Bus carrying Carnival Triumph passengers breaks down

Passengers from the disabled Carnival Triumph cruise ship arrive by bus in New Orleans. (Gerald Herbert/AP)

Think the long, hard trip is over? Not so fast, buddy.

One of the charter buses carrying passengers of the ill-fated Carnival Triumph cruise ship broke down just 45 minutes into its journey, a bitter coda to what must have been one of the worst vacations since the Griswolds went to Wally World.

CNN reports that one of the buses traveling from Mobile, Ala., to New Orleans, La., had to pull to the side of the road after passengers heard "a loud popping sound." It took about 45 minutes for a replacement bus to arrive and carry the beleaguered passengers on to their hotel rooms in the Big Easy.

In the grand scheme of things, a 45-minute delay is not a big deal. But tacked onto the end of a five-day cruise with no air conditioning, oppressive heat, malfunctioning toilets and incredibly long lines for not-very-good food, the broken bus must have seemed like a case of Murphy Law in the extreme.

"You wouldn't think after the ship nightmare, that on the bus ride to New Orleans, the bus would break down," passenger Jacob Combs said after his bus at last arrived in New Orleans.

But you see—that's where Murphy gets you. Just when you think it can't get any worse...