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Passengers: Power outages, overflowing toilets on another Carnival
cruise ship
By Ed Payne, and Josh Levs CNN
updated 10:04 AM EDT, Thu March 14, 2013

(CNN) -- A Caribbean cruise aboard the Carnival Dream became a nightmare
for some passengers, a month after a fire crippled another Carnival ship
in the Gulf of Mexico.

Several Dream passengers contacted CNN, telling stories of power outages
and overflowing toilets, all while docked in port at Philipsburg, St.
Maarten, in the eastern Caribbean.

The reports came just two days after Carnival Cruise Lines announced it
was conducting "a comprehensive review" of all its 23 ships.

"We are not allowed off of the boat despite the fact that we have no way
to use the restrooms on board," Jonathan Evans of Reidsville, North
Carolina, said in an e-mail early Thursday. "The cruise director is
giving passengers very limited information and tons of empty promises.
What was supposed to take an hour has turned into 7-plus hours."

U.S. Coast Guard Chief Petty Officer Ryan Doss told CNN, "We have spoken
to the captain and right now, the decision has been made to have the
passengers remain aboard the ship for accountability purposes. The last
thing we want to do is have someone get left behind in St. Maarten by
accident."

Carnival, in a statement, said the ship never lost power, "but there
were periodic interruptions to elevators and toilets for a few hours
last night. However, at this time all hotel systems are functioning
normally and have been functional since approximately 12:30 a.m."

The ship has full power, but remains at dock while personnel work on
"the technical issue," the company said in the statement on its Facebook
page.

The Dream, based in Port Canaveral, Florida, was on a seven-day cruise.

It was scheduled to leave port around 5 p.m. ET Wednesday.

The U.S. Coast Guard said Thursday it was notified by Carnival that the
Dream was experiencing generator issues. Carnival has not requested
assistance from the Coast Guard, which has no jurisdiction in the ship's
current location, Coast Guard Petty Officer Jon-Paul Rios told CNN.

The vessel's emergency generator -- which powers propulsion for the ship
-- has failed, Coast Guard Petty Officer Mark Barney said.

The U.S. Coast Guard Sector Command Center is in direct communication
with the captain of the Carnival Dream, Barney said, adding that the
captain reports that the ship's main generator and sewage system are
functioning, unaffected by the emergency generator failure.

'Human waste all over the floor'

Gregg Stark, who is traveling with his wife and two young children, told
CNN, "There's human waste all over the floor in some of the bathrooms
and they're overflowing -- and in the state rooms. The elevators have
not been working. They've been turning them on and off, on and off."

An announcement over the ship's public address system said the crew was
trying to fix the problem and was working on the generators, according
to Stark. A few hours later, another announcement was made, saying the
problem was worse than originally believed.

On Wednesday night, despite complaints coming in to CNN, Carnival
representative Vance Gulliksen said he wasn't aware of a problem.
Several subsequent calls to the cruise line went unanswered.

The Dream, which can carry more than 5,000 passengers and crew, sailed
from Port Canaveral on Saturday.

Last month, an engine room fire left the Carnival Triumph crippled and
adrift in the Gulf of Mexico with more than 4,200 people aboard.

READ: Crippled cruise ship returns; passengers happy to be back

The scheduled four-day cruise stretched into eight days as tugs pulled
the vessel into port in Alabama. Food was scarce and passengers
sweltered in the heat with no air conditioning. People aboard also
reported overflowing toilets and human waste running down the walls in
some parts of the ship.

A class action lawsuit was filed against Carnival Corporation in the
aftermath.

Carnival President and CEO Gerry Cahill announced the comprehensive
review of the company's vessels Tuesday, saying the probe would focus on
the prevention, detection and suppression of fires, engine room
redundancies, and what additional hotel facilities might be provided and
might run off the emergency generators.

His comments, posted on Carnival's website, were made at an annual
cruise industry conference in Miami.