Feb. 14, 2013: In this file photo the cruise ship Carnival Triumph is towed into Mobile Bay near Dauphin Island, Ala.AP 
 
 A group of passengers suing Carnival Corp. for damages after sailing on the ill-fated Carnival Triumph cruise ship that drifted at sea for days are asking the company to pay $5,000 a month for the rest of their lives for ongoing medical and mental problems. 
 
 The case stems from the February 2013 incident when a fire broke out in the ship's engine room during a four-day cruise, leaving the ship without engine power and most of its electricity, forcing passengers to endure human waste running down hallways, limited water supplies, noxious odors and extreme heat. 
 
 After about five days in the Gulf of Mexico, the ship was finally towed to Mobile, Ala., and Carnival sought to make amends by offering each passenger a $500 check, a voucher for a future cruise, refunds of most on-board expenses and reimbursement for transportation, parking and other expenses. 
 
 Many of the 33 passengers involved in the trial complain of lingering emotional issues such as PTSD, anxiety and depression; some have physical ailments they blame on squalid conditions, including leg pain, diarrhea, upper respiratory problems and even aggravated hemorrhoids. 
 
 Most of the passengers are seeking $5,000 in damages a year from Carnival for the rest of their lives, claiming they will need continuous medical monitoring because of what happened aboard ship. They want the money in lump sums based on government tables estimating their life expectancies. 
 
 One of the plaintiffs, Debra Oubre, 59, told Reuters she has experienced panic and anxiety attacks since the cruise, and also blames the voyage for a urinary tract infection. 
 
 "It was chaotic. People were in dire need of help," Oubre said. "We were standing in line for food for five hours." 
 
 In a statement to Reuters, Carnival Corp. said that while it recognizes its guests experienced uncomfortable conditions, all passengers returned safely and were provided with a full refund. 
 
 "This is an opportunistic lawsuit brought by plaintiff's counsel and plaintiffs who seek to make a money grab," a company spokeswoman said. 
 
 Carnival attorney Curtis Mase has asked Senior U.S. District Judge Donald Graham to reject all of the damage claims. In court papers, Mase said the passengers either haven't proved their health issues are linked to the Triumph cruise or haven't shown they suffer from any lingering problems at all. 
 
 The passengers, Mase wrote, "are not entitled to damages simply for experiencing the conditions on the vessel." And, he added, "they failed to prove that Carnival's conduct was the legal cause of the injury." 
 
 Judge Graham, who is hearing the case without a jury, has ruled that passengers cannot collect punitive damages and may only get damages for past and future medical costs that are conclusively linked to what happened on the Triumph. 
 
 Reuters reported that Graham already dealt a major blow to the cruise line by ruling that the engine catching on fire is proof alone of negligence on Carnival's part. 
 
 "It would seem rather obvious that ships shouldn't just catch fire and then have fire suppression systems that don't work," Robert Peltz, a Miami maritime lawyer, told the news agency. 
 
 After the cruise, Carnival announced a $300 million program to add emergency generators, upgrade fire safety and improve engine rooms on all 24 of its ships. The cruise line also said it would repay the U.S. government an unspecified amount for the costs to taxpayers of responses to disabling accidents on the Triumph and a previous disabled ship, the Splendor. 
 
 The Associated Press contributed to this report. 
 
 Click here for more from Reuters. ||||| After days stranded in the Gulf of Mexico in conditions some have described as dismal, most passengers aboard the disabled Carnival Triumph can look forward to a two-hour bus ride Thursday after they reach dry land. 
 
 In this image released by the U.S. Coast Guard on Feb. 11, 2013, a small boat belonging to the Coast Guard Cutter Vigorous patrols near the cruise ship Carnival Triumph in the Gulf of Mexico, Feb. 11,... (Associated Press) 
 
 In this image released by the U.S. Coast Guard on Feb. 11, 2013, the Coast Guard Cutter Vigorous patrols near the cruise ship Carnival Triumph in the Gulf of Mexico, Feb. 11, 2013. The Carnival Triumph... (Associated Press) 
 
 In a Feb. 12, 2013 photo provided by the U.S. Coast Guard, the tugs Resolve Pioneer and Dabhol, left, tow and steer the 893-foot Carnival Triumph cruise ship in the Gulf of Mexico. The ship is enroute... (Associated Press) 
 
 The company announced its plan for passengers late Wednesday as the Triumph was being towed to a port in Mobile, Ala., with more than 4,000 people on board, some of whom have complained to relatives that they have limited access to food and bathrooms. 
 
 "It's a nightmare," said Vivian Tilley, whose sister, Renee Shanar, is on the ship. Tilley said Shanar, of Houston, told her the cabins were hot and smelled like smoke from the engine fire, forcing passengers to stay on the deck. She also said people were getting sick. 
 
 The company has disputed the accounts of passengers who describe the ship as filthy, saying employees are doing everything to ensure people are comfortable. 
 
 Meanwhile, officials in Mobile were preparing a cruise terminal that has not been used for a year to help passengers go through customs after their ordeal. The Triumph is expected to arrive Thursday afternoon. 
 
