Thousands of weary cruise ship passengers are finally on their way home after tugboats pulled the disabled Carnival cruise ship Triumph into port late last night.
Anna Ward brushed her teeth with running water, the first taste of normal after more than four days adrift at sea.
"I just can't get clean enough, I feel disgusting," she said. "Everything disgusts me right now."
Despair turned to jubilation as Triumph arrived in Mobile late Thursday night.
Concerned family and friends reunited with loved ones.
Many hadn't been able to reach them in days.
An engine fire Sunday left the ship without power.
Toilets began overflowing, there was no air conditioning and food was sometimes tough to get.
"It was like post-natural disaster, but stuck on a boat with 3200 other people, and those poor workers trying to clean up after everyone and deal with everyone freaking out," recalled Julie Billings.
If there was some good to come out of this, passengers had high praise for the ship's staff which kept smiling and working amidst the chaos and poor conditions and two passengers emerged from the ship newly engaged.
The Carnival Triumph is expected to be moved into dry dock so investigators and the cruise line can figure out what went wrong.
-- Chris Pollone reports
