The disabled liner was towed into port in Mobile, Ala.

GALVESTON (February 15, 2013)--Weary passengers from the crippled Carnival cruise ship Triumph returned to the ship's departure port in Galveston Friday, after five days at sea on a liner that was left powerless by an engine-room fire.

Buses began arriving at the Port of Galveston on Friday morning after an eight-hour drive from Mobile, Ala.

The ship was towed into port at Mobile on Thursday night.

Port of Galveston police say as many as 800 people will arrive Friday by bus to retrieve their vehicles or be shuttled onto other buses to reach home.

Elaine Roberts of Gainesville, Texas, and her family were among the first to arrive in Galveston.

She told KHOU-TV the conditions on Triumph were a "cesspool."

The Triumph departed Galveston on Feb. 7 and was due to return Monday.

Some of the passengers who headed to New Orleans faced a further delay Friday when their bus broke down.

A spokesman said another bus was available and those aboard were transferred and continued to New Orleans where they arrived safely later Friday morning.

The ship carrying some 4,200 people and under tow by tugboats docked late Thursday, five days after an engine-room fire left it powerless and adrift.

Meanwhile in Mobile, the disabled ship was being moved from the dock where passengers disembarked to a shipyard for repairs.

Tugs pulled the 14-story ship away from the dock in Mobile and backward down a waterway in the direction of the shipyard.