Passengers opt for other arrangements

MOBILE, Ala. (WALA) - Not all of the passengers on the disabled ship were willing to climb on charter buses after their nightmarish cruise. Some made their own arrangements to get home.

There were smiles and waves from cruise passengers crowded onto charter buses as they left the Cruise Terminal after midnight Friday.

But the steady stream of buses wasn't the only transportation the passengers were relying on.

There were also taxis, shuttle buses, and even limousines parked outside the Alabama Cruise Terminal.

Cab driver Frank Johnson was there to get people to their rental cars.

"The man at the airport told us to come out here, said that people are going to be renting cars. He had bookings," Johnson said.

And limo driver Dashaun Agee said he'd already taken a family of seven to a nearby hotel.

"They were glad they made it here safe. We got them to the hotels. They just wanted to get in get warm, and get them something to eat," Agee said.

Not everyone was up for a long bus ride. Some families camped out at the Airport so they could get the first flight out Friday morning.

Several families made their beds on the cushioned seats outside the airport screening area.

Becky Thatcher and her friends Don and Shannon Haggalt were on the cruise to celebrate Thatcher’s birthday.

She never dreamed it would turn out the way it did.

"There was no electricity, and that's the first thing that people started noticing and then you couldn't

flush the toilets, and so you were told to poop in red bags, the bio-hazard bags," Thatcher said.

As the nightmare cruise neared its end, the friends said they weren't getting much information from Carnival about how they would get home.

"It was totally wrong. They had us going back to Houston, and we're destined for Dallas," Shannon Haggalt said.

"We're going to take matters in our hands. We called American airlines and said we want to book whatever you've got out in the morning. That the big questions was when would we get back in town and be able to de-board the ship," Don Haggalt said.

Joe and Kim Murphy headed to the airport from the ship too. They're from Fort Worth, Texas.

"We're supposed to have information in our rooms this morning, and then it wasn't there. Some people got it and some didn't so we just decided to just book our own flight," Murphy said.

This is one trip the passengers will never forget, even though they may want to.

Carnival brought in more than a hundred charter buses to carry passengers to New Orleans and Galveston.