Abilene Woman Safe and Sound After Being Stranded on Cruise Ship
By: Brendaliss Gonzalez
Updated: February 19, 2013
Whitney Holcomb is glad to be home, but even more so, she's happy to finally be on dry land.
"Major relief that shes back home and everything's fine and shes safe," said Billy Donn Holcomb, Whitney's husband.
"It just seemed like there was never going to be an end to us getting home," said Whitney Holcomb.
The Abilene resident is one of thousands of passengers stuck on the Carnival Triumph.
For more than three days stranded at sea.
Waiting to be rescued after a fire in the engine room caused the ships propeller to shutdown.
"We looked outside and there was just a cloud of smoke everywhere and everyone's heads popped out of there rooms and we were just like what do we do what do we do?"
The mother-daughter bonding trip originally started off full of smiles.
But it took a rather unexpected turn.
Literally.
"I really thought at moment that we were going to die, I really did," said Holcomb.
They went from creatively hand folded towels and plush mattresses to what they came to refer to as "the tent people", where dozens made home on the ship's dock.
Their all-you-can-eat buffets were now seemingly eternal lines for a limited rationing of bread and cheese dropped right from the sky from a helicopter.
But there was one perk, plenty of family time.
It was amazing that we went through this one situation without having one negative word toward each other and I'm going to start crying now, because we really really needed that.
So as Holcomb looks back on her countless pictures and videos.
There are definitely memories she will never forget, but they're ones she can appreciate most, hundreds of miles away from the ocean.
"Major relief that shes back home and everything's fine and shes safe," said Billy Donn Holcomb, Whitney's husband.
"It just seemed like there was never going to be an end to us getting home," said Whitney Holcomb.
The Abilene resident is one of thousands of passengers stuck on the Carnival Triumph.
For more than three days stranded at sea.
Waiting to be rescued after a fire in the engine room caused the ships propeller to shutdown.
"We looked outside and there was just a cloud of smoke everywhere and everyone's heads popped out of there rooms and we were just like what do we do what do we do?"
The mother-daughter bonding trip originally started off full of smiles.
But it took a rather unexpected turn.
Literally.
"I really thought at moment that we were going to die, I really did," said Holcomb.
They went from creatively hand folded towels and plush mattresses to what they came to refer to as "the tent people", where dozens made home on the ship's dock.
Their all-you-can-eat buffets were now seemingly eternal lines for a limited rationing of bread and cheese dropped right from the sky from a helicopter.
But there was one perk, plenty of family time.
It was amazing that we went through this one situation without having one negative word toward each other and I'm going to start crying now, because we really really needed that.
So as Holcomb looks back on her countless pictures and videos.
There are definitely memories she will never forget, but they're ones she can appreciate most, hundreds of miles away from the ocean.