 But passengers' stay in Alabama will be short. Carnival said in a statement late Wednesday that passengers were being given the option of boarding buses directly to Galveston, Texas, or Houston, or spending the night in a hotel in New Orleans, where the company said it booked 1,500 rooms. Those staying in New Orleans will be flown Friday to Houston. Carnival said it will cover all the transportation costs. 
 
 Mobile Mayor Sam Jones questioned the plan late Wednesday, saying the city has more than enough hotel rooms to accommodate passengers and its two airports are near the cruise terminal. 
 
 "We raised the issue that it would be a lot easier to take a five-minute bus ride than a two-hour bus ride" to New Orleans, Jones said. Jones said Carnival employees will be staying in Mobile, adding he was not told of the company's reasoning for putting passengers on extended bus rides after their experience at sea. 
 
 "I don't know if the passengers even know that," Jones said. 
 
 Earlier Wednesday, Carnival Cruise Lines canceled a dozen more planned voyages aboard the Triumph and acknowledged that the crippled ship had been plagued by other mechanical problems in the weeks before the engine-room blaze. The National Transportation Safety Board has opened an investigation into the cause. 
 
 "We know it has been a longer journey back than we anticipated at the beginning of the week under very challenging circumstances," Carnival President and CEO Gary Cahill said. "We are very sorry for what our guests have had to endure." 
 
 Carnival spokesman Vance Gulliksen acknowledged the Triumph's recent mechanical woes, explaining that there was an electrical problem with the ship's alternator on the previous voyage. Repairs were completed Feb. 2. 
 
 Testing of the repaired part was successful and "there is no evidence at this time of any relationship between this previous issue and the fire that occurred on Feb. 10." 
 
 Debbi Smedley, a passenger on a recent Triumph cruise, said the ship had trouble Jan. 28 as it was preparing to leave Galveston. Hours before the scheduled departure time, she received an email from Carnival stating the vessel would leave late because of a propulsion problem. Passengers were asked to arrive at the port at 2 p.m., two hours later than originally scheduled. 
 
 The ship did not sail until after 8 p.m., she said. 
 
 "My mother is a cruise travel agent so this is not my first rodeo. I have sailed many, many cruises, many, many cruise lines. This was, by far, I have to say, the worst," said Smedley, of Plano, Texas. 
 
 Communication with passengers on the Triumph has been limited to brief windows when other cruise ships with working cellular towers have rendezvoused to deliver supplies, but some relatives have reported being told of uncomfortable and unsanitary conditions. 
 
 Robert Giordano, of the Oklahoma City suburb of Edmond, said he last spoke to his wife, Shannon, on Monday. She told him she waited in line for three hours to get a hot dog and that conditions on the ship were terrible. 
 
 "They're having to urinate in the shower. They've been passed out plastic bags to go to the bathroom," Giordano said. "There was fecal matter all over the floor." 
 
 Even more distressing, Giordano said, has been the lack of information he has been able to get from Carnival, a complaint shared by Tilley, of San Diego. 
 
 Carnival, she said, has not told families what hotel passengers will be put in or provided precise information about when they will arrive in Mobile. And that came after the cruise line switched the ship's towing destination from Progreso, Mexico, to Mobile. 
 
 Passengers are supposed to get a full refund and discounts on future cruises, and Carnival announced Wednesday they would each get an additional $500 in compensation. 
 
 Once docked, the ship will be idle through April. In addition to the dozen voyages canceled Wednesday, two other cruises were called off shortly after Sunday's fire. 
 
 Jay Herring, a former senior officer with Carnival Cruise Lines who worked on the Triumph from 2002 to 2004, said the ship was not problematic when he was on it. 
 
 The Triumph takes five generators _ with one on backup _ to power the ship, and 80 percent of that energy is needed to simply push the massive vessel through the water, Herring said. 
 
 Each of those generators is the size of a bus, so it's unrealistic to think that the ship could have enough backup power on board to run services when the engines die, Herring added. 
 
 "It's one of their bigger ships. It's certainly on the top end of Carnival's fleet," he said of the Triumph. "There are so many moving parts and things that can go wrong." 
 
 ___ 
 
 Associated Press writer Bob Johnson contributed to this report from Montgomery, Ala. Plushnick-Masti reported from Houston.
– After five days smelly days spent disabled at sea, the Carnival Triumph cruise ship has finally docked in Mobile, Alabama, to the delight of passengers who cheered, danced, and sang "Sweet Home Alabama." Hundreds of people awaited the arrival of the biggest cruise ship ever to dock in Mobile. Passengers began exiting the boat an hour after its arrival, the AP reports; all passengers are now off the ship, according to Carnival's Twitter feed, via CNN. CEO Gerry Cahill boarded the Triumph and apologized to departing customers over the PA system. "I don’t want to hear the word 'cruise' ever again," said one passenger. Added another: "It’s like being locked in a Porta Potty for days. We've lived through two hurricanes, and this is worse." Now, Carnival must brace for a flood of potential lawsuits, though passengers' legal actions are restricted by cruise terms. What does all this mean for the soaring cruise industry? Experts are divided, the New York Times reports. "There are more ships out there, so we are seeing a higher number of incidents like this, and that is not good for the industry," says one. But another says people have simply grown accustomed to cruise-related horror stories in the news.