Carnival Paradise docked at the Port of Tampa 13 hours after it was supposed to because of dense fog.
"It's been frustrating because, you know, we want to get back home to see our pets and kids and all that," David Russell said.
Russell did an interview with ABC Action News via FaceTime, while he was stuck on the cruise ship. Their cruise was a 5-day trip to Grand Caymen and Cozumel.
"I think we were about 30 to 40 miles out West of Tampa. It was very dense at times," Russell said.
Russell plans to sleep on the ship tonight and drive back to South Carolina tomorrow. He said the captain gave them updates every hour. He said the staff was great. He wished the updates would have been better.
"I would have like some more communication about when exactly we were getting in because we were worried about the pet situation and all that," Russell said.
Russell said other people on his cruise were worried because they missed their flights due to the major delay.
"I'm done until my free cruise comes along," Russell said.
Because Carnival Paradise was delayed returning to the port, a 4-day cruise that was supposed to leave today was not able to do so and will leave tomorrow instead. Ana Sousa and her bachelorette party decided to enjoy their day together regardless, and headed to Channelside.
"They canceled Cozumel; that's what we were looking forward to," Sousa said.
The cruise will leave tomorrow, and it will be a 3-day trip instead. It'll be a "Cruise to Nowhere" with Carnival.
"We just kept getting updates through the day until we finally got the news ... so we're looking forward to that destination," Debora Sousa said.
Other passengers were forced to change their plans too.
"I came over here to get on a cruise ship, but instead we sat and had a lot more to eat than we should have," Steve Krznarish said.
Krznarish said he wishes he would have received more alerts too.
"It's just been a bad lack of communication, but I'm sure they'll take care of us," Krznarish said.
According to Carnival, passengers who had their cruise delayed can get 50 percent off their trip and 50 percent off a future Carnival trip.
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