Interview with Carnival Splendor Passenger

My subject for this interview, first-time cruiser Barbara Dillon

I just came back from the San Diego Pier where passengers were disembarking the "dead" Carnival Splendor. At first it was a media feeding frenzy. Vice president of Carnival Public RelationsTim Gallagher came out for just a second and people mobbed him just because he walked off the ship. By the time they figured out he was with Carnival six cameramen had pushed me out of their way. No matter, Tim knows me and made sure I got to hear what he had to say.

We watched a number of motor coaches moving people from inside the gated area, but the place where we were allowed to stand was the point where passengers who had local friends or family waiting were leaving the security area to get picked up. I saw a number of local San Diegans meeting their families and I talked to a few briefly, but the prize was Barbara Dillon who came into my midst directly off the ship with her friend Jan Holland. Barbara was delightful - a young 50-ish single lady from Corliss California. And here is her impression of the cruise...

"This was my first cruise and I would do it again in a second."

See my picture album here: Carnival Splendor Pics

"Really?" I had to ask. The local news reports had been full of phone interviews with people saying it was "awful and stinky." "Well, it was a little stinky, especially the first day, until the toilets were fixed. I'm a little stinky now, I haven't had a shower since Monday," she said.

But she looked delightful. "Yes, I am wearing my cruise clothes today because people can see me." The ship was fairly dark a lot of the time. "We really got to know each other well, we passengers," Barbara said. "We all got to see each other the way we really look, like when we first get up in the morning."

"Do you know what everyone was wearing?" she asked me? "We all wore our ship-supplied white terry-cloth bathrobes around the ship."

"Really?" I asked, "Everyone?"

"Almost everyone - everyone we were hanging out with anyway." Barbara and Jan turned their deck nine balcony cabin into something of an oasis for several cabins around them. When the first mate came and unlocked all the minibars the fun really started, she said. There was beer and wine available all the time, and other liquor as well, depending on where you went on the ship.

"I really have to say, the crew was fantastic," Barbara said. As regular cruisers we already know that, but they really stepped up in this case. "And the cruise director, I forget his name, he was so funny. His regular announcements just kept us laughing the whole time."

The cruise director was John Heald, Carnival's top cruise director and a celebrity in his own right, especially for regular Carnival cruisers. It had to be serendipity that he happened to be the cruise director on this cruise since John usually takes only the newest and best Carnival ships. Splendor is a newer Carnival ship, but not compared to the newer and bigger Carnival Dream sailing out of Florida.

Word is that John said something on his blog last Sunday like "I hope everything goes smoothly on this cruise." Not that he knew anything, it was just a tossed off remark, reportedly related to someone looking at the engine room before he left. Anyway...

See my picture album here: Carnival Splendor Pics

"When the ship had been dead for awhile John announced at first that we were going to go to 'Enchilada, Mexico," Barbara told me. "Everyone cracked up about that, especially when the first Mexican tug arrived and it was called the 'Chihuahua,' we died laughing," she added.

As we all know, the line eventually decided to tow the ship to San Diego, "but that little Mexican tug could pull, I'll tell ya," Barbara said.

So, what was the most dramatic part of the trip for Barbara? There were reports that when the first announcement of a fire came out, about 6:00 am Monday. that many people were very upset, crying and praying out loud. (See bottom video this page)

Barbara, "Like I said, this was the experience of a lifetime and I actually feel lucky I got to experience it, seriously. But the best part was when the U.S. Navy arrived in an aircraft carrier. I thought 'God Bless the United States, I am so proud to be an American. I mean, can you imagine a country where the Navy comes to rescue people on a vacation? That is a great country." I agree.

"And when we saw them unloading food and water we wanted to cry," she added.

I asked her what the mood was like onboard. She said "Everyone was really cool about it, really, we all got along great. And when someone complained I told them to keep it to themselves. After all, the crew was doing everything possible for us and how can you fault that?"

Barbara even tipped her crewmembers when she left. They must have been impressive.

I asked her about the meals and the reported two-hour wait for cold food. She said, "Yes, but we didn't mind because the crew was trying so hard. The elevators had stopped working and to get the food to us they had to form a human chain all the way up to deck nine. They never stopped working for us, and they were still nice to us the whole time."

I asked her about the reported seasickness. This was her first cruise and Barbara replied, "What? The ship wasn't even really moving. I don't know why anyone would be seasick." I asked her about the lack of air conditioning and Barbara said, "We didn't need any air conditioning. If anything it was too cold sometimes. But we had a balcony cabin so we could air out our cabin whenever we wanted.

"What about people acting scared and just not having any fun?" I asked her.

Barbara said that with previous reports they knew what the problem was. They had been told there was a "smokeless fire." She said it was scary at first, with thoughts of possible terrorism, etc. I overheard another passenger tell a reporter that when the report first came over the loudspeaker she heard people crying and praying out loud.

"There were people with conspiracy theories, of course, and when the that aircraft carrier showed up those conspiracy theory tongues really started wagging, but John Heald kept us updated every hour, and he told us why the Navy was there, to bring us food. He also started making fun of the "smokeless fire" because that does sound like a conspiracy theory. 'Who ever heard of a smokeless fire? Sounds like a government plot to me,'" Barbara said John Heald said.

"Then he made up a word, 'disississipated' to explain what the smoke was doing. He just really knew how to keep our spirits up." Barbara really restored my faith in the cruiser mentality - a first-time cruiser converted to cruise lover by what Carnival president Gerry Cahill described as "the worst crisis in Carnival history."

"I will definitely be taking advantage of that free cruise - and I got all of my expenses reimbursed for this one, totally, and I had a great time in my bathrobe for three days. It was awesome." I believe her.

See my picture album here: Carnival Splendor Pics

Here are a few other thing I observed while on the scene:
A reporter asks Tim Gallagher "I hear we are going to have a lot of new babies named "Splendor" appearing in nine months, Is that true?"

Tim (deadpan): "Right... I'll try to track them down for you."

Signs hanging over the side of the ship from people still in their balcony cabins say "Thank You US Coast Guard" and "USA" and "Rie Mon?"

An ABC News film crew was paying passengers for exclusive interviews and buying pictures of the interior of the ship - it looked to me like the worse the ship looked the more the pictures were worth.

One lady had an idea to sell T-shirts that said "I survived the Carnival Cruise SPAMcation". She ordered them to be printed up in San Diego, put up a web site, and flew in to San Diego from Tennessee. I did not see her sell a single shirt, but maybe she will from the web site. Most passengers coming off the ship were just tired and looked like they wanted a cup of coffee.

Some reporters claim they saw people led off in handcuffs (Tim Gallagher said he knew nothing about that) and two different people in stretchers. This is in this video below. But the second video is the much scarier one describing people's initial reaction. It just goes to show you that two people can experience vastly different things.

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