Portageville man, wife were among those stranded at sea

David Tuttle of Portageville, Mo., described his cruise on the Carnival Triumph, the ship that lost power and drifted more than four days, as "an experience I won't soon forget."

Tuttle, along with 3,000 other passengers and more than 1,200 crew members, was stuck at sea after the 14-story luxury liner lost power in the middle of a scheduled four-day cruise from Galveston, Texas, to Cozumel, Mexico, and back.

He described it as "a long four days," but "we made the best of the situation."

Tuttle's reaction when informed the ship had lost power was curiosity.

"It was Sunday afternoon when we found out, and we thought, 'Wow, how long are we going to be stuck out here?'" Tuttle said. "We didn't know the situation, and there were a lot of unknowns."

He said the crew was especially accommodating.

"They worked tirelessly, and kudos to them for doing all they could," he said.

According to Tuttle, time on the Triumph was not as bad as the national media made it out to be.

"It didn't stink everywhere," he said. "The weather was pretty good. We got rain one day, but it was around 50 degrees most of the time."

Tuttle said most problems were caused by passengers panicking or not caring; the latter only making things worse. He said there were long lines for food but they had plenty to eat. Tuttle kept a positive outlook.

"I've been a mechanic for years, and I've seen mechanical failures left and right," he said, "If they could have done more to prevent it they would have; they'll learn. Murphy's law says, 'Anything that can go wrong will,' and it was one of those things and hopefully it won't happen again. You don't know when your car will break down. I don't blame Carnival."

It was Tuttle's third cruise. He and his wife were part of a party of 22, and it was a first-time cruise for 16 of them.

He and his party booked through 1st Class Travel of Cape Girardeau. Susan Berghoff, travel consultant with 1st Class, booked the cruise for Tuttle. She received an email Feb. 10 from Carnival that the Triumph lost power and was adrift in the Gulf of Mexico.

She said Carnival had no empty vessels to send to rescue the passengers of the crippled luxury liner. Because about 900 passengers did not have passports, the ship had to return to the United States instead of going to Mexico.

Berghoff said Carnival has been very nice to deal with. All passengers received a full refund plus gratuities. They were reimbursed travel expenses, a credit for another cruise plus $500.

Tuttle and Berghoff believe Carnival could have sent larger tugboats to tow the Triumph back to shore, but they remain positive about the cruise industry.

"You get good value on a cruise," Tuttle said.

And Tuttle already is speaking with a travel agent to book another cruise next February.

apicar@semissourian.com

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