Two South Florida residents returned to Miami on Monday afternoon after escaping this weekend's Italian cruise ship disaster.

Pembroke Pines resident Connie Barron and her boyfriend, Jay Garcia, faced a mob scene upon returning to Miami International Airport after a harrowing vacation in which the two survived the Costa Concordia disaster, which has claimed at least six lives. Italian coast guard officials said Monday that 29 people are still missing.

Emotional family members greeted Barron and Garcia after they arrived on their Alitalia flight just three days after escaping the ship relatively unharmed.

Passengers compared their ordeal to the proportions of the sinking of the Titanic. Barron and Garcia were sleeping when the trouble started.

"It was really chaotic, crazy. It was late at night. It was cold," Garcia said.

"It was awful. They were playing with life -- 4,500 lives," Barron said.

With only their clothes on their back and their cell phones, Barron and Garcia, along with about 4,000 other passengers, including two other couples from South Florida, plus the crew, scrambled for their lives.

"We were getting contradicting orders: 'Stay in your room.' 'Go to the fourth floor,' where the boats were. 'Go back to the room.' It was too contradicting," Garcia said.

Garcia and Barron said they have a lot of questions about the roles of the crew, the captain and the cruise line management entrusted with the thousands of lives.

The couple said the passengers did not receive enough help from the crew.

"Everybody rushed them, and if you were in the front, you were being shoved into the boats. It was really chaotic. We never heard from any of the crew, management or the captain," Garcia said.

"Very disorganized -- everybody was pushing everybody," Barron said.

"If anybody has taken a cruise, that first day you get on the cruise, it's mandatory to have an evacuation run. We never had one," Garcia said.

Barron bruised her leg during the chaos. As she and Garcia made it to the island of Giglio, they had to rely on strangers to give them a place to stay for the night. The next day, they went to Rome, where the U.S. Embassy helped them arrange travel plans back to Miami.

They said they planned to have a home-cooked meal Monday night and get some rest.

"I'm overjoyed with love and emotions and happy to have her here. I know that not everyone is as fortunate as us," said Barron's daughter, Arlene Sanchez.

Safety on the high seas is taught in South Florida for cruise ship captains worldwide.