Passengers are back home, as scheduled, after a burst pipe emptied gallons of water onto the deck of a Carnival cruise ship. FOX 8 spoke with guests as they were getting off the boat.
"I was thinking, 'oh I'm going to have to call my kids,' but I was okay," remembered guest Phyllis Witt.
It was just after 6:00, the evening of the fifth day into a week-long cruise aboard the Carnival Dream when Witt found herself on the ninth deck as water started pouring into the hallway.
"It was a little scary watching the water come down but they told me they had it under control," Witt said.
"We saw people just standing there. They were upset. They said they lost everything," said guest Kayla Jagneaux.
Jagneaux was headed to her cabin on the ninth deck not long after cruise officials say a water line for the fire sprinklers broke.
"When water started coming in, passengers rushed from their rooms. Some people had to rush out naked, they were changing. Some people just had a robe on," Jagneaux explained.
Luckily, Jagneaux's room wasn't one of the ones affected but Carnival representatives say about 50 rooms were.
"They were cleaning up really quick," said Jagneaux.
Guests say crew members immediately got to work clearing out the water.
"From my point of view, from what I saw, I thought they handled it well. They had a lot of crew over there trying to clean up and they had towels out, vacuums out," guest Joann Mizanskey explained.
Carnival reps says they compensated passengers, refunding their cruise, giving them half off their next one and offering to fly them home if they wanted to leave early.
"They handled it great. They flew everyone who was able to fly home with a passport, flew home," said guest Jessica Hoven.
"It sounded like a pretty decent deal, if you were in for it-- spend a few days in Cozumel and then they were going to fly you out. I would've taken advantage of it," Mizanskey said.
The incident did not affect the ship's schedule. Another cruise left New Orleans Sunday afternoon.
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