Trainwreck: Poop Cruise (2025) Movie Script
1
28 degrees, 41 minutes, 30 seconds.
There are scenarios that come along
that just grab everyone's attention.
I mean, I remember
just the rush to get there,
and knowing we wanted
to start getting eyeballs
on this giant story.
We had camera people,
correspondents, photojournalists.
We had crews on boats.
We had a... a helicopter up in the air.
We couldn't get enough.
America couldn't get enough.
Three, two, one, right under us.
Shit!
Now we're getting our
first look at that stricken cruise ship
that's become a floating disaster area.
And take a look at this.
Uh, our helicopter, uh, captured
passengers lying on the deck,
spelling out the word
"help."
What the is happening
on this cruise ship?
You start to haul ass
at the bottom of that shit.
Whoo!
We just love going on cruises.
The food, the pool, the water slide.
I mean, what more could you ask?
Everything was great.
We're having the most fun.
It's so nice to just really uncheck
from the real world.
We're having a great time.
We were like, "This is awesome!"
Whoa!
And then the lights go out.
Oh my gosh.
That's when all of us were like,
"What the fuck?"
More than 4,000 people
are stuck on a cruise ship
that is dead in the water.
A dream vacation has fast become
a nightmare for thousands of passengers.
I'm telling you, it got bad fast.
Oh my gosh.
Suddenly, everyone's out for themselves.
It was terrifying.
All of a sudden, we were like,
"Oh shit, the ship is on fire."
Let's go. Let's go.
Oh my God, this is it. We're going down.
Go, go, go.
Turns out it wasn't the fire
that was the problem.
It was the freaking toilets.
There's shit and piss
on the floors in the cafeteria.
There's only so much a toilet can take.
It was just a floating Petri dish.
Oh my God.
Save us! Help!
It was a slowly unfolding nightmare
that you couldn't stop.
Just get me off this ship.
Hi.
The first time
I heard about going on a cruise
was a simple phone call from my fiance
saying, "My family's going on a cruise."
"Let's do it together."
"Everything's taken care of."
And it was an easy yes.
The itinerary was two days at sea.
And then we were going
to stop at Cozumel, Mexico.
Then we were gonna get back out to sea
and have a nice day back to Galveston.
It's going to be great.
But I was a little nervous
because I was gonna be spending
a lot of time with my fiance's father.
I had just asked him
for permission to marry her.
And so, of course,
I wanted him to like me.
You know, I wanted him to be excited
that I was the man
who was gonna marry his daughter.
I went on the cruise with the one intent,
and that was for me and Bekah
to have daddy-daughter time.
I had just recently got divorced,
and that was a very difficult time.
My dad's my best friend.
So, um, I did miss him, and I was excited
to spend time with him for sure.
Definitely. Definitely.
There's the ship.
That's the ship we're going on.
Looks like a building.
I don't think you realize
how big cruise lines are
until you're standing in front of it,
realizing you're standing in front
of a skyscraper on its side,
and it's floating.
It's humongous.
When you walk in, there's this grand foyer
with a spiral staircase and chandeliers.
You walk over here, and it's an arcade.
Welcome to the casino.
Suddenly, you're
in this grand hall with unlimited food.
Then there's a theater
where you can see live entertainment.
And then suddenly, you're out on deck,
and, like, there's gigantic chess pieces
and, like, people enjoying, like,
having a good time at a spa.
It just seems like everywhere you look,
there's something to do.
I was getting married.
It was my bachelorette party.
I wanna make sure I don't flash anybody.
We all talked about it and discussed
and decided that a cruise
would be a fun way to celebrate.
I remember being so excited.
It's a cruise. It's gonna be perfect.
We put our luggage down
and we went straight up to the bar.
We were supposed to go
to some safety briefing,
but I remember being like,
"We're not gonna need this information."
"What are the chances
we need to remember a muster station?"
We wanted to get the party started.
Let's take a selfie.
And then they honk the big horn,
and you're like, "Okay,
it's the start of a great vacation!"
Crazy excited.
The first thing we did was, you know,
grab a drink, go out on deck.
Sit, enjoy,
have a chat with my father-in-law,
let him know I'm a good guy.
We were in the sun all day,
drinking cocktails.
It was amazing.
