Infamous 2013 cruise that got stuck at sea without plumbing features in new Netflix documentary
Trainwreck: Poop Cruise tells the fateful story of the 14-storey Carnival Triumph cruise that was stranded for five days in the Gulf of Mexico in 2013 with 4,000 plus passengers and crew on board.
The 'luxury cruise' was meant to be a four-day round trip from Galveston in Texas to Cozumel in Mexico, but an engine room fire destroyed electrical cables that supplied the entire ship, leaving the vessel with no power, refrigeration, lighting, air-conditioning or – worst of all – flushing toilets.
Archive news footage and witness testimonies from passengers and crew expose the gruelling reality of a situation in which the cruise director, Jan, resorted to instructing passengers over the PA system to defecate in plastic bags.
Passengers on board the ship told of carpets soaked in urine and having to sleep in tents on the deck.
Reports emerged of passengers having to queue for hours for cold onion and cucumber sandwiches and fights breaking out over dwindling supplies.
Speaking to CNN at the time of the incident, passenger Ann Barlow said: 'It's disgusting. It's the worst thing ever', while her husband Toby told the news channel there is 'sewage running down the walls and floors'.
Passengers cheered and the ship's horn sounded as the 272 metre-long cruise ship finally docked at the Alabama cruise terminal in Mobile after five days at sea, a process that took six hours.
The president and CEO of Carnival Cruise Line, Gerry Cahilll, apologised profusely to the passengers for the ordeal.
All passengers received a full refund, transportation expenses, reimbursement for some of the in-cruise purchases and an additional $500 compensation.
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