a hull coeficient involved but that is the basic formula.
I was on the FID during the ‘79 - ‘80 med cruise...they had to close both chow halls due to health reasons ( a bean in my chili got up and walked up my spoon...it was not a bean )...we got C rations dated 1959....the year the FID was christened....spam and canned crab would have been a culinary feast!!!!!
But did you pay for that food? This is a vacation, and it doesn’t sound like much of a vacation.
it was a jumping bean?
I don’t understand why they can’t send another cruise ship to the area and get the people off.
Sound so typical for Mexico.
The wife and I have taken two Caribbean cruises on Carnival ships. We had two great times and I’d gladly go back on another Carnival Cruise. The Filipina bartenders loved me because I used a few Tagalog words on them.
Good question. I don’t know.
<canned crabmeat and spam tho?
You’d think the Navy would have some peanut butter and jelly and bread, some fruit cocktail in a can, something other than Spam (no disrespect to Spam) and canned crabmeat. What the heck are we feeding our sailors?
Menu ‘C’ MRE from www.mredepot.com
Real good stuff!
I wonder what the birth rate among the passengers will be in nine months?
-PJ
So the Navy is bringing them food and the Mexicans are sending tugboats.
Does that sound backwards to anyone else?
I don’t know, but if there is no refridgeration, I would think warm crab meat in a can would be VILE. Spam is only good fried, IMHO, and even then questionable.
I wonder if First Class (or comparable) passengers get the center cut of the spam. haha
<Spam is only good fried
I haven’t had Spam in years, but I remember Spam sandwiches. I don’t recall if my mother fried the Spam beforehand or not. Also, you can use Spam in salads and stuff without cooking it.
It one thing to be stuck, it’s another to be stuck without power, food, and working toilets. yuck.
I will never ever even remotely consider taking any cruise on a ship of this size, because the bigger they get the bigger mankinds follies become.
These ships have a hundred tons of food, probably more from what I have seen on TV, yet within 24 hours the passengers have to eat Spam? Something is being grossly covered up here, I think there was a terrorist attack here and its being covered up.
There was no possibility of just having a big Barbque in an empty swimming pool? This is a major Cover ourasse situation by Carnival.
I strongly suggest that everyone think twice about ever taking a cruise on one of these massive ships. I would cruise on a smaller vessel though.
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