Stepping off the Carnival Triumph — the filthy, sweltering cruise ship that was stranded in the Gulf of Mexico for five days after an engine fire knocked out power — wasn't the end of the travel nightmare for some passengers.
A bus carrying Triumph passengers from Mobile, Ala., where the ship docked late Thursday, to New Orleans broke down Friday, Carnival Cruise Lines confirmed to NBC News. The company said that another bus picked up the passengers and they continued toward New Orleans.
Clark Jones of Dallas, who was on the bus, said it was stuck about an hour.
“I’m pretty tired,” he said later. “I don’t know, life gives you lemons — I guess you have to eat the lemons sometimes.”
Other buses from Mobile reached New Orleans without incident Friday, and some passengers boarded charter flights for Houston, near the ship’s port of Galveston.
“We survived it,” passenger Veronica Arriaga told NBC affiliate WDSU in New Orleans. “We are here, we're on land. Thank God.”
Delays hampered the last day of the rescue of the Triumph. With the ship in sight of shore, a cable snapped between a tugboat and the larger vessel. Also Thursday, Carnival at least twice pushed back its estimate for when the ship would dock in Mobile.
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