"IT was total and utter chaos. I think we were just saying 'everything's going to be all right' and holding onto each other."
It was a moment Michelle Barraclough will never forget.
A passenger on the doomed Costa Concordia with husband John Sultan and daughter Katherine, Mrs Barraclough said the moments waiting on the deck as the ship slowly sank were truly frightening.
On Friday, January 13, the Costa Concordia with 4000 people on board sunk off the coast of Italy.
Thirteen of those on board have been confirmed dead and 18 people are still unaccounted for.
The three Essendon residents flew back to Melbourne last Tuesday but are still coming to terms with the holiday that turned into a nightmare.
Mrs Barraclough said she was still struggling to sleep since getting home, while her husband was dealing with a hernia which burst in the frantic scramble to get onto a lifeboat.
The family had been on a Mediterranean holiday since Christmas Eve.
They had already been on the Costa Serena cruise and had been on the Costa Concordia only five hours when, after a relaxing cocktail about 9.45pm, they felt the ship pull to one side.
"It just lurched and there was the sound of a thousand plates smashing in the restaurant and the lights went out.
''The earlier cruise we were on went through a lot of rough sea so we really didn't think much of it.
''There was an announcement to head back to our rooms, so we went up there but a bottle had smashed on our floor, so we didn't go in.
"We sat in the hallway and talked and joked with the cabin crew and stewards.
''They were saying there was an electrical fault that was under control."
Mrs Barraclough said they didn't suspect anything was too serious until the cabin crew disappeared and an announcement was made shortly after for all passengers to evacuate to deck four.
"The ship seemed to be slowly correcting itself but then it over-corrected and kept going and went over the other way.
"Up on deck the ship really started to list. We couldn't get on the first two lifeboats, so we got on the last one.
"It was dark, people were screaming, telling people to get on or get off.
''There was a waiter arguing with an engineer about who should drive, people were throwing their children on - it was utter chaos.
"John and I had hold of one of Katherine's arms each and we weren't letting go.
''All the time the ship was tilting further and further."
Eventually the lifeboat detached and they made it to Giglio island.
After spending a night under a blanket in a empty school, the family caught a ferry to the mainland and the Australian embassy helped them get new clothes and arrange flights back to Australia.
Now at home and still dealing with insurance companies to be compensated for all that's lost, Mrs Barraclough feels great anger at cruise company Costa.
"It's really a whole holiday that has been ruined.
''From all reports the captain who caused the crash was just skylarking, driving too close to the island.
"If you believe the reports he got close to the island so the head waiter could wave to his family.
''We are really not happy with the way Costa treated us."
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