Carnival Splendor limps into San Diego

Things went wrong after an early morning engine room fire turned an "at sea" day into a nightmare of failed air conditioning, non-working toilets. And hours of waiting on line for a less-than-gourmet buffet of Spam and Pop Tarts dropped from a Navy helicopter. 

Carnival's Senior Cruise Director John Heald who was on the Carnival Splendor, blogged from the ship:

"There will be those who will say this has been 'the cruise from hell.' However, when you see the local news reporter with the huge hair talking to Mr. Angry remember that there are many many many many more who will tell you what they have been telling me and the crew and that is that Carnival as a company have done everything they can and continue to do so to help them through this difficult situation.

"One thing is for certain though ... I doubt anyone onboard will ever ever want to eat a sandwich ever again."

Still unanswered is the question of what caused the fire that broke out in the ship's aft engine room at 6.A.M. Monday. The CoastGuard says that a preliminary investigation has been started and that the fire "was extinguished by onboard ship responders using installed systems. As a result, the ship's generator lost power, disabling the vessel."

Least likely cause? The one put forward by various blogosphere nuts who claim to have seen internal Russian security reports that the cruise ship was disabled by an EMP missile fired from a Chinese submarine.

November 12,2010