Passengers excited as ship nears port

MOBILE, Ala. (WALA) - It’s being called the “nightmare cruise.”  Thousands of passengers and crew have been stranded on the Carnival Cruise Ship Triumph for days in the Gulf of Mexico.  After an engine room fire Sunday, Triumph was left with no water or toilet facilities, very little food and only emergency power. 

Now that the ship is in sight of land, passengers have been able to communicate with their cell phones and one of her passengers described how life on board has been.

“Most of the people have had to move out of their sleep or out of their rooms as it were because of the sewage situation. And even if the toilets weren’t leaking into the rooms, the smell is just not good,” Tina Davis of Nacogdoches, Texas, told FOX10 in a phone interview Thursday, February, 14. 

Photos: A look at Triumph's conditions

She said conditions were uncomfortable to say the least.

“There’s no air circulation.  If one would have to use the restroom, we would either have to go in the shower or go in a red bag while the toilets were not working,” she described.

Davis took the cruise with five friends expecting a relaxing vacation. When that dream trip took a turn for the worse the group of friends banded together to make the best of it. They’ve been sleeping on the deck of the ship for the last five days taking turns getting food and looking out for one another.

“We wait in line for two hours or more to get a little bit of food and bring it back…and that way, because everyone’s having to sleep outside of their rooms, we’re wanting someone there to watch our stuff and things like that,” Davis continued.

As Triumph got in sight of land Thursday, it helped to lift spirits a bit on board.  She said something else to look forward to is that Davis’s and her friend’s husbands drove from Texas to meet them at the dock.

“It makes us a little giddy because we can actually see land for the first time in several days, but it also makes us pretty anxious because, why aren’t we there yet?  Everybody seems to have their spirits a little bit lifted up and everybody just seems ready to get off the ship,” Davis said with noticeable excitement.

And the group already has their priorities set for when they can finally put their feet on solid ground.

“Find our husbands and eat some solid food and take a fabulous shower and just flush the toilet,” Davis exclaimed as all of her friends laughed in the background.

It’s certainly been a trip that will end with a Valentine's Day none of them will ever forget.