Wow, this is all kinds of bad: a cruise ship caught fire in the Caribbean, forcing an early end of the cruise for 1500 people, some of whom are now about to be stranded in Jamaica with no place to stay until they can be flown home.

A friend of mine was supposed to sail on this very ship on Sunday, with 200 of her family, for a reunion that’s been planned and booked for nearly a year. I can’t even imagine what they’re trying to figure out now – she left the office yesterday all happy about going on her wonderful vacation, which theoretically started today. Poor thing, she must be going crazy trying to deal with all the hysterical relatives.

MSNBC.com got the scoop, of course – one of their staffers happened to be vacationing on this ship and gives a bit more background information than most of the other news outlets.
1 dead in U.S. cruise ship fire – U.S. Life – MSNBC.com

From the images it’s clear that it’s a lot worse than a little smoke damage. Reportedly it may have started from a cigarette left on a balcony. One person collapsed and died, apparently from a heart attack. The cruise line is now doing a full manifest check to make sure no one is missing.

They’re trying to put people into hotel rooms in Jamaica for a few days, but they’re about 500 rooms short. What an awful thing to happen on a vacation – cruising is wonderful fun and a great value, but when something goes wrong, it goes wrong in a big, big, way.