Elderly and disabled passengers are said to be struggling aboard the “Carnival Triumph” cruise ship as the powerless liner is towed to port in Mobile, Alabama from the Caribbean Sea.  Fire knocked out its engine room, and with it the ship’s sanitation system.  Passengers say raw sewage is leaking from the walls.

The nightmare started with a fire in the Engine Room Sunday night, knocking out all four engines and the ships power, and the situation declined from there.  4,200 passengers and crew are aboard, and like the children’s book says, “Everybody Poops”.  The heat inside the rooms is said to be stifling and the stench is horrible.  One passenger with a pre-existing medical condition was evacuated.  The rest are on board, sticking it out until the ship arrives in port on Thursday.

This is going to be a very costly problem for Carnival.  It’s not just going to have to pay for new engines.  More than 1,500 hotel rooms are reserved for the passengers in Mobile and New Orleans; Once they’ve had a chance to rest up, more than 20 chartered flights are being brought in to take passengers back to Houston, Texas, where the cruise originated from.  And then there are the inevitable claims from passengers.

Some project Carnival as eventually having to pay out as much as $80 million to get this episode smoothed over.