UPDATE 9:45PM: Carnival crew members have started to get special needs and children off the ship. Luggage will come next followed by all other passengers.
UPDATE 9:30PM: Carnival's Triumph has reached the Cruise Terminal.
UPDATE 8:25PM: Carnival said in a news conference Thursday night that the Triumph is expected to arrive at the Cruise Terminal sometime between 9:30 and 10:30 p.m.
The ship is about five miles from the terminal, and is moving at six knots.
Officials say once the ship is here and all of the passengers have disembarked, the ship will be moved to a repair facility.
Crew members that are under contract with Carnival will be allowed out of that contract early with no penalties. Deck and engine crew members will stay with the ship until it has docked at the repair facility. All other crew members will have the option to stay aboard the Triumph or stay in hotels provided by Carnival.
The Triumph has been fully cleared by Customs and Border Protection, so the disembarkment process shouldn't take too long.
UPDATE 4:25PM: Disabled cruise ship Triumph enters Mobile Bay, but it is still hours away from Alabama terminal.
UPDATE 3:15PM: In a news conference, Carnival broke down the timeline of the Triumph's arrival. The ship began entrance into the channel at 2:30 p.m. From there, the Triumph has another seven to 10 hours before it reaches the Cruise Terminal. Once it's there, officials say it will take about an hour to dock the ship, then another four or five hours before all of the passengers are off.
The ship has no power at this time, and only one working elevator. Carnival says passengers will bring their own luggage to the surface, and personnel will be on standby to help. They say people with special needs and children will be let off first.
Carnival says it has a Care Team in place at the Cruise Terminal to assist families waiting for loved ones. Carnival has also offered those folks hotel rooms for the night.
UPDATE 2:15PM: Coast Guard official says disabled cruise ship is moving again after towline break.
UPDATE 1:15PM: We've learned the tug line on the boat towing the Triumph has snapped. A crew has been sent to repair it. The boat did get damaged a little bit. No one was injured.
UPDATE 11:15AM: Bar pilots have boarded the Carnival Triumph.
UPDATE 10:45AM: A CNN helicopter has spotted the Carnival Triumph. It will be in Mobile sometime between 8 and 11 p.m. Thursday. Alabama Port Authority says the pilot ship should reach the Triumph around 11:30 a.m., once there, it will take seven to 10 hours to reach port.
Terry Thornton with Carnival said in a 10:15 a.m. news conference that the Coast Guard delivered an additional generator to the ship Wednesday night. That allowed for the crew to make the passengers a hot meal. Thornton said Carnival did not book hotels and flights out of Mobile because New Orleans was just more logistically feasible.
UPDATE 9:42AM: What appeared to be the Carnival Triumph is actually not the ship. Our crews are still on standby for when it comes into view.
UPDATE 9:30AM: What appears to be the Triumph has been spotted on the horizon. CNN is refueling its chopper and will be able to confirm it soon.
CNN chopper will not be going back up until 2 p.m.. We'll have to wait until we can see the boat.
UPDATE 9:10AM: The ship is expected to be at the Cruise Terminal between 8 and 11 this evening.
UPDATE 7AM: CNN says the Carnival Triumph is now expected in port between 6:30 and 7 tonight. Choppers on Dauphin Island say they can't even see the boat yet.
GULF OF MEXICO (WPMI) The Coast Guard is escorting a stranded Carnival cruise ship into Mobile's port.
A fire disabled the Carnival Triumph Sunday. More than 4,000 passengers and crew have been stranded in the Gulf of Mexico since then.
The ship is being towed into Mobile's Cruise Terminal, where Carnival has arranged for those passengers to get home.
We found
THIS FACEBOOK PAGE created by a family member of someone aboard the Carnival Triumph. At first glance, it appears to be an official Carnival page, but it was actually created by a woman named Lani. Her daughter Shannon is on the ship. More than 1,200 people have liked it so far.
