And, Gulliksen said, "Carnival Triumph's entertainment staff has planned various activities to keep guests entertained."

There are 1,086 crew members on the ship.

Carnival also brought meals aboard from two other cruise ships, the cruise line said Monday. Earlier, Carnival said in a statement that hot coffee was available, among other options.

Carnival initially planned to tow the ship to Progreso, Mexico, but strong currents that had pushed it 90 miles north by Monday night prompted the decision to move the ship to Mobile instead. The change also made it easier on the 900 passengers who don't have passports, the cruise line said.

Passengers will get a free flight home, a full refund for their trip and most expenses aboard, and a credit for another cruise, Carnival said.

Carnival said it will provide 20 charter flights Friday to get disembarked passengers to Houston so they can take other flights home. About 1,500 hotel rooms have been reserved in Mobile and New Orleans.

Sheila Gurganus, general manager of the Mobile cruise terminal, said medical personnel will be on hand to help anyone in need. There were no requests for such aid Tuesday afternoon, she said. Other agencies will help expedite the passengers' return home.

The incident has forced Carnival to cancel the ship's next two departures, refund bookings for those trips and offer those passengers discounts on future cruises.

The Coast Guard and the National Transportation Safety Board launched an investigation into the cause of the engine room fire. Because the Carnival Triumph is a Bahamian-flagged vessel, the Bahamas Maritime Authority is the primary investigative agency.

In 2010, the Carnival's cruise ship Splendor lost power after an engine room fire, leaving it drifting off the Pacific coast of Mexico. The USS Ronald Reagan ferried 60,000 pounds of supplies for the ship's passengers and crew as the ship was towed to San Diego.

Cahill told reporters the Splendor and Triumph incidents are very different. The Splendor had an explosion in a diesel generator.

Richard Burke, chairman of the engineering department at the State University of New York's Maritime College, told CNN he had "no reason to believe that Carnival in any way is not a first-class operator. Nor do I believe that their ships are not good ships. I think they are just being unlucky right now."