Holiday Returns To Mobile

As passengers disembark in mobile, quite a few of them are frustrated.

“It's all about money and they cost themselves money,” says passenger Kirk Fell. “That's the 2nd time I've took that cruise I'll never take it again, I'll never take another Carnival Cruise again,” says Fell. He’s one of more than 1500 passengers getting home Thursday. He says he wasn't worried about his health, and the first medical masks he saw were when he got off the ship.

“We're safe on Monday and all the sudden on Tuesday we're not, you know if it is serious , let us go, bring us back home,” says Fell. Many cruise ship passengers we spoke with say they were confused by the fact that they were allowed to go in one port but not Cozumel.

“So we go riding around in the gulf for three days,” says Fell. “I didn't pay to go on a boat ride and if I did catch something in Progresso I want to come back to the states where at least my doctor speaks English.” Some passengers said they still had a good time despite the change of plans. Others say they didn't like the added worry of a possible infection.

“I guess I'm concerned because when you wake up and your stomach is upset you think well, you know that's a symptom that could be, but I’m not affected by it,” says passenger Claudia Tuberville. Alabama homeland security director Jim walker says officials at the terminal deal with ship borne illnesses all the time. He says so far no one has swine flu symptoms and there are no plans to close the port of Mobile.

“These people are Americans just like you and I, this is their home and they certainly have the right to come home and go seek medical attention if they don’t feel well,” says Walker. One of the customers we spoke with says she was refunded just $20 for the missed trip to Cozumel. This Holiday leaves again this afternoon but it won't go to Cozumel as originally planned. Instead it’s bound for Key West Florida.