Carnival Cruise Lines: No 'Spam-cation'

SAN DIEGO, Nov. 11 (UPI) -- Carnival Cruise Lines said Thursday although Spam was among the food items delivered to the stranded Splendor, the canned meat was not served to guests.

"Despite media reports to the contrary, Carnival Splendor guests were never served Spam!" Carnival said on Twitter.

The U.S. Navy Tuesday delivered food items to Splendor that Carnival ordered in the wake of the ship's four-day shutdown after an engine fire. Photos of Navy helicopters dropping crates of Spam sparked the term "Spam-cation."

"We gave our food order to a supplier, not the Navy. The Navy kindly delivered the goods, (and) Spam was not on the list," Carnival spokesman Vance Gulliksen told USA Today.

"However, we told the supplier to substitute as necessary if they had difficulty getting everything we were requesting on very short notice and so that's how the Spam ended up within the supplies that were delivered."

Splendor was left dead in the water Monday near the Pacific coast of Mexico, and it took four days for tugboats to tow the ship to San Diego.