Whoo!
I remember walking up to the bar,
and, suddenly,
this voice breaks through the ceiling,
and it's this, like,
positive British woman.
"Hi! Hi, hi. This is Jen. So excited!"
She was great.
Good afternoon.
Welcome on board
the beautiful Carnival Triumph.
Jen was the voice of the Triumph.
- Jen.
- Jen.
She's Vacation Barbie.
Come and join us. Come around the table.
Hit that music. Should we take it away?
I loved my job.
I absolutely loved every aspect of it.
I genuinely really liked the passengers.
I've always said this.
People are there to have a nice holiday.
And you're there just to facilitate that
and help them out to do it.
That's all it is.
People wanna have a nice time.
Another beautiful day
on the Carnival Triumph. Day two.
But it's not all fun and frolics
and having a lovely time with the guests.
The ship is very much two worlds.
We had about 1,200 crew members
from all over the world.
As a kid growing up in the Soviet Union,
I could never imagine I will be working
on a cruise ship with Americans,
saying, "Yee-haw" and enjoying it.
I mean,
it's two completely opposite universes.
You know, it's an American industry.
Guests, they are there to enjoy
and you are there to work.
For the kitchen,
you have to work at least 70 hours a week,
sometimes more.
Initially, it was really, uh,
difficult for me
because when I came from India,
I was... I was not used to working so hard.
But at the same time, we had a lot of fun.
Oh, damn, there is so much fun
on the cruise ship when you are a crew.
There is lots of sex on the cruise ship.
Damn! So much sex, you don't wanna know.
Like, everything is hard and fun.
Arriving at Cozumel was awesome.
It's colorful and there's music.
And people welcome you
when you get off the boat.
So, yeah, we were ready
to continue the great time.
I remember Rebekah
was splashing around in the water,
playing, laughing,
and having a great time and
And it was perfect. Amazing.
When she's happy, I'm happy.
It was a great time.
I was getting along with my father-in-law,
and, uh, we had some wonderful food.
We stuffed our faces.
We were drinking harder in Cozumel
than we were on the boat.
This was absolutely
the bachelorette party I had dreamed of.
When we walked back to the ship,
we realized we've only got one day left.
Now you're headed back home.
Everything went perfect up to that point.
I mean, it really was.
Couldn't ask for any better.
I literally don't remember
getting back on board.
So I could've been crawling.
I could've been carried.
I don't remember that part.
We left our dignity in Cozumel.
As soon as my head hit the pillow,
I was out.
I just remember opening my eyes
and, like, looking around, pitch black.
Like, "What is going on?"
The noise is coming
from, like, a speaker in the ceiling.
And so you're staring at it.
And then, suddenly, you hear,
"Alpha Team, Alpha Team, Alpha team."
Alpha Team, Alpha Team, Alpha team.
Attention. Alpha Team.
Waking up suddenly like that,
your first instinct is, "I need water."
"I don't feel good."
"This is so loud."
"Shut it off."
- Right.
- "Somebody needs to turn it off."
Alpha team
I'm nervous. I have no idea
what Alpha Team Alert means.
I was not in my own cabin
when the alarm went.
You know, it happens.
I was in this guy's cabin
who works in the engineering room,
and I see him jumping off the bed,
putting on his overalls.
Alpha team
I was like, "Okay, something is going on."
I was in the kitchen, working night shift.
At that time, I thought it was a drill.
But within a few seconds,
I saw smoke coming out
from the drain of the sink.
All of us were like, "What the fuck?"
I went up to the bridge, and
as soon as I walked in, I knew
this is... this is...
This is something serious.
People were on phones and radios,
and there were alarms going off.
People were running, banging on doors.
- You could hear the panic.
- Wake up.
Get out! Get out!
I'm like, "Oh my God. This is it.
This is the Titanic. We're going down."
"Where is our muster station?"
I put a couple of the, uh... the radios on
just to hear what was going on
from up on the bridge.
Fire team
I can hear them calling
the fire team to head down to deck zero.
Aft engine room
No amount of training can prepare you for
It was like a numb feeling.
You know, I maybe should not admit this,
but I can't really swim.
Once we got up to the lido deck,
the first thing I remember seeing,
it's, like, etched in my brain,
is seeing the big red fin.
