Imagine nearly everything that can go wrong on a cruise ship holding over 4,000 people, and you likely have guessed the true story explored in one of Netflix’s new documentary sensations.
“Trainwreck: Poop Cruise” tells the tale of an infamous cruise ship disaster over ten years later.
The 55-minute film, released June 24, includes firsthand accounts of several passengers who spent almost five days on the Carnival Triumph after it was left floating at sea without functional plumbing or electricity in 2014.
While it seems like this incident is something that could only be imagined, it was a reality for over 3,000 unlucky passengers and over 1,000 crew members.
Here’s what to know.
What happened on the Carnival Triumph?
In February 2014, 4,200 passengers and crew members were stuck at sea aboard the Carnival Triumph.
The cruise was meant to follow a four-day roundtrip route from Galveston, Texas to Cozumel, Mexico.
However, on the fourth day of the cruise, a power outage left the boat floating in the middle of the ocean, waiting to be tugged to land, NBC News reported at the time.
While the ship was first going to be taken to Mexico, strong winds carried the boat so far north in the Gulf it had to be taken to Mobile, Alabama, instead.
The conditions on board were harrowing, as reported by passengers interviewed at the time. With no electricity on the ship, passengers took to sleeping on the ship’s deck to escape their hot rooms and used sheets to create makeshift tents on deck.
Conditions on board were already difficult without electricity. Add to the mix that ship’s plumbing also halted.
“The worst part is the bathrooms,” passenger Donna Gutzman told NBC News. “There’s no water. You can’t really flush so everyone’s going in little plastic baggies and putting it outside their rooms.”
The ship eventually returned to land on Feb. 14.
Why did the power go out?
The cruise ship lost power after an engine room fire. After the ship’s return, the Coast Guard concluded that a fuel oil return line leak sprayed onto a hot surface in the room, starting a flame, NBC News reported.
The U.S. Coast Guard Marine Casualty Investigation Team said the ship’s crew “did a very good job” in responding to the fire.
The damage was caused to a small area of the engine room, but because the oil burned at such a large temperature, the room had to be closed off. Crew members were not able to set out the blaze immediately.
This fire created a domino effect that cut out the ship’s power and halted its toilets.
NBC News later reported that Carnival knew about the risk of leaks from engine fuel hoses, according to court documents surfaced in a lawsuit later filed against the corporation on behalf of dozens of the ship’s passengers.
Carnival said, in a response, that the ship’s engines passed inspection before departure.
What did people say about their experiences?
Passengers on the Carnival Triumph spoke about how what was meant to be a vacation turned into a nightmare.
Wondering what a ship holding thousands of people without working plumbing smells like? One person compared the conditions of the sewage-soaked ship to a zoo, NBC News reported.
Clark Jones, one of the ship’s passengers, told NBC News at the time that he saw people hoarding food and protecting their turf on ship. Jones said recounted the conditions as “primitive.”
Another passenger on the ship, Julie Billings, told NBC News that the experience “was like post-natural disaster, but stuck on a boat with 3,200 other people, and those poor workers trying to clean up after everyone and deal with everyone freaking out.”
As the ship made its way to dock in Mobile, NBC News reported people chanting to be let off and using bed sheets to make giant sigs spelling out “SOS!” or “Sweet Home Alabama!”
NBC News also reported that passengers were grateful for the crew’s response to the unprecedented experience. Janie Baker told MSNBC at the time that the crew was “fantastic,” despite the tempers of those on board “flying” by the final night.
Though not all were satisfied. “It was mistake after mistake after mistake, incompetence to a point I’ve never seen,” passenger Mark Mazan said on TODAY.
What did Carnival say about the incident?
As passengers made it back on dry land, NBC News reported that former Carnival Cruise Lines CEO Gerry Cahill apologized for the ordeal.
“We pride ourselves on providing our guests with a great vacation experience, and clearly we failed in this particular case,” Cahill said at the time.
Carnival provided passengers with food, phones, blankets and refreshments upon their arrival in Mobile.
Buses arrived to take passengers to their flights home or to hotels.
The first passenger to file suit did so hours after returning to land, seeking unspecified damages against Carnival Corp. saying “she was “injured as a result of the unseaworthy, unsafe, unsanitary, and generally despicable conditions,” NBC News reported. Other passengers joined the lawsuit, which was settled out of court in 2016.
Carnival suspended the Triumph through mid-April and gave $500 to each passenger. They also reimbursed each passenger’s trip, their purchases onboard and gave them a free future cruise.
While the ship failed its first inspection after $115 million in repairs, the Carnival Triumph is back at sea, renamed the Carnival Sunrise.
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