Stricken cruise passengers fly home P&O Pacific Star (former Carnival Tropical)

Stricken cruise passengers fly home vowing never to sail again
5:00AM Tuesday July 17, 2007


More than half of the passengers from the damaged cruise ship Pacific
Star (former Carnival Tropical) flew back to Auckland last night with
some vowing never to return to sea.

About 760 of the 1200 P&O passengers returned to Auckland
International Airport on two specially chartered flights following a
near-disastrous cruise to Vanuatu.

The ship sailed through gale-force winds and swells of up to 10 metres
shortly after leaving Auckland last Tuesday despite warnings from
MetService of storm-force winds - winds of more than 50 knots.

It is now heading to Brisbane for repairs to its damaged hull.

The remaining passengers are expected to be back in Auckland later
today and those not living in the area would be put up in hotels and
given help to get back to their homes, said P&O spokeswoman Sandy
Olsen.

All of the passengers have been offered full refunds and a cruise
credit of 25 per cent. Some told the Herald they are unlikely to take
up the offer.

A second Pacific Star cruise scheduled to depart from Auckland for
Fiji and Tonga tomorrow has been cancelled as the battered ship
returns to Brisbane.

The 1160 passengers who had made bookings had also been given full
refunds and a 25 per cent credit on future cruises.

No estimate of the cost of damage to the battered ship.

Passenger quotes "There were people lying in stairwells, queues for
the medical centre and people lying on the floor of the restaurant.
Why the ship was allowed to set sail I don't know.......

"The toilets were flooding out with sewage and the lifts weren't
working........

"There was only one dining room open so people were queuing for food
and there were people wandering round covered in cuts and bruises."