Stranded Carnival Cruise Ship Finally Reaches Port

After several days without power, phones, air-conditioning or hot water, the 3,300 passengers and more than 1,000 crew members on board the Carnival Splendor finally reached land in San Diego on Thursday morning.

The ship’s cruise director had nothing but good things to say about the passengers: “[G]uests have been magnificent and have risen to the obvious challenges and difficult conditions onboard.”

But he wasn’t so forgiving about his own hygiene: “I don’t smell of roses at the best of times but as the laundry is not working and I only have two pairs of underpants I smell like Paris on a hot summer’s day,”

On Monday morning, the ship had become stranded off the coast of Mexico after a fire in the engine room left the vessel without enough power to return to port. It was pulled back to San Diego by a fleet of tugboats.

Carnival has said that passengers will receive a full refund plus a voucher for a future cruise of equal price.

Stricken cruise successfully docked in San Diego [MSNBC]

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