Thousands of passengers on board the Norwegian Breakway were at the tail end of a 7-night cruise and were supposed to dock at Pier 88 at 7:00 Sunday morning. The passengers were almost there, and could clearly see Manhattan's West Side, but then the vessel stopped in the middle of the Hudson River.
"There's nothing you can do about it, it could be worse," said passenger Marjorie Findlay, "thank God it happened here, not on the ocean."
The US Coast Guard says part of the vessel's on-board propulsion system failed, and equipment needed to help dock the ship. With no way to steer, they sat and waited.
Adrian Hunter was on the ship's inaugural cruise just last year,
"No crowd control, and I think they've reached critical mass," says Hunter, "I don't think this is ready for public consumption - it is like having a certificate of occupancy, but having a punch list that is two pages long."
It got so crowded, passengers tell Eyewitness News that at one point, security guards had to shut down the elevators that some people tried cutting the line to get off the ship.
At about 10 a.m., she was tugged in, but three and a half hours later, passengers were still walking off, many vowed to never again step onto another Norwegian Cruise Ship.