Carnival Triumph: Lawsuits and e-book revisit ill-fated journey

HOUSTON -- The news of another stalled Carnival cruise ship has renewed interest in the fallout of the Carnival Triumph, towed ashore last month after an engine fire stranded its more than 4,000 passengers and crew in the Gulf of Mexico during a four-day Mexican cruise.

Some passengers leaving the Triumph complained of dire conditions: sewage running down walls, food shortages and improvised encampments on deck. Others praised the crew, saying conditions had been exaggerated and that they would be willing to set sail with Carnival again.

The Triumph incident was not a first for Carnival. In 2010, passengers on the Carnival Splendor had to make do when an engine fire left the ship adrift off the coast of San Diego. Yet in 2010 Carnival’s parent company reported an 11% increase in net income compared to the year before.

Travel agents have said that the Triumph fiasco did not lead travelers to abandon Carnival or cruises in huge numbers, but it’s unclear what the impact of this second incident will be, combined with continued fallout from the Triumph, including lawsuits.

The same day the Triumph docked in Mobile, Ala., the first lawsuit was filed by a disgruntled female passenger from Texas. More followed, including a lawsuit filed by an Oklahoma couple on behalf of fellow passengers that claimed, “Carnival knew or should have known that the vessel Triumph was likely to experience mechanical and/or engine issues because of prior similar issues.”

The suit complained that the couple, Matt and Melissa Crusan, and the rest of the Triumph passengers were “stranded at sea,” forced to sleep on deck, use buckets, bags, showers and sinks to relieve themselves and provided with “spoiled and rotting food” to eat.

“Due to the lack of working plumbing and sanitation systems on the vessel, sewage and/or putrid water filled with urine and feces leaked onto floors, walls, and ceilings. This sewage and/or human waste sloshed around the vessel as the vessel listed while drifting and/or while under tow,” the suit said.

A Carnival spokeswoman at company headquarters in Miami told the Los Angeles Times on Thursday that she could not comment on pending lawsuits.

In addition to taking legal action, some Triumph passengers have already published accounts of the voyage.

Two weeks after the ship returned, passenger Christina Peaden, 36, of Galveston, Texas, self-published an electronic book, “Triumph Over Calamity,” based on a journal she kept during what was meant to be a vacation for her family of five, their first cruise. In the book, she intersperses journal entries with quotations from Scripture.

There were dramatic moments, she said -- for instance, when a supply ship arrived with extra provisions.

“It was something you see in the movies, with lifeboats slamming against the ram, the windows busting out,” she told Keye TV.

Peaden said she had to go to the bathroom in a bucket during the ordeal, but that “there was no waste on the floors. There was liquid -- it was water.”

Although there were long lines for food, often cold, Peaden said passengers still ate well, “Always fresh salad; fresh fruit. They had yogurt. For dinner we would have shrimp, lobster.”

Peaden told reporters that she was inspired to publish the book after reading critical accounts of the journey from other passengers in news reports and lawsuits. She wrote that the situation at sea was manageable, and that the crew coped well.

She told reporters she is planning to take another Carnival cruise next month.

Online reviews of the book from fellow passengers were mostly critical.

“Were you on the same ship?” wrote a passenger identified as Val. “I had raw sewage flooding my room. I had a friend whose cabin roof collapsed on him while he slept!”

Many other passengers pointed out that Peaden was staying in a coveted balcony room on an upper deck and argued her account failed to acknowledge hardships they faced.

“This person was on a different boat than I was,” a Texas passenger using the name ivyfly wrote. “I’m still having nightmares about my experience. This is an outrage!”

“This BOOK IS NOT THE TRUTH!!!!” wrote passenger Bethany Nutt. “I have over 2000 pictures of standing sewage on levels one and two. I have pics on standing sewage on the lido deck. I might add lido deck is where you eat. Standing grease that goes all the way across the walk way on to the carpet in the lido deck. Pictures that show buckets (4 huge Rubbermaid containers) full collecting sewage dripping from the ceiling between level 9 and 10. So please explain to me how my pictures and accounts of being on this boat differ from your pretty picture. I too am not out for any lawsuits but to publish a book in 2 weeks yeah that is a little far fetched.”

Nutt urged readers to visit a Facebook page set up by passengers and their families where she said “you will see the real stories.”

Viewers will see a cover photo of the bedsheet tent city erected on deck by the ship’s water slide during the Triumph’s return home, and posts about “I survived the Triumph” T-shirts, electronic cards and logos.

Some reviewers view Peaden’s “Triumph Over Calamity” as one person’s experience, tempered by where she stayed on the ship and her attitude.

“The moral of the story is most people flaunted their humankind on the cruise that started Sunday morning, others lost theirs (if they even had it before coming on-board). It is a single person’s view but I did not read what I considered to be one dishonest word in her journal,” wrote a reader identified as T. Thrash “Dubl T” from Bay City, Texas, who was staying on the same deck as Peaden and traveled with a family of six.

Most recent posts on the Triumph survivor Facebook page were about the Carnival Dream, which stopped in St. Maarten on Thursday with 4,363 passengers and 1,370 crew after it had trouble with a generator.

The 130,000-ton ship, launched in 2009, is among the largest in the Carnival fleet.

Reactions to the Carnival Dream’s troubles were mixed among Triumph passengers, and rumors abounded. Some claimed Dream passengers were not being allowed off the ship. Carnival officials said they were, that they were not being sent to Miami to board buses but rather would be flow back home or to Orlando, the closet airport to where they set sail, Port Canaveral.

Tweets by Dream passengers and their relatives appeared to confirm that the situation was far less dire than what some Triumph passengers faced.

“We are a floating hotel with free food. We were out of toilets, elevators and AC for a couple hours yesterday during tests. All is normal on board,” passenger John Packard emailed his daughter from the Dream.

“Wow seems like their problems never end,” wrote the Triumph Facebook page administrator, Lani Corbett, whose daughter, Shannon Dobbs, traveled on Triumph with a group of co-workers.

“But, still will cruise again!!” replied Pamela Ernst Kaspar, whose cover picture shows her posing in front of a cruise ship.

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molly.hennessy-fiske@latimes.com