WBRZ - Baton Rouge

NEW ORLEANS - Passengers from a disabled cruise ship have arrived at a hotel in New Orleans after a days-long odyssey in the Gulf of Mexico that was marked by overflowing toilets, food shortages and foul odors.

Buses arrived at the Hilton in New Orleans early today and were greeted by paramedics with wheelchairs to roll in passengers who were elderly or too fatigued to walk.

Many were tired and didn't want to talk. There were long lines as they waited to get checked into rooms.

For 28-year-old Maria Hernandez of Angleton, Texas, the hotel stay is only part of her journey home. Hernandez, like hundreds others, will have a brief reprieve at the hotel before flying home later in the day.

Other passengers were driven to Galveston, Texas or Houston.