The Carnival Cruise ship initially stranded off the coast of Mexico after an engine room fire knocked out all of its power on Monday has been receiving supplies via Navy helicopters and is being tugged back to California. The ship, which had been adrift for two days—without air conditioning, hot water or cell phone service— before the first of many tugboats arrived, has among its 4,500 people (about 3,330 passengers and 1,200 crew members) Westchester Legislator Bernice Spreckman, her husband Harry and a group of about 50 other senior citizens from Yonkers.
The cruise line says everyone is okay, but no one has been able to get in touch with the passengers directly, given the power issues. A spokeswoman for the Westchester County Board of Legislators told WCBS 2, “We’re just hopeful and prayerful that everyone’s safe and they’re in good spirits but they’re from Yonkers so we know they’re tough."
To compensate the passengers, Carnival is giving them a full refund and a free cruise vacation. Still, one lawyer who specializes in cruise line litigation told the LA Times, "If it was hundreds of miles out, and you had a fire that wasn't suppressed, and you had rough weather, you'd have a complete disaster."
