Cruise ship passengers on the Norwegian Crown are demanding refunds after suffering sickness, power outages and filthy fumes in their cabins.

Passengers said at least 60 people had to be quarantined in their rooms to stop infection spreading after suspected food poisoning but the Norwegian Cruise Lines media department did not return calls.

Doris Hackett, 56, from Ferris Hills, Pennsylvania, said she had fallen sick in the early hours of Tuesday after leaving Philadelphia on Sunday and had ended up in hospital before being told to stay in her room for 24 hours.

She blamed her vomiting on a buffet meal and said her husband Edward, 75, had also become violently ill. Other passengers said they had felt unwell after eating seafood.

The company did, however, speak about the fumes.

Director of Public Relations Susan Robison said the fume problem developed between midnight and 3 a.m. on Wednesday.

She said: "What we had was a fuel smell via the air conditioning ducts that affected around 50 cabins around midnight last night.

"This was caused by minor damage to a fuel ventilator pipe."

She said 65 passengers spent the night at various hotels including Grotto Bay, Elbow Beach, Fairmont Hamilton Princess and the Fairmont Southampton Princess.

"We did repair work on the pipe overnight and the cabins were cleared of the smell by 3 a.m."

She said three people reported to the medical centre and were released after examination.

However cruise passengers reeled off a string of complaints.

Some tourists ended up sleeping on the deck to escape the stench from their cabins while others took refuge in hotels, which angered those not told about the offer.

Kathleen Philippi, 29, from New Hope, Pennsylvania said: "Fumes were coming in, on the floor, in the room. You could smell it. It was very bad. Somebody said it was diesel fuel. It was definitely fuel related. I felt crappy, I don't know if it was attributed to that but I was feeling fine before that. We stayed in the room because there was nowhere else to go.

"We were up all night."

She said other passengers had said free flights home were being offered, but again there had been nothing official from NCL.

She said packing up and going home would be even more hassle.

"In addition to this for the past two days for one hour and a half hours each day they shut the entire boat down.

"There has been no elevators, water, toilet and lights. It was a bit of an inconvenience. They said they were testing the system - every day.

"We are just crossing our fingers and hope the ship will get us home."

Larry and Bonnie Benek from Fox Chase, Philadelphia moved to the Grotto Bay hotel on Wednesday night after suffering from fumes in their room.

They are pushing for their money back after slamming the way the situation was handled.

Mr. Benek, 46, said the original complaints began at 9 p.m. but crew were slow to react and were finally addressing the situation at 2 a.m. after failing to report progress all night.

He said all the passengers should have been given the chance of a hotel stay.

Doris Hackett said: "We took this cruise because the brochure said we had two pools, one indoor and one outdoor."

She said the indoor pool had been closed. "There was soot in the hot tub."

Her friend Denise McCoy, 38, of Bucks County, Pennsylvania, said the outdoor pool was covered in greasy black fuel deposits from the fuel stack.

"They scoop it out with a net. They want us to swim in that? I could talk to you for two hours about things that have gone wrong.

"People usually have a wonderful time on a cruise but everything that could go wrong on this ship has. It's unbelievable.

"We had no electric no water. It was an hour and a half. Then it came back on there was still no hot water. They are calling it a black out drill."

She said the power came on only for it go back out again.

"They go around with the sanitisers spraying the tables but they leave the salt and pepper on the tables and spray it. It's unbelievable.

"You think you are on candid camera and they are seeing how much you can take.

"I have never heard of anything like it. Everybody we talked to had stories."

She said complaints were dealt with people with poor English skills who seemed to have trouble understanding. Some passengers told The Royal Gazette they had paid $1,000 per person for the trip.