MAGIC CRUISE FIRE UPDATE

UPDATE:: Watch for Kalin & Jinger on the CBS Morning show tomorrow morning and enjoy some candid pictures of the various magicians attending the convention out and entertaining their fellow passengers by clicking on the "Read More" link below! (Thanks to David Sandy for sending these along while trying to plan a magic event for everyone tonight!)

As the ship heads to San Diego under the escort of the Coast Guard and being towed into port, I received a voicemail from David Sandy who said that he'd touch base as soon as possible , but he had no way to charge his phone under the current conditions. In addition, there is a great deal of mainstream media reporting on this.
From USA Today:
The Times says the ship was hosting the annual David Sandy's Magic Cruise event, led by master magician Dave Sandy and organized by Cruise Holidays of Kansas City's Mark Comfort. "They're all just excellent magicians wanting to hone their trade," Comfort tells the Times. "They just do it on a cruise." According to the Boston Globe: It's expected to take another two hours to dock and several more before the nearly 4,500 passengers and crew disembark.

From Yahoo:
Seth Grabel, 28, a Las Vegas magician, waited for his parents, who were on the cruise with hundreds of magicians participating in a convention put on by David Sandy Productions of St. Joseph, Mo. "My dad is an amateur magician, but my mom hates magic. She was fighting this tooth and nail. She did not want to go on this thing. She had an intuition. I don't think my dad's going to live down this one," Grabel said. From the LA Times: The main complaints of passengers have been the long lines for food and those hours on Monday when the flush toilets were not working. Bands and magicians continued to entertain passengers; free drinks were available; and passengers had bottled water and canned goods, including fruit, pudding, and that all-purpose meal, Spam.

From the Daily Times:
"I saw the smoke outside of our window and I said, 'This is serious,' " said Rich Bloch, owner of the Dickens Parlour Theatre and a magician for more than 60 years. "We didn't realize we'd be stranded in the middle of the ocean." The ship, which was supposed to travel from Los Angeles to the Mexican Riviera and back, is Carnival's annual Magic Cruise, where professional magicians gather to enjoy a week of enchantment.

Here are a few candid shots of some of the magicians attending the Magic Cruise entertaining their fellow passengers on the stranded ship. Thanks to David Sandy for these!