Netflix’s new documentary anthology series, Trainwreck, has made a solid start by bringing us weekly presentations about wild and bizarre incidents that blew up in the mainstream media over the last two decades. This week’s focus is on a relatively less scandalous or dangerous situation than the first two episodes, one which panned out somewhere in the Gulf of Mexico, leading to extreme discomfort and panic for passengers on a cruise ship that was supposed to provide them a luxurious vacation. Instead, the passengers aboard the Carnival Triumph, as well as the crew members, had to experience a sanitary nightmare, with human urine and excreta floating around the floor of the ship. Overall, Poop Cruise is a funny and wild watch and makes for an experience unlike most documentaries, since the subject is not all that serious.
What was the Carnival Triumph cruise?
At the center of Poop Cruise is a cruise line that used to operate under the name of Carnival Triumph, promising to give passengers a luxurious time on board for four days at a stretch. Owned and run by the Florida-based international cruise company Carnival, the Triumph was a cruise ship that made the journey from Galveston, in Texas, to the Mexican island of Cozumel and then back to the USA a number of times each year. The Triumph had been fitted with all the modern luxuries expected from an expensive cruise ship, like a sprawling bar area and a glitzy casino. In February of 2013, the ship set out on its usual course with about 4000 passengers and crew members, with the same promise of a vacation like no other, aiming to make the round-trip to Cozumel and then back to Galveston in four days’ time. However, things went wrong on the day the Triumph was supposed to return, after a devastating fire resulted in the loss of electricity and, most importantly, sewage sanitation facilities.
The Netflix documentary film tells the story of this bizarre failure with the help of a number of passengers and crew members who had been on board, adding depth to the narrative. For Devin, a young man who had just proposed to his girlfriend, which she had accepted, the cruise holiday was both very exciting and a tense affair. The family of Devin’s fiancée had booked the trip, and the couple had decided to join them at the last minute, which meant that it was going to be the first vacation for Devin with his in-laws, and his father-in-law in particular. The young man wanted to make a positive and lasting impression on his fiancée’s father, to sort of prove to him that his daughter had made a good choice, and so he was ready to do whatever needed to make this point.
The four-day holiday was going to be quite different for Larry and Rebekah, as their whole intention behind setting out on the cruise was to spend time with each other. A loving father and daughter who admittedly were also, and still very much are, best friends as well, Larry and Rebekah’s lives had just started to drift apart, and so they wanted to come together once again. Larry and his partner, Mary, had recently divorced, and although he was still very much in Rebekah’s life, Mary got custody of their daughter, and he had to accept the ruling. Therefore, the Carnival Triumph was another chance to spend time with Rebekah once again, and thus Larry took his daughter on the trip, without any idea that it was about to turn into the most difficult situation of their lives.
Three close friends, Kalin, Ashley, and Jayme, joined the cruise in order to celebrate Ashley’s bachelorette party before she got married. Not really concerned about where the ship would be going and the intricacies of the trip, the three women simply wanted to let their hair down and party for one last time before Ashley’s wedding. Naturally, their only motive was to down as much alcohol as possible at the bar and party their trip away at the clubhouse and then at the vacation island of Cozumel. For the crew members, like the cruise director, Jen; one of the bartenders, Hanna; the guest services manager, Stephen; and one of the chefs, Abhi, it was all about delivering a fantastic experience for the guests. Although Hanna admits that working on a cruise also involves a lot of merrymaking for the crewmates themselves, and this 2013 trip was no different, their main intention was to ensure that the passengers were kept satisfied. However, it would all go wrong on the early morning of February 10th, when everyone aboard the Carnival Triumph was woken up by blaring emergency alarms.
What caused the accident aboard Carnival Triumph?
The cruise ship set out from Galveston on the 7th of February as per schedule, and made the 2-day-long trip to Cozumel without any issue or interruption. Every passenger recalls enjoying their journey and then the luxurious Mexican island before preparing to return home. Around 5:28 am on the 10th of February, when the ship was steaming through the Gulf of Mexico, headed back to the United States, passengers and crew members were woken up by a cryptic emergency announcement, meant to alert and inform the alpha team of engineers to rush to the bridge. Abhi recalls how he initially thought that the alarm was just part of some drill, but he realized something was up after spotting smoke coming out of the sink in the kitchen while his night shift was still on. By the time Stephen tuned into the radio communications to figure out what was going on, the fire crew was already being called to deck zero, specifically to the engine room.
The engine room inside the Carnival Triumph had caught fire, and it was crucial for the firefighters to get to the spot and deal with the situation before it got out of hand. As the passengers woke up and rushed out to the deck amidst the ruckus, they could easily see black smoke billowing out of the ship’s iconic red fin. Panic struck everyone’s mind, and some even started to prepare for a situation in which they might have to jump overboard. However, the fire was quickly contained, and it was later revealed that it had been automatically extinguished by the fire suppression system in the ship, meaning that the fire crew did not have to do anything either. Although the fire had damaged one of the six diesel generators powering the engine, the authorities were confident that the remaining five generators were enough to allow the ship to continue its journey back to the United States.
