Luxury cruise turns into nightmare for passengers

FEW people forget their first cruise aboard a luxury liner. And Furama Hotel chef Gordon Landy will certainly not forget his.

No running water, no flushing toilets, no air-conditioning. No luxury.

Mr Landy, 28, was guest chef aboard the Cunard cruise liner Sagafjord last week when a generator room fire caused a loss of power and sparked panic among passengers.

What was the middle of a three-month, five-star sojourn around the world turned into nightmare for the passengers just three days after leaving Hong Kong.

The fire, which Mr Landy said caused thick black smoke to bellow throughout parts of the lower deck, worried the crew into preparing to abandon ship.

'At the beginning some passengers were very concerned when the crew started lowering lifeboats,' Mr Landy said. 'But the fire was put out.' None of the 476 passengers and 360 crew was hurt.

Mr Landy, a chef at the Furama for 18 months and one of three Hong Kong residents on board, said some passengers coped with the ordeal better than others.

With power down to one generator, the crew could not dictate the ship's course and it drifted for 36 hours in the South China Sea until a tug finally arrived.

When the Sagafjord docked at the Philippine port in Subic Bay on Friday, passengers had been without electricity, hot water and flushing toilets for three days.

'We were without facilities for 11/2 days until they got one generator going.

'After that we at least had cold water for a shower. Some people had been washing with bottled water. Staff kept coming around to fill the toilets up with water.

'But we never got the air-conditioning back. Staff had to sleep on the deck because their cabins were too warm.'