Pleasure Cruise Turns Nightmare

A pleasure cruise to the Caribbean turned into a terror trip for thousands of passengers when their ship, the Norwegian Dawn, was crushed by a freakish seven-story wave while trying to return to New York from the Bahamas over the weekend.

Windows were broken, dozens of cabins were flooded and the ship had to be diverted to South Carolina for repairs before finally arriving in New York on Monday morning.

"The ship was hit by a freak wave that caused two windows to break in two different cabins," Norwegian Cruise Line said in a statement. It said 62 cabins flooded and four passengers had cuts and bruises. The wave reached as high as deck 10 on the ship, company spokeswoman Susan Robison said Sunday.

Newlyweds James and Gina Fraley were on their honeymoon when the wave hit.

"We were in our stateroom. We wouldn't leave because the water was so rough. We couldn't walk. We were going back and forth," Gina Fraley told CBS' The Early Show.

"It was terror. It was terror," said her husband James. "We called our loved ones thinking it was the end."

The 965-foot vessel returned to New York Harbor on Monday and docked at its berth on the Hudson River, after stopping in Charleston harbor for repairs.

Bill and Ellen Tesauro said they went to the ship's casino when waves started slamming the vessel.

"We figured it would take our minds off this (and) that's when the captain announced that drinks are free all night," Bill Tesauro told the Daily News of New York. "But then there was another horrendous slap on the water."

The panicked couple decided to return to their suite.

"A desk went flying across the room," Ellen Tesauro said. "And a glass table toppled down, with glasses and food on it."

The cruise line said passengers whose cabins were flooded were flown home from Charleston and the safety of the ship "was in no way compromised by this incident." Each passenger on the ship got a refund of half the trip's cost and a voucher for half the price of a future cruise, Robison said.

The ship left New York on April 10 with 2,500 passengers aboard. Robison said about 300 passengers decided not to return by ship from Charleston. About 100 were flown back to New York and the rest made their own arrangements, Robison said.

"I rented a car and drove nine hours," said Fraley, who kissed his driveway in New Jersey when he got home. "No more time on the Titanic for me."