Friday, November 12, 2010

Carnival Splendid

And so we welcome back to US shores the Carnival Splendid.  It has been a brutal event for the 4,500 passengers who found themselves adrift on the Pacific having endured a fire in the engine room.  For four days they were without hot water, electricity, refrigeration and most importantly toilets.  It must have been a pretty nasty experience.  Ships' toilets work very similarly to aircrafts' and need electricity to effect the suction, or nothing works at all.

I had a small problem on board a Holland America cruise a few years back. Our side of the ship lost the toilets for about a day.  Now, with unlimited food and a sporting attitude towards adult beverages, the loss of one's toilet is a wicked burden to bear.  We could spot one of our lot anywhere on the ship.  They had a sort of superabundant look in their eyes and they seemed to be endlessly scouting for the location of the few public facilities available on board.  They never have enough of those and they put them in hard to find places.  Our lot were often found well into the voyage scanning their little schematic maps of the ship's lay-out - we all knew what they were searching for.

I could no doubt put up with the Spam sandwiches, which is what the Splendid's crew were able to prepare, even cold showers, but the loss of the facilities would be the very worst.

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