There were flames just shooting out of it.
And that's really when I woke up
and was like,
"Oh Oh. Oh shit, the ship is on fire."
The captain came over and said,
"There's a fire in the engine room."
Then you're like, "Oh my Oh What? Like"
"Are we going down?
We have to get the lifeboats?"
"Is this general emergency?
I mean, is... What... Is this it?"
Fire on a boat is even more terrifying
than a fire on land.
It can spread everywhere,
and there's nothing you can do.
There's no firefighters
that can come save you.
I just stood there,
waiting for the captain
to tell me what was going on.
He said, "There's been a fire
in one of the six diesel generators,
um, but it's out."
So, you got five others, five spares.
We're good. We're great.
And then I... And then I
kind of was like, "Oh, okay"
"I need to... I gotta tell the guests."
Everything is completely under control.
So please, folks, there's no point
waiting in the muster stations.
Go back to your cabin, go back to bed,
have some coffee, have some breakfast.
There's nothing to worry about.
No need to be waiting
in the muster stations.
That was reassuring.
And so I told my fiance,
"Everything's gonna be fine."
"We should get some coffee."
I think I'm gonna order the cream caramel.
And then the lights go out.
Whoa.
This is just like the cruise.
Suddenly, it went dark on the bridge.
Everything's out.
It's likedarkness.
What the hell's going on?
Totally dark. You can't see anything.
Then we audibly heard the AC cut out.
When power goes, that's it,
everything's out.
You know, from the little things
like making a cup of tea or a coffee
or a slice of toast
to the whole propulsion of the ship.
So technically,
we are just floating dead in the water.
Now, it's obvious
there's no control of the boat.
I remember the feeling of uncertainty,
not knowing what was gonna happen.
I was terrified.
I immediately turned on
my cell phone to text my fiance,
and I quickly realized
that the cellular was out too.
We've had power cuts before,
and engineers go and do
whatever they do to turn it back on.
So I just thought
once the engine room cools down,
they'll go in,
they'll turn everything back on.
And then we'll be back to normal
in an hour or so.
In the meantime, though,
it was like, "What are we gonna do?"
"What's the immediate problems
that we can work on now?"
And they, of course, were lights.
There's no lights,
but the emergency lighting was on.
So that wasn't a major issue.
Air-conditioning, meh.
People, if they're inside,
can go up to the open deck.
It's also not too bad.
Um
And then somebody realized
that the toilets weren't working.
They needed electricity.
So they weren't gonna flush,
which is, with thousands of guests,
a major issue.
We had to come up
with a plan of what to do.
Initially, it was, you know,
the idea of peeing overboard.
Like, for a man, it's okay,
but not for a woman.
You know, they could fall in.
Half-jokingly, I was like,
"Well, we can do
a number one in the shower,"
which seems
like a really feasible option."
So it was,
"Uh, yeah, oh, that... that sounds good."
"Let's... Let's go with that."
"Pee in the shower."
And then for the number two,
that that was definitely
a trickier problem than number one.
Um, very important information, folks.
As you probably know by now,
the toilets are not flushing
and it's gonna start
causing a little bit of a problem.
- Holy shit. I remember this.
- We've come up with a plan.
So, folks, if you do need
to do a number one, everybody,
you can do it in the shower,
and if you do need to do a number two,
what we're gonna do
is we're gonna deliver some red bags
to all of the bathrooms on board.
And if you do need to do a number two,
we ask that you do it in the red bag
and drop it off in the bins,
in the corridors.
Thank you, folks.
I'll be back with any more updated info.
What the fuck?
You want me to what?
Excuse me?
No.
I'm not doing that.
Like, it was just like,
"Oh, what world are we living in?"
"This can't be real."
I mean,
I never thought in my weirdest dreams
that I will see a day
when I will have to poop in a red bag.
I know it was hideous,
but that's the only option that we had.
Do it in a plastic bag.
Tie the bag, put it in a bin,
and then dispose of them down below.
The... Like... It really was a genius plan.
As soon as I saw the red bags,
I was like, "Oh no. Oh no."
"Mm-mm."
"No."
I was like, "Red bag?
No way. Not happening."
I immediately started taking Imodium.
At that point, we needed
to let Carnival head office know
what was happening on board.
