Alexandre’s bartender, 3 friends say they helped entertain passengers aboard cruise ship stranded in Gulf of Mexico for 5 days after engine fire
HOME SWEET HOME | Robert Miles, from left, Craig Quinonez and Matt Spire are shown at Alexandre’s on Friday, Feb. 15, shortly after they arrived back in Dallas. (David Taffet/Dallas Voice)
Two gay Dallas men who were aboard the stricken Carnival Triumph said they’re weighing their options about possible legal action against the cruise line.
A third said he plans to take advantage of Carnival’s offer of a free trip.
Several passengers who were aboard the ship when an engine fire left it stranded in the Gulf of Mexico for five days have already filed lawsuits this week.
Craig Quinonez, a bartender at the Cedar Springs gay bar Alexandre’s, was on the cruise with three friends — Robert Miles, Matt Spire and Earl Rodriguez.
He said food was served on the top deck from the only functioning kitchen.
He described getting up to that deck as difficult for overweight passengers and impossible for disabled passengers.
“We were camped on deck 3 and had to walk up nine flights to eat,” Miles said. “Some nights it was slim pickins.”
Miles works in food service and said that although the food was refrigerated before being prepared, it sat out in the sun for hours before they got to it.
“I was afraid of the food,” he said.
Quinonez said he was told on the ship the reason they were stranded was because of damage to another engine on a cruise two weeks earlier that was not repaired. When the fire occurred, there was no back-up remaining.
He said when he was awakened at 4:45 a.m. on the morning of the fire, smoke filled his cabin. But the captain didn’t acknowledge there was a fire until it was out, referring to it as a “situation” and never told passengers the Coast Guard was called.
“That was very frustrating,” Miles said.
Although they had no hot water, they were able to shower in their cabins after the first night. But they camped out on deck because of sewage in their cabins.
While there were reports of some fights on board, they saw nothing worse than some bad tempers.
“We became like a family,” Spire said.
And they said the gays kept the middle-aged women camping out on deck around them entertained.
“We were the drunken gays everyone loved,” he said.
One woman told them they kept her laughing instead of crying the first night.
After the ship docked in Mobile at about 10:30 p.m., passengers needing wheelchairs were taken off first. Quinonez and Miles said they were able to get off the ship fairly quickly and along with most passengers were bused 140 miles to New Orleans and arrived by 2 a.m.
Quinonez said his group was given a room at the Hilton New Orleans Riverside where they showered and rested before three of them flew home to Dallas and the fourth member of their party flew to Houston to pick up his car in Galveston.
Others weren’t as lucky. One bus stalled on the ride to New Orleans, stranding passengers for another hour.
This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition February 22, 2013.