The Cruise from Hell

Regarding the cruise ship that lost power over the Yucatan peninsula this week, I just don't get it. Thousands of passengers were stuck on the crippled ship for five days without working toilets or air conditioning, facing filthy and disgusting conditions. They were finally towed into port on Thursday night.

This is the 21st century and this happened in one of the busiest waterways in the world. They couldn't send another cruise ship to take off the passengers? Or some other type of ship? Aren't there "power" ships that could rendezvous, run a power line, and generate enough power to keep the ship from becoming a health hazard? Couldn't they have airlifted a half dozen generators to the ship to get the power going? Doesn't the ship have backup power systems?

With all the resources and technology at our disposal, why was this such a huge problem?