In February 2013, one of the biggest stories ever in cruising played out. Carnival Triumph lost power after an engine room fire, setting the ship adrift in the Gulf of Mexico. For days, thousands of passengers and crew onboard had to survive aboard the ship as it was stuck with minimal lighting, air conditioning, and flushing toilets.
It turned into arguably the biggest media frenzy surrounding cruising, second only to the sinking of Costa Concordia. The Triumph received wall-to-wall coverage, became a punch line on late-night TV, and even earned its own nickname — the “Poop Cruise.”
Now, 12 years later the incident has also received its own Netflix documentary. The hour-long film, Trainwreck: Poop Cruise takes you onboard the Carnival Triumph with video shot onboard and interviews with passengers and crew to re-tell the story of what happened.
Here are what stand out as the wildest moments of the documentary that you’ll never forget…
The First Announcement of the Dreaded “Red Bags”
With power out to the ship following the fire, the ship’s toilet system also stopped working. That leads to a big theme throughout the documentary of the infamous “red bags.” With no toilets, the question is what to do if you have to use the bathroom?
The solution? An announcement comes over the intercom that passengers should go “number one” in the shower and “number two” in red biohazard bags that would be distributed around the ship.
The documentary plays the announcement telling passengers to go to the bathroom in a bag and the corresponding reactions from the passengers and crew to hearing the news.
As you can imagine, no one is enthused by the idea, and many people refuse to go in the bags and decide to just hold it as long as they can. One passenger says she started to take Imodium to avoid having to go to the bathroom.
Seeing the Burned Cables That Supply Power to the Ship
Carnival Triumph’s ordeal started with a fire in the engine room. While this happens from time to time, it was initially thought that with the fire out the engineers onboard would come up with a fix to get the ship back up and running shortly.
But after surveying the damage, the documentary says that the fire burned through the power cables for the whole ship. It then shows a picture of what look to be charred cables completely blackened by fire.
Many people remember the coverage of the toilets overflowing and those passengers sitting on open decks with sheets used to block the sun. This, however, is the first time we had seen photos of the actual damage that took out power to the ship.
The Experience of Getting Something to Eat After the Ship Lost Power
Any survival story seems to have an element of “every man for themselves.” The story aboard the ship seems to be no different.
With no power, feeding passengers and crew was a challenge to say the least. So while the cruise started with tons of food everywhere (as anyone on a cruise can attest), things turned dramatically. And so did people’s attitudes.
The documentary says that sandwiches were made and showed food lines that reportedly took hours to be served. While the food isn’t described as very appealing, the passengers report that hoarding started to take place among passengers to get whatever they could. One Russian crewmember likened the experience to the Soviet Union.
Similar things happened with deck chairs as people set up makeshift camps on the top deck of the ship to stay in the fresh air and out of the interior of the ship.
A Surreal Situation Where Another Ship Parties Right Next to the Stranded Triumph
Even being in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico, Carnival Triumph wasn’t alone. This is a busy corridor for cruise ships, and at one point in the journey, another Carnival ship — Carnival Legend — stops by to render aid and drop off supplies.
But while the situation on Triumph may have been bad, aboard Carnival Legend the party is still going on. One passenger reports that Legend passengers took photos of them as they approached alongside and she could see them dancing.
“They were doing the YMCA, and we’re popping Imodium,” she said.
The Passengers Onboard Showing Amazing Resourcefulness
Throughout the documentary, it’s stunning to see how people adapt to improve their situation.
For instance, with no light onboard passengers realized that the water-activated strobes that are part of life jackets will flash light if they get wet. This provided at least some light to get around the dark interior spots in the ship.
And with no air circulating in cabins, passengers pull mattresses into hallways and the upper decks to sleep. The pool deck is filled with bed sheets as people tie them to railings to be in the fresh air but out of the sun.
When Carnival Legend comes close by to render aid, video shows dozens of passengers crowding the deck closest to the ship to get a wi-fi signal to call home. This seems to be the point when the word started to get out about how dire the situation was aboard the Triumph.
The Infamous “Lasagna” Description of Restrooms on the Ship
While the “red bag” is what all the passengers seemed scared of having to resort to in order to do their business, it’s the “lasagna” that might be grossest description you’ll hear.
A crew member interviewed in the documentary decides he can’t hold it any longer and needs to go number two.
“It was the most nastiest thing I’ve ever seen in my life,” he says. “People were covering the poop with the toilet paper and then again pooping on top of it. So it was layer after layer after layer. It was like a lasagna.”
Perhaps no other description of the time can make you feel how rough of a situation it must have been for the passengers onboard.
They Opened Up the Bar With Free Drinks!
In a weird twist in the middle of this crisis, the staff decided that the best move was to… open the bar?
That’s right, after days on the ship, the bars are opened up with free drinks. Of course, a little alcohol can help you relax and forget some of your troubles. It’s a little different situation on a stranded ship where passengers have been under stress for days.
Nevertheless, the bar opens up and the results aren’t hard to imagine. Soon there are people said to be urinating off the ship, throwing “red bags” on the lifeboats, fights breaking out and even a newlywed couple having sex right in front of another passenger on the ship.
Soon after, the bar was closed again.
A Rescue Tug Starts Pulling to Port, But With Icky Consequences
Imagine the excitement of being floating in the middle of the ocean and finally seeing rescue tugs to bring you back to port. There’s finally a light at the end of the tunnel.
Only when this happens to Carnival Triumph, there’s an unintended consequence. While under towing, the ship lists to one side. Match that with worsening weather and the days of backed up sewer lines finally reach what one passenger called “the tipping point.”
Videos and photos show sewage leaking all around the ship, passengers stepping in wet and squishy carpets, and cabins flooded with days-old sewer water.
Even if you had been able to steer clear of the worst of the situation until then, the images show what looks like sewage seemingly everywhere.
Even After the Ordeal, The Appreciation for the Crew Is Real
After days at sea, little to no power, non-working toilets, and an overall miserable time, you might expect that passengers were ready to mutiny.
So what was surprising was that when Carnival Triumph was finally brought into Mobile, Alabama, the passengers seemed extremely thankful to the crew.
“I just remember thanking the crew,” one passenger said. “I mean, where in their job description is picking up people’s feces?”
Even a member of the Carnival PR team expressed that they were shocked and relieved that so many people gave credit to the ship’s crew for their effort.
Following the ordeal, Carnival Triumph underwent months of repairs. It returned to service in June 2013, about four months later. In 2019 the ship was refurbished and renamed Carnival Sunrise. The ship currently sails 4-5 day cruises from Miami.
If you haven’t yet seen the documentary, you can watch Trainwreck: Poop Cruise on Netflix.
