Some 3,300 passengers left the ship Thursday after the three-day ordeal that began with a fire in the ship's engine room Monday. Engineers were unable to restore power to the ship after the fire was extinguished, leaving passengers without air conditioning, hot showers or decent meals. Instead, they had to settle for Spam and Pop-Tarts dropped off by the USS Ronald Reagan, a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier that came to assist.  The National Transportation Safety Board said Thursday it was investigating the onboard fire.  Passengers said they were not told there was a fire. Guest Marquis Horace said the cruise line told passengers there was "a flameless fire. ... Everybody just laughed." And passenger Ken King said guests were told there was "a lot of smoke."  "It was absolutely deplorable," Horace said. At one point, the ship ran out of food, he said, and "they started making mayo sandwiches."  "I expected a really nice time and it was like Gilligan's Island or something," he said.  He said he ate a lot of bananas and dry cereal, but at one point didn't want to eat anymore because the smell of overflowing toilets, spoiled food and rotten milk was overwhelming.  Once the USS Ronald Reagan showed up to assist, passengers felt safer, he said. And the Navy provided good food -- Horace said he particularly enjoyed the bean burritos.  "We tried to make the best of it," said Horace, who was traveling with his best friend for both of their birthdays. "It just completely got ruined."  Some of the elderly passengers on board particularly struggled, he said. One woman, who used a scooter, could not take the stairs, and other passengers had to help her and carry the scooter. Horace said the woman across the hall from him was a diabetic, and her insulin had to be kept cold, but there was no way to do that. He said he and his companion had to help her to the bathroom. At one point, "she was crying because she had no food," he said.
Passengers who disembarked from a Carnival Cruise Lines ship that was towed to port after losing power earlier this week gave mixed reviews on the experience, with several declaring it "an