Carnival ship adrift at sea - Conditions worse on stranded Carnival cruise ship! 2/13/2013 As the Carnival ship Triumph enters its fourth day without power, passengers and crew stranded on the ship are struggling with dwindling food and lack of water, which has rendered the ship's toilets useless. NBC's Janet Shamlian reports. Passengers aboard the stranded Carnival Triumph cruise ship are facing increasingly dire conditions, several news outlets reported on Wednesday. "Elderly and handicap are struggling, the smell is gross," Ann Barlow texted from aboard the ship, according to ABC News. "Our room is leaking sewage." Barlow's husband Toby told CNN that sewage was running down the walls and floors and passengers were asked to urinate in showers. Air conditioners were off and food lines reportedly took more than three hours. Adrift in the Gulf of Mexico since Sunday, the Carnival Triumph remains without power since a fire in the engine room damaged the ship's propulsion system, though none of the ship's more than 4,000 passengers were injured in the blaze, Reuters reported. And while the vessel has an emergency generator, conditions have grown dreadful. "The worst part is the bathrooms," Donna Gutzman told NBC News. "There's no water. You can't really flush so everyone's going in little plastic baggies and putting it outside their rooms," she added. Another Carnival ship brought supplies to the Triumph on Monday, delivering the distraught passengers food and other goods, according to the Associated Press. Brent Nutt, whose wife Bethany is trapped aboard, told the AP that according to his wife, some of the bathrooms were working but the ship was dirty in general. "There's water and feces all over the floor," Nutt described. "It's not the best conditions." The AP reported on Wednesday that Carnival Cruises disputed the passengers' accounts of disgusting ship conditions. Fortunately for those trapped aboard, the nightmare may soon be over, as the Carnival Triumph will be towed to Mobile, Ala. and is expected to arrive there on Thursday. Carnival Cruises also announced Wednesday it will cancel 12 trips aboard the Triumph through April. HOUSTON — Carnival Cruise Lines has canceled a dozen more planned voyages aboard 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. The company's announcement on Wednesday came as the Triumph was being towed to a port in Mobile, Ala., with more than 4,000 people on board, some of whom have complained to relatives that conditions on the ship are dismal and that they have limited access to food and bathrooms. The ship will be idle through April. Two other cruises were called off shortly after Sunday's fire. Debbi Smedley, a passenger on a recent Triumph cruise, said the ship had trouble on Jan. 28 as it was preparing to leave Galveston. Hours before the scheduled departure time, she received an email from Carnival stating the vessel would leave late because of a propulsion problem. Passengers were asked to arrive at the port at 2 p.m., two hours later than originally scheduled. The ship did not sail until after 8 p.m., she said. "My mother is a cruise travel agent so this is not my first rodeo. I have sailed many, many cruises, many, many cruise lines. This was, by far, I have to say, the worst," said Smedley, of Plano, Texas. Robert Giordano, of the Oklahoma City suburb of Edmond, said he last spoke to his wife, Shannon, on Monday. She told him she waited in line for three hours to get a hot dog, and that conditions on the ship were terrible. "They're having to urinate in the shower. They've been passed out plastic bags to go to the bathroom," Giordano said. "There was fecal matter all over the floor." Even more distressing, Giordano said, has been the lack of information he has been able to get from Carnival, a complaint shared by Vivian Tilley, of San Diego, whose sister is also on the vessel.

• published: 14 Feb 2013
• views: 3221