Fortunately, we had
a satellite phone that worked
and it became my responsibility
to, uh, keep that communication
going with shoreside.
When I heard
about the fire on the Triumph,
it was immediately crisis mode.
You have to remember, a cruise ship
is the biggest machine on the planet.
And so when things go wrong,
they typically go wrong in a big way.
In the event of an emergency like this,
the first step is to put out
a holding statement, very short,
and distribute that to the media.
Something to the effect of,
"The Carnival Triumph has experienced
a fire in the engine room."
"The ship is without propulsion right now,
and we're working to fix it."
We did not mention
that the toilets were not working.
You give them what you believe they need
and no more than that.
The first time CNN people in the newsroom
would've heard anything about Carnival
it would've been
through this press release.
It said there had been a fire
on board the Triumph.
It was contained.
Um, you know, some things aren't working,
but for the most part, everyone's okay.
I'm thinking, "We're fucking CNN."
"We've got the State of the Union,
Iraq, uh, Pyongyang, Vatican."
The Pope resigning is a story, okay?
So there's easily eye rolls
over a cruise story at first.
I don't think so.
I would imagine
some local affiliates picked up the story,
but not national news.
The Carnival cruise ship
Triumph is drifting along
I was at home when my phone rang,
and it was my friend from work.
"Oh, did you hear about the fire
on the Carnival Triumph?"
And I'm like,
"No, I didn't hear any of that."
"My daughter's on that ship
with her daddy."
Instantly, the anxiety and the frustration
and the fear came over me.
I couldn't get her on the phone.
I couldn't talk to her at all.
I was frantically
trying to find information
on what had happened on that ship.
That's my baby out there.
I didn't know if she was okay.
As a 12-year-old, it's very scary
to not be able to talk to your mom
and tell her everything that's going on
and tell her, you know, how you feel.
You just want both of your parents there
to hug you and hold you,
and you can't have that.
By noon, we were trying to, you know,
go about our day as "normal" as we could.
But we had the hot sun blaring down on us.
Um, you know,
trying to find some cold water.
Just rummaging around the ship,
trying to figure out, like,
"Okay, what do we eat? What do we drink?"
"And why the hell isn't the bar open?"
Inside the boat, it was even worse.
I mean,
it'll just suffocate you in minutes
because there's nothing stirring
nowhere at all.
I suddenly felt
so claustrophobic almost, um,
and that's when I had
that thing of, like, "Okay,
I have never needed
to do a number one, that's wee,
this bad in my life."
And so I was like,
"Y'all, I really... I need to pee."
"Does somebody wanna come with me?"
- Because it was dark.
- Yeah.
So you kind of want, like, a buddy system.
I don't wanna go alone.
It's too scary.
One of the guests on the boat was like,
"This is what you need to do."
So we had taken the beacon
out of the life jacket.
He told us to pour, like, soda on it,
so it gets wet and it starts to light up.
So the whole time,
you have, like, this discotheque going on
while you're doing it.
It was a very bizarre experience.
This is my first cruise,
but I don't think this is normal.
And then I was like,
"I've gotta at least rinse off. Ugh."
- It was just horrible.
- Like, it's pretty disgusting.
Are you for real? Oh my God.
So about 1:30,
the temperature had finally dropped down
in the engine control room,
and fire safety and the safety team
were able to get in
and inspect what happened inside.
That's when the chief engineer discovered
that this was a lot more serious
than first imagined.
They came back and said that
pretty much the fire
had burned through all the...
All the power cables to the whole ship.
So there was no hope
of getting the... the power back.
That was it.
Your heart just drops.
Like, "What do... What do we do now?"
Shoreside's plan was to call up
to Progreso, Mexico,
the closest port,
and get a tugboat to come out
to start pulling us in.
That's when we heard
the new plan which is,
"We're gonna get tugged back
to Progreso tomorrow."
So this is not the time to go
to the bathroom in a trash can.
Uh, I was determined.
"I am not gonna use the red bag."
"I'm gonna make it."
As we got closer to dusk,
as we got closer
to the end of the first day,
the first night is coming,
we realize we cannot sleep in these rooms
because it was just so hot.
We've been floating
for like 9, 10, 12, 13 hours?
What is it? Six o'clock.
