Sewage Sloshing Through Halls of Disabled Cruise Ship

The unhappiest place on Earth may currently be about 200 miles south of Alabama. The Carnival Triumph cruise ship continues its slow journey to that southern state via two tugboats after an engine-room fire took out its main power source on Sunday—leaving it adrift and disabling its water and plumbing systems. Yep, water and plumbing. No big surprise then that the conditions sound smelly and uncomfortable. CNN reports that one of the ship's 3,143 passengers told her husband that "the odor is so bad, people are getting sick and they're throwing up everywhere."

Some of the vomiting could be due to the fact that the fire also took out the ship's stabilization system. "There's times when the ship is leaning pretty hard, and you're worried you'll flip," says a passenger. Among the other tales of woe: sewage sloshing down the hallways, no air conditioning, and requests that passengers defecate in bags. The cruise won't arrive in Mobile until tomorrow at the earliest, reports Reuters, but its journey was due to end on Monday, so food is in short supply; one woman says she waited in line for three hours to get water and a hamburger. But Carnival tells the AP it's doing what it can, and says most of the ship's 23 public restrooms are indeed working. A single bright spot: The crew is reportedly handing out free beer and wine. (More Carnival Cruise Lines stories.)