Cruise ship nightmare drags on

Tue, 12 Feb 2013 20:50:00 +0000

An engine fire has left a Carnival cruise ship drifting off the coast of Mexico. A total of 3,143 passengers and 1,086 crew have been stranded on the Triumph since Sunday morning, enduring sweltering indoor temperatures, limited access to food and very few working toilets. A rescue attempt was recently derailed by strong currents that pushed the ship another 90 miles into the Gulf of Mexico, foiling plans to tow it to shore.

Another tow boat is expected to reach the stranded ship Thursday, but it's only Tuesday.

Passengers have been able to communicate with friends and family about the conditions on board, and it sounds like a serious (gross) nightmare.

"Conditions are getting worse by the hour," passenger Debra Rightmire texted to ABC News. "Cabin carpets are wet with urine and water. Toilets are overflowing inside cabins. We are having to sleep in the hallways."

I went on a freaking cruise

Sun, 09 Dec 2012 13:00:00 +0000

Over the week of Thanksgiving, I was on a cruise. The idea of my going on a week-long cruise provoked a seemingly endless series of smirks and scoffs from everyone I told beforehand. I am not exactly the cruise ship type. Cruises, as we all know, are environmentally disastrous post-industrial American extravagances, bloated and vulgar parodies of the classy transatlantic voyages of yesteryear, with more than a touch of colonialism in the way they deposit their hordes of rich passengers on poor islands, making small economies dependent on their tourism dollars but keeping the vast majority of them for the fantastically profitable companies that own the boats. Cruises are gross and weird and I was sure I would hate going on one.

When I agreed to write about my time At Sea, I did so knowing that it is unwise to invite comparison to the beloved author of That One Essay everyone mentions when you tell them you are going on a cruise. I've read it, of course, though not in 10 years, at least. I'm not half the writer that the author of that particular beloved piece was, though I think I'm perhaps better able to enjoy myself than he was. (Though not without assistance, as my bar bill showed by the end of the week.)

Salon.com > Cruise ships

Cruise ship nightmare drags on

I went on a freaking cruise