(CNN) -- Nine of us booked a trip on the Carnival cruise ship Triumph to celebrate our recent college graduation. I started out in a room of four friends but we were re-located because our room had a leak. So we were separated and my friend and I headed to our newer, more comfortable room...or so we thought. Around 5:30 Sunday morning, after a fun day in Mexico, we woke up to a PA announcement calling for crew help. As soon as I heard the captain come on, I looked at my friend and said, "Adriana, if the captain is coming on sounding shaken, we better start to worry."
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Parisa Safarzadeh and 8 friends took cruise to celebrate college graduation
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A fire on the ship led to smoky conditions, loss of electricity, sewage odors
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She says the passengers received little information about the fire
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Safarzadeh: Crew and passengers were outstanding, showed compassion and concern
It was only 45 minutes to an hour after the first @placeholder announcement that we were informed of a fire.