LAKEPORT — Loretta Horton left Lakeport the night of Nov. 3, starting a vacation she thought would be highlighted by a seven-day cruise along the Mexican Riviera with family and friends.
Little did Horton know she”d be returning to Lakeport two weeks later having experienced a vacation memorable in ways she could not have imagined.
Horton arrived in Sacramento on Nov. 4, meeting her mother, Maxine Casey, and older sister Letha Schultz. The three left Sacramento that Saturday morning and drove to Long Beach to meet Horton”s other sister, Norma Moore, who had driven with four friends from Utah.
The group met at a local Hooters restaurant and stayed in a hotel the night of Nov. 6, before heading to a Long Beach port the next day. There they boarded the Carnival Splendor in the early afternoon of Nov. 7, a cruise bound for the Mexican Riviera.
For the three sisters, the cruise had been a 74th birthday present to their mother and offered a rare opportunity for the four to gather. Horton said she hadn”t seen Moore in several years prior to the cruise.
The cruise got off to an ominous start, according to Horton, because soon after arriving at their cabin, she looked out the window and saw what appeared to be nearly 20 pieces of luggage in the water. Horton said it appeared the pieces had fallen out of a luggage holder on the dock and went overboard.
Horton said the cabins were “really nice.” Horton”s sisters and mother shared one cabin, with each having her own bed, and enjoyed a night of “nice fine dining” in the main hall. After taking in some of the entertainment, the four went to bed early that evening.
Horton said the group was a set of early-risers and kept to form the next day, which was Monday and the second day of a weeklong cruise.
Around 6 a.m. Horton said they felt large vibrations throughout the cabin and when she looked out the window, Horton saw smoke billowing out from a lower deck. “I can”t believe this is happening,” Horton remembered thinking.
A crewmember soon announced that there had been a “small electrical fire” on Deck 6, one deck below Horton”s cabin, and instructed all passengers to evacuate to Deck 9, the first open-air deck.
Horton said the evacuation up two flights of stairs was “very smoky” and that all passengers reached Deck 9 by 9 a.m.
Passengers were then informed that the situation was “not an emergency,” though power throughout the ship had been knocked out.
Horton said most of the other passengers appeared to be “in great spirits” despite being evacuated from their rooms until early Monday evening.
Horton said she and Schultz walked up and down the stairs checking out the other floors, then waited in a long dinner line for a sandwich, salad or piece of fruit, a makeshift menu that starkly contrasted the original menu because that Monday was supposed to be the cruise”s formal dinner consisting of lobster and other accoutrements.
The first night was “pretty mellow,” Horton said, as her sisters and mother played cards and talked, using flashlights to illuminate their darkened cabin.
The next day brought excitement early as the first responders boarded the stranded ship. Horton said she also saw Coast Guard vessels and the U.S.S. Ronald Reagan circling the Splendor. “It was really interesting seeing all the different help that came out,” she said.
Horton and Schultz spent the day checking out other floors because the normal entertainment options, such as the casino, were shut down.
The smell throughout the ship worsened as well, Horton said, because the plumbing didn”t work and some toilets had overflowed into the hallways.
Passengers were informed that the cruise company had called their emergency contacts because telephones and other communications were down.
For Horton”s family, the phone call went to her brother, who was then tasked with contacting the extended family. Horton said her two sons, both Lakeport residents, had “flipped out” when they found out their mother was aboard the stranded ship.
Horton said she didn”t like that the cruise ship had become a national news story. “It bugged me that they told us we were all in the news media,” she said.
Horton complemented the work ethic of the crewmembers, saying they “worked so hard” while the ship was stranded, walking up flights of stairs, hand-washing dishes in cold water and providing information.
The most important information that Tuesday night was the announcement of potential plans. Horton said the original plan was for the ship to be pulled to Ensenada, Mexico, but by that Wednesday morning, the plan named San Diego as the final port.
The cruise “started getting boring” by Wednesday, though the crewmembers on the Ronald Reagan made 20 drops of food and supplies that afternoon. Horton remembered getting Pop-Tarts but didn”t recall seeing any Spam, which many news agencies reported as the passengers” main sustenance.
Horton took her only shower of the trip that afternoon, a cold shower on the sundeck ? the ship lost hot water after the fire.
The night of Nov. 10 was when tugboats began pulling the Splendor, which had been adrift in the Pacific Ocean for nearly three days, back to port. Horton remembered the two main tugboats were the Chihuahua and the Shih Tzu.
When she saw the California coast the morning of Nov. 11, Horton remembered saying, “Thank God we made it. Land.”
Horton”s group made it off of the Splendor around 1 p.m. that Thursday and were bussed from San Diego back to Long Beach free of charge. Horton said the company also put up many passengers at the Renaissance Long Beach Hotel that night.
After relaxing with a warm shower, the group decided to dress in formal attire and have the formal dinner the electrical fire took away. Horton said that Thursday night in Long Beach was a fun experience.
Horton drove her sister and mother back to Sacramento on Nov. 12 and stayed with them until the following Wednesday. She came back to Lakeport that Wednesday night and went back to work on Nov. 18.
Horton works as the opening manager at the Lakeport McDonald”s and has a devoted group of regular customers who greet her every morning. Those first few days back, Horton said her regulars just wanted to hear her story, and one even brought her a professional photograph of the Ronald Reagan.
Horton said she was happy to be back in her adopted hometown of Lakeport, where she has lived for the past seven years and now lives near her two sons and their children. And despite the fire”s aftermath, Horton continued to complement the cruise company.
Horton said the company has offered to pay passengers” mileage, hotel and meal costs for travel to and from Long Beach, as well as returned the cost of the ill-fated cruise. “They”re doing wonderful and we are very happy with what they”ve done,” she said.
Carnival Splendor also offered every passenger a voucher for a future cruise, which Horton said her group plans to use in February 2012 for a Caribbean cruise.
Still, Horton looks fondly upon the four-day cruise, especially considering how her year began. Horton said she spent the first half of 2010 undergoing treatment for liver cancer, which she finished up in September. “I am doing really good. I am doing excellent,” she said.
That being said, her main concern while being stranded at sea was not her health, but that of her sister, Schultz, who is currently battling bladder cancer. Horton said she was happy Schultz showed no significant negative effects after the cruise.
In the end, the stranded Splendor offered Horton, her mother and her sisters exactly what they wanted: the opportunity to spend time together. “It wasn”t our most memorable trip, but we had fun,” she said.
Contact Jeremy Walsh at jwalsh@record-bee.com or call him at 263-5636, ext. 37.
