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They’re pooped

WHAT A RELIEF! An utterly exhausted Kendall Jenkins kisses solid ground last night after escaping her hell cruise on the crippled ship.

WHAT A RELIEF! An utterly exhausted Kendall Jenkins kisses solid ground last night after escaping her hell cruise on the crippled ship. (AFP/Getty Images)

CARNI-VILE CRUISE: Passengers left their cabins in the bowels of the ship to set up an on-deck tent city in a desperate bid to avoid the stench. (AP)

CARNI-VILE CRUISE: Passengers left their cabins in the bowels of the ship to set up an on-deck tent city in a desperate bid to avoid the stench. (
)

The crippled Carnival Triumph finally limped into port last night as more than 3,000 unwashed passengers began boarding buses for the next leg of their vacation from hell.

They were embarking on long overland journeys back to New Orleans or Houston where they would finally be able to shower and then sleep in clean beds.

The cruise ship docked in Mobile, Ala., at about 10:30 p.m. EST after being towed through the Gulf of Mexico for days. Plagued with overflowing toilets and food shortages, passengers were finally able to set foot on terra firma.

“I’m feeling awesome just to see land and buildings,” said Brittany Ferguson, 24, a passenger from Texas who was among the first to disembark. At least one exhausted passenger dropped to her knees and kissed the ground.

The weary ship passengers told horror stories of raw sewage backing up in showers and people getting sick and falling.

“There’s poop and urine all along the floor,” Renee Shanar, of Houston, said from the ship. “The floor is flooded with sewer water . . . and we had to poop in bags.”

Passengers hung signs reading, “Help Us Get Out,” and “I Love You” from cabins as the 14-story ship, slowing to 1 mph, appeared within sight of the Alabama shore.

Carnival officials said they had 200 staffers and 100 buses in Mobile to take passengers away.

Complicating matters further, the ship had only one working elevator and getting everyone off took hours.

“This is going to be a long day,” said senior Carnival VP Terry Thornton. “There is no way we can speed up the process.”

Carnival said passengers were being given the option of boarding buses directly to Galveston, Texas, or Houston — a seven-hour trip — or taking a two-hour bus ride to New Orleans, where the company said it booked 1,500 hotel rooms.

“Those poor people haven’t showered in five days. Who wants to get on a bus?” Maura Garino, a Holiday Inn executive in Houston, told the Houston Chronicle.

Dozens of relatives of those aboard the Triumph began arriving in Mobile yesterday.

“I can’t imagine being on that ship this morning and then getting on a bus,” said Kirk Hill, whose 30-year-old daughter, Kalin Christine Hill, was on the cruise.

The ship left Galveston for a four-day cruise on Feb. 7 with 3,143 passengers and 1,086 crew members. It was about 150 miles off Mexico when an engine-room fire knocked out its primary power source, crippling its water and plumbing systems.

Passengers said the heat and stench had forced them to sleep on the ship’s open deck.With

Shanar said the only food right after the fire was cold cuts. Another cruise ship dropped off hamburgers and chicken sandwiches, but the line for that fare was nearly four hours long.

“And then people started getting sick from the food,” she said.

But passengers said conditions improved early yesterday when a Coast Guard helicopter delivered 3,000 pounds of supplies, including an electric generator.