Nearly 500 passengers including eight with broken bones have disembarked from the Grand Voyager cruise ship in Sardinia a day after it was battered by a storm in the Mediterranean Sea.
The Voyager lost communications and most of its power on Monday as it was pummelled by force 11 gales and waves up to 15 metres high while en route from Tunisia to Barcelona.
"It was like being on a rollercoaster," one Spanish passenger told local media.
"I thought the television in my cabin was anchored down and instead I saw it go flying and slam into the wall."
More than 20 passengers were bruised and eight others had broken bones, according to officials at the port at Cagliari, on the Italian island of Sardinia, where the boat arrived on Tuesday morning.
None of the injuries was serious, the cruise-ship operator, Spain-based Iberojet, said.
The Bahamas-registered Voyager arrived in port under its own steam escorted by the British-registered gas tanker Gimi, which was diverted to help the cruiseliner after it ran into trouble off the island of Menorca.
France also dispatched a navy patrol aircraft to help the stricken ship on Monday.
.
