When I heard about that disabled cruise ship down in Mexico currently being towed back to the US, I thought of this thread. Imagine, 3,000 passengers and another 1,000 crew, stuck on an almost dead ship.

These ships are AMAZING in terms of power and water generation, sanitation, etc, but one fire can knock most of it out, as apparently happened on this ship. They have enough backup power for drinking water and minimal santitation, but it got me to thinking about how you "rough it" in a cruise ship cabin if everything was knocked out for an extended time--say off the coast of Africa maybe? And what if you had no flush toilets for 4,000 people? Wow, not pretty. Like a floating Superdome situation almost.

One thing I wasn't sure of--I've read reports of a US Navy ship transferring food to the cruise ship. But it wasn't clear if that is because the cruise ship was actually out of food, or whether the refrigeration had been knocked out and the food onboard was spoiling. I wonder if the ship's lifeboats have enough Mainstay bars for 4,000 people...