Passengers on Stranded Carnival Splendor Cruise Begin to Tell Their Stories

The 3,300 passengers on the Carnival Splendor cruise ship, who were stranded at sea after a fire last week, are now telling stories of being denied amenities, being fed spam and hot dog salads, and living on a ship that was filled with smoke and smelled like an outhouse. 

Following a fire on the Carnival Splendor last Monday, the passengers were left adrift at sea during a Mexican Riviera cruise. After the ship was towed back to port in San Diego by a pair of tugboats, it arived on Thursday and passengers have been telling stories that are somewhat different from what was conveyed in Carnival Cruise’s official press releases last week.

A number of passengers say that despite the fact that the fire lasted four hours and filled hallways with choking black smoke, crew members refused to tell them there was a fire, and in some cases claimed it was a flameless fire. Once the fire was out, it was hours before any of the ship’s toilets worked, and the entire ship began to smell like a urinal.

Eventually, the U.S.S. Ronald Reagan began flying in food, including Spam and Pop Tarts. In the interim, the crew fed passengers concoctions such as hot dog salads and green bean sandwiches. Passengers said they had to stand in line hours to be fed even that.

Some of the most disturbing reports, however, come from passengers who indicate that they were denied treatment for problems such as anxiety and panic attacks unless they paid money to be seen by the ship’s medical staff.

The Carnival Splendor is a 952-foot Concordia-class cruise ship operated by Carnival Corp. with more than twice the tonnage of the Titanic. She was put in service in 2008 and has a crew of about 1,150.

The company has indicated that it will give all passengers a full refund, reimbursement for transportation costs, and a complimentary cruise in the future equal to the value of what they paid for this voyage. However, lawyers investigating potential claims for Carnival Splendor passengers indicate that those trapped on the ship may be entitled to additional compensation for injuries or damages through a Carnival cruise lawsuit.

Photo courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/techbirmingham/ CC by 2.0