PORT CANAVERAL, Fla. — After spending a few unplanned days in Grand Turk, passengers who were aboard the Carnival Cruise ship that caught fire last week are finally back in Florida.
Guests safely disembarked the Carnival Freedom on Friday while crews worked to repair the ship's scorched funnel. They remained in the Turks and Caicos Islands until another ship, the Carnival Conquest, picked them up on Saturday.
The 2,504 guests and 972 crew members arrived in Port Canaveral on Monday, the cruise line wrote.
When the fire broke out in the Freedom's tunnel on Thursday, Carnival said the ship's emergency response team "quickly activated and extinguished" the flames.
Twitter users shared photos and videos of flames and black smoke billowing from the top of the docked ship. Several of them claimed to be aboard the Carnival Mardi Gras, which was docked adjacent to the Freedom, when they woke up to the fire.
While it's still unclear what caused the fire, Carnival is working to get the ship repaired and ready for future cruises.
The ship’s May 28, June 2 and June 6 departures were canceled while it undergoes repairs at the Grand Bahama shipyard in Freeport. But the company says "the Carnival Freedom crew looks forward to welcoming guests back shortly."
The fire also affected travelers who had trips planned on the Carnival Conquest. The ship's May 27 departure was canceled and its May 30 departure was pushed back one day with guests embarking on May 31 in Miami.
"Carnival apologized to all those guests who are impacted and offered special thanks to the crew who handled the situation on the ship effectively and according to safety protocols," the company wrote.