Norwegian Cruise Hits Rough Waters
PHILLIPS: Boy, terror on the high seas. A Norwegian cruise line ship back in its home port today, after what some people are calling just a nightmare cruise. The seas were already rough when a freak seven-story-high wave tossed the boat about, shaking up those on board. Four passengers were injured and treated for minor cuts and bruises. Two windows were broken. 62 cabins were flooded and passengers say it was absolute chaos.</s>ANNE MARIE MCELHAYTON, PASSENGER: It was absolutely the same as watching "The Perfect Storm." The waves were so high. It was scary. I think it was actually a nightmare. It was really, bad. People were with life jackets on the ship -- I would say probably 80 percent of the people thought they were going to die. It definitely went to that.</s>UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: There was major panic on the boat?</s>MCELHAYTON: There was total panic. People were screaming, shouting.</s>BRIAN FERGUSON, PASSENGER: We were in a different part of the ship from where that wave hit, so -- but it was like a roller coaster. I mean, that's pretty much the best way we can describe it. It was like being on a roller coaster at Great Adventures.</s>PHILLIPS: An official with the Norwegian cruise line says that the safety of their passengers is always their top priority.</s>BILL HAMLIN, NORWEGIAN CRUISE LINES: The ship was never in an unsafe situation. The integrity of the ship was in no way compromised by this incident. The ship's hull was not damaged, in spite of the strength of the wave. There was some damage to the superstructure. All repairs were completed and inspected by U.S. Coast Guard prior to departure in Charleston, where the ship was diverted for repairs.</s>PHILLIPS: Hamlin says that the captain of the ship has spent 17 years at sea and he's never seen anything like that. Well, as you can imagine, passengers are eager to share their stories of that stormy cruise. Ellen Tasauro is one of them. She's joining us live from New York. And Ellen, I'm taking it you are never going to go on a cruise again?</s>ELLEN TASAURO, PASSENGER: That's right, Kyra. Never, never. I could never go through this again.</s>PHILLIPS: All right, tell us what happened. Tell me where you were and what you started to feel and hear and kind of take us through what went down from there.</s>TASAURO: OK, well, about 11:30 the night before, which was Friday night, we went back up to our room. Friday morning, that morning it was rocky as could be. We left our room all day. At 11:30 we went up, we said, OK,let's try to go asleep. When we got -- we had a room on the tenth floor in the front of the ship. And all of our furniture was flying all over. Dishes were flying, glasses were flying and it was very dangerous. My husband said, look, we have to get out of this room. I was hysterical. I didn't know what to do. So my husband said we're going to go to midship, we're going to go the reception area, and we'll see what's going on. We knew that there was a storm. We had seen it on CNN on the ship. You know, on the weather forecast.</s>PHILLIPS: Well, I'm glad you're watching -- I'm glad CNN was on the ship and you were watching CNN. That was nice. Thank you, Ellen. Go ahead.</s>TASAURO: Well, you know what, I woke up on Friday morning and I saw a funnel cloud out in the ocean and I woke my husband up and we put CNN on immediately and we saw that storm forecasted out there and I said, what is this captain doing? He's plowing us into the storm. Anyway, as the night went on, we went down to the middle of the ship, the reception area. It was horrendous. It was a nightmare. You were being banged all over. The ship was teetering up and down, up and down. Then the captain made a left-hand turn. Once he made the left- hand turn, the ship was now rolling side to side. And I said to my husband, the ship's going to tip. We're going in this water. So the two of us said, look, we just have to keep our heads calm and cool and we better think about what we're going to do when we get in that water, because nobody on the ship was doing anything to prevent this. He wasn't slowing down. And it wasn't just one freak wave, by the way. It was about two or three hours worth of 60-foot waves. It wasn't one just hitting the ship. That one broke the windows, yes. It didn't only break windows, it broke railings, it opened doors to rooms, steel doors, it made it look like tuna cans. We went -- finally on Saturday, we were able to go up to our room to get our belongings out and we saw the damage that was done, and it was horrendous.</s>PHILLIPS: So did -- well, Ellen, did you hear any type of announcement, any type of emergency procedures go into place? Because you would think when something like that would go down, immediately you'd be told what to do. I mean, every time you go on a cruise, you have to go through the emergency drills before you even take off.</s>TASAURO: The fierceness started about 2:00 in the morning, when it really started getting fierce and we never heard from the captain till 11:00 that morning. And all -- well, maybe it was 9:30. And he said, we are in no danger whatsoever. The winds are going to get worse, so hold on. And at 11:00 in the morning, he came on and told us, he's putting a conference call in at 11:30 to the Miami office and they'll get back to us with what they decide to do. We never heard from them again 'till about 1:00, I would say, and that's when they told us that we're now being diverted into Charleston. They were waiting for a pilot ship to bring them in.</s>PHILLIPS: OK. Well, there's got to be a piece of good news here, and that is that you're alive.</s>TASAURO: Yes.</s>PHILLIPS: No one has been killed, so that's...</s>TASAURO: Exactly.</s>PHILLIPS: So that's the good news here.</s>TASAURO: Yes, that -- you know what? Graciously, they flew 80 of us home to Newark Airport and my husband and I were hucky enough, because we didn't have a room to get that choice of being flown home. And when we got home, it was the best feeling. It just was.</s>PHILLIPS: I can just imagine. How about your next vacation? You come to Atlanta, Georgia, visit CNN, OK, take a tour. We have nice B & B's. It will be, you know, much more calm experience for you, Ellen.</s>TASAURO: You know, Kyra, my husband said, the next vacation, United States on land.</s>PHILLIPS: All right. Ellen Tasauro, bless you. Glad you're all in one piece. Thank you, Ellen, very much.</s>TASAURO: Thank you, thank you.</s>PHILLIPS: Well, straight ahead, wanted: full time couch potato. Boy, I know a lot of those. Must like to watch lots and lots of TV, have a good sense of humor and not mind gaining a few pounds. Well, we're live from L.A. with more details on this dream job. Jack Cafferty.