As the Carnival Ship Splendor is slowly pulled towards San Diego, the ship came into cell phone range on Wednesday, allowing passengers their first communication with family since before a fire crippled the ship.
"A big sigh of relief," said Karen Beasanski after receiving a text message Wednesday morning from her son who is on his honeymoon on the ship. She says her son's message talked about what happened on Monday morning when a fire broke out in the ship's engine room.
"Sabrina was woken up by the smell of smoke in their cabin." says Beasanski, "They just instinctively grabbed their life jackets and ran for the deck, and went out into the hallway which was filled with black smoke."
The couple spend most of that day on the ship's deck in their pajamas.
Other passenger's like Denver's David Zambrano also talked about what it's been like on-board Splendor saying the rooms on the lower floors and interior of the ship have it the worst.
"They're completely in the dark." he says, "They have no airflow because they use the air conditioners to do that. Their bathrooms are all backed up. They're really uncomfortable."
Zambrano says even before the first, the trip got off to a rough start when about 30 pieces of luggage were dropped into the water. He said some passengers were walking around in robes because they had no other clothes to wear.
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The carrier USS Ronald Regan has brought supplies and food to the ship including crab meat, spam, and pop tarts. Carnival has said all the passengers will be refunded for the cruise as well as any travel expenses and given a free cruise in the future.
"Geoffry loves pop tarts," said Karen Beasanski, "The bright side is that they are safe."
She says less than a week after getting married, her son and his new wife seem to be handling their first marriage adventure very well.
"You know what it'll be a great story for the grand kids one day. It'll be good."
