A Caribbean cruise aboard the Carnival Dream became a nightmare for some passengers, a month after a fire crippled another Carnival ship in the Gulf of Mexico.
Several Dream passengers contacted CNN, telling stories of power outages and overflowing toilets, all while docked in port at Philipsburg, St. Maarten, in the eastern Caribbean.
The reports came just two days after Carnival Cruise Lines announced it was conducting "a comprehensive review" of all its 23 ships.
We are not allowed off of the boat despite the fact that we have no way to use the restrooms on board," Jonathan Evans of Reidsville, North Carolina, said in an e-mail early Thursday. "The cruise director is giving passengers very limited information and tons of empty promises. What was supposed to take an hour has turned into 7-plus hours."
U.S. Coast Guard Chief Petty Officer Ryan Doss told CNN, "We have spoken to the captain and right now, the decision has been made to have the passengers remain aboard the ship for accountability purposes. The last thing we want to do is have someone get left behind in St. Maarten by accident."
Gregg Stark, who is traveling with his wife and two young children, told CNN, "There's human waste all over the floor in some of the bathrooms and they're overflowing -- and in the state rooms. The elevators have not been working. They've been turning them on and off, on and off."
An announcement over the ship's public address system said the crew was trying to fix the problem and was working on the generators, according to Stark. A few hours later, another announcement was made, saying the problem was worse than originally believed.
On Wednesday night, despite complaints coming in to CNN, Carnival representative Vance Gulliksen said he wasn't aware of a problem. Several subsequent calls to the cruise line went unanswered.
The Dream, which can carry more than 5,000 passengers and crew, sailed from Port Canaveral on Saturday.
Carnival President and CEO Gerry Cahill announced the comprehensive review of the company's vessels Tuesday, saying the probe would focus on the prevention, detection and suppression of fires, engine room redundancies, and what additional hotel facilities might be provided and might run off the emergency generators.
His comments, posted on Carnival's website, were made at an annual cruise industry conference in Miami.
http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/14/travel/cr ... ?sr=fbmain
I think at this rate Carnival Cruises are going to cease to exist.