About an hour after the alarms had first gone off, Jen, who was also responsible for making all the public announcements aboard the ship, told the passengers that the fire had long been put out, and everything was under control. They were asked to return to their respective cabins, as gathering at the muster station, which was the assembly point during emergencies, was no longer required. However, it was only a few minutes later that the lights on the ship completely went out, and none of the backup generators were of any use either. It was soon discovered by the authorities that although the fire had been put out by the system without any apparent damage, it had completely destroyed the main electric cables running through the vents of the engine room, meaning that there was absolutely no way to get the power back up and running anymore.
The loss of electricity meant two crucial things—first, the engine and, more importantly, the propulsion of the ship would not work without power, and secondly, the entire sanitation system was also dysfunctional without electricity, meaning that there was no way to flush the toilets. While the fire did not pose any direct threat to the people onboard, it had very much affected the situation indirectly, and soon the authorities on the ship, as well as the passengers, had to deal with an unprecedented crisis. With the toilet system out of order, Jen had to tell people, on the public announcement system, to urinate in the shower area instead of in the toilets so that the waste could be washed away with shower water. For the excretion process, an even more bizarre solution had to be come up with, as red biohazard bags were sent to each of the cabins, and passengers were asked to defecate in these bags, which were then supposed to be left out in the corridor.
Did the passengers and crew members finally return home safely?
The initial plan made by the Carnival cruise company to rescue the stranded Triumph ship was to send tugboats from Cozumel in order to pull the ship back to the Mexican coast. However, after further deliberation, it was determined that since the engines on the Triumph were no longer working, meaning that the ship could no longer stay in one place, it had drifted a long distance away from its original position in the Gulf of Mexico because of the ocean currents. Its new location was just too far from the coast of Mexico, and so it would not be economic or convenient to have the tugboats take it back towards Cozumel. Therefore, it was finally decided that the tugboats would be used to take it back to American waters, to dock in Mobile, Alabama, which would take at least two more days.
The situation worsened for the passengers, meanwhile, as long queues started to form for basic amenities like food and water, while the sanitation problem still remained. After almost two days stranded, the authorities onboard wanted to boost the morale of the passengers and took the extremely unintelligent decision of serving free alcohol to everyone at the bar. Total chaos erupted as fights broke out, people started urinating into the sea, and some even started to get intimate in public, right in front of everyone. Multiple helicopters and other cruise ships brought food and medical supplies for the Triumph in the meanwhile. However, the situation took its absolute worst shape when the toilets started to overflow, and the floors of the luxurious cruise ship were now filled with human urine and excreta.
The whole ordeal finally came to an end when Carnival Triumph was able to reach the dock in Mobile on the 14th of February, at around 9:20pm. The passengers were naturally ecstatic to have made the return after having been stranded at sea and stuck in horrific conditions for four straight days. Some had even seemingly started to give up hope and put faith in religion instead, as a Bible group had been formed. But they were ultimately relieved when the ship managed to return, and they were able to get home. Despite the grim nature of the journey, many remembered to publicly thank the crew members, who were stranded and stuck in equally horrific conditions but had worked tremendously hard to do whatever they could to help the passengers.
In a humorous addition, Trainwreck: Poop Cruise mentions the current whereabouts of the passengers whose accounts were used to narrate the events. Amidst all the chaos and crisis, Devin did not only impress his father-in-law, but he also grew very close to his fiancée’s family. As a result, they still go on yearly vacations together, although only on land, after having learned the lesson of how horrible getting stranded at sea can be. Larry and Rebekah learned more about how they can team up to tough it out through any difficult situation together, and the father and daughter continue to be very close, and they still go on vacation cruises together. Ashley got married a few weeks after the incident, and her bridesmaids’ gift was jokingly wrapped in a red biohazard bag as a reminder of the horrific experience of having to defecate in such bags on the ship.
Did Carnival take responsibility for the disaster?
Soon after the Triumph returned to shore, a formal lawsuit was filed by a group of the passengers who had been onboard, with the help of expert maritime lawyer Frank Spagnoletti. The lawsuit had been filed against Carnival Cruise Line, the company owning and managing the ship, especially based on reports prepared by Spagnoletti about earlier incidents of fires on ships managed by the same company. His intention was clearly to prove that Carnival had not been taking proper care of the vessels and that the fire and the stranding could have been avoided with proper maintenance. However, this claim did not stand in court, and furthermore, the attorney of Carnival made a shocking revelation.
Among the documents provided to passengers upon the purchase of tickets for these vacation cruises was also a legal contract that stated that the company did not guarantee “safe passage, a seaworthy vessel, adequate and wholesome food, and sanitary and safe living conditions.” This meant Carnival could not be held responsible for any of the incidents that took place aboard the Triumph, and that there were no legal grounds to file any lawsuits. Thus the case was immediately dismissed, and all charges made by Spagnoletti had to be dropped.
Carnival’s way of taking responsibility for the incident was by fully refunding the ticket prices to the customers, paying their transportation expenses, giving them $500 compensation for their troubles, and offering one free cruise to each of them. They did bring about changes to the unfair clauses on the ticket contracts though, and removed the mentions about not guaranteeing safe passage and sanitary living conditions. The company is still in existence, and the Triumph cruise ship is also still used for trips, although in a renovated state and under the new name of Carnival Sunrise.
