Carnival Cruise Ship Stranded In Caribbean

A cruise company is arranging for passengers to be flown home after another of its ships has become stranded in the Caribbean.

On Thursday Carnival cruise line announced that its Dream ship has become stuck in port in Phillipsburg, St Maarten while on the final leg of a seven-day cruise.

The ship can hold up to 3,646 passengers, but it was unclear how many were aboard. It is one of Carnival's newest vessels, making its maiden voyage in 2009.

The ship apparently suffered a technical problem with its backup emergency diesel generator while docked in the port on Wednesday.

There were brief interruptions to the lifts and toilets on Wednesday night, the company said, but the ship did not lose power and "all hotel systems are functioning normally".

One passenger still aboard the ship on Thursday said staff members were not letting passengers off the ship, and that toilets had begun backing up.

The company said engineers were working on the Dream, but in the meantime passengers would be flown back to Florida on commercial and charter flights. Officials did not say when the flights would leave St Maarten.

The stranded Costa Concordia in Italy is owned by a subsidiary of Carnival Corporation, and the parent company is listed on both New York and London stock exchanges.

Shares in London dropped around 80p on news of the latest incident, while a dip on Wall Street turned to a recovery late in Thursday trading.

The situation in the Caribbean comes just a month after an engine fire stranded Carnival's Triumph ship off the coast of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, with more than 4,200 people on board.

That ship had to be slowly towed to port in Alabama over five days as conditions deteriorated, with passengers sleeping on deck and using garbage bins as toilets.

In the wake of Thursday's announcement the Dream's next voyage, scheduled to set sail March 16 from Port Canaveral, has been cancelled.