Thursday afternoon, a pulley connecting the ship to a tow boat snapped, bringing the effort to a standstill. As passengers reached cell phone range, they began sharing more details about the conditions on the ship, including food shortages and sewage running down the walls.
Carnival is offering passengers a full refund, a free cruise, and $500 but some on board say it's not enough. It's unknown if any of them will ever go on a cruise again and if all of this will make others rethink future cruise plans.
Travel agents like Jennifer Rogers of Pro Travel say cruises are popular because of their reasonable, all inclusive prices. "Surprisingly, we haven't seen a decline in customers at all. I've been booking cruises all week. I mean, the news is out there and it's a tragedy, you know, that those passengers had to endure such hardships, but people are excited about cruising -- it's a fun vacation," said Rogers.
While agents expect that popularity to continue, Navjit Puniani with Winsome Travel told Action News incidents like the power failure do prompt questions. "When people start thinking about cruises, then they will come to the office, they will ask, 'When was this ship launched? When was it refurbished? They want to see if there's going to be any mechanical issues while it's in the ocean," said Puniani.