About 12, 13 hours.
That's when I started to see people
dragging their mattresses out on deck.
We left our floor,
brought our mattresses up,
and we laid in the hallway.
There's people laying beside you
you've never met
or probably would never talk to.
In my mind, I'm thinking,
"This is not good."
You know?
I think all of us
were just ready to go to bed.
- It had been an emotionally taxing day.
- Mm-hmm.
And we just wanted to wake up
and see the Mexican shoreline
and, you know, jump on that shore
and have a margarita.
But when I woke up,
I was like, "Oh Oh. Oh shit."
"Where in the hell is Mexico?"
A very good morning to you,
ladies and gentlemen.
I hope you did manage
to get some sleep last night
despite these challenging conditions.
The tugboat is scheduled
to arrive at 12:00 noon today.
I'll talk to you soon.
The next morning we woke up
and everything had changed.
I went down to the lower decks
and saw and smelt
and felt the air of sickness.
Here are the infamous poo bags.
That's probably full of feces.
And then there was the food.
The next day morning,
I threw away all the perishable food
and started to make sandwiches,
onions, tomatoes, whatever we could find,
for the 3,000 hungry guests on board.
That's the food line.
That's two of four food lines.
You would have to wait in line
for two hours.
But when you got up to see what it was
that you were waiting on,
it was, like, a soggy bread
and tomato-lettuce sandwich.
It took a complete turn from the first day
where there's food everywhere,
and there's ice cream machines
and there's pizza.
- What are those?
- These are ladyfingers.
I'll have a couple of those.
Thank you.
Suddenly, people
were very much, like, in survival mode.
Everyone's out for themselves.
They're in line to get food
and they'll get as much as they can.
- I want one hamburger.
- One burger.
Tell the people who are getting ten
to give them back. I just want one.
The hoarding on board was ridiculous.
People were just grabbing everything
and taking it to their little camps.
It made me think
that, huh, now all these Americans, uh,
somehow can feel
what it was in a dictatorship country
where shit like this happens,
and it doesn't surprise anyone.
Yeah. Welcome to the Soviet Union, people.
It's like a shantytown around here.
People are sleeping everywhere.
There were people taking sheets
and putting them over chairs
and making tent cities.
There was a rush to get a deck chair.
And people were tugging and fighting.
"This is my area, these are my people."
"And don't come messing with us."
You saw that a lot.
- So your GPS puts us on the F?
- Yeah.
Because we're fucked.
Yeah, maybe.
All of a sudden,
we look out and we see another ship.
Thank you!
I was like,
"This is it. They're gonna save us."
One of the other sister ships,
the Legend, was close by.
They stopped by and helped us out.
It was more food supplies than anything,
because logistically and safety wise,
you can't just walk 4,500 people
from one ship to the other.
Like, it's a huge procedure.
It's lowering boats,
having a small percentage of people
jump on board,
bring it across, tie it up,
transfer the passengers,
and then repeat again.
He broke it.
Oh my God.
Not an option.
They were just taking pictures of us
like we're the freak show
in the middle of the ocean.
And they are partying.
They don't stop dancing.
They're doing the YMCA,
and I'm over here popping Imodium.
We're like a scenic detour
on their cruise.
Yeah.
Wow. They are really close.
That was the beginning of, like,
this "aha" moment where we thought,
"Hey, can we get
a Wi-Fi signal from that boat?"
We were all trying
to get as close as we could
to steal cell phone reception from it.
Everyone's out on deck,
holding their phones up in the air,
trying to get reception.
Can anybody get a signal?
And we started to get signal.
I was thinking to myself,
"This could be bad,"
because all the people
are gonna try and do is call home
or call whoever to let them know
they're stuck in the middle of the ocean,
there's no power,
and they're taking shits in red bags,
you know?
Immediately, I called my mom.
I... I can't even begin to describe
how I felt, you know,
seeing her name light up my phone.
I told her the electricity went out
and about the red bags.
I told her that everything
was just going sideways.
I'd never expect
Rebekah would be telling me
she's having to poop in a red bag.
It's like something
that came out of a nightmare movie.
When all this is happening on board,
I'm wondering
why there's not any news coverage of it.
Family members
start actually reaching out to us at CNN.
They start contacting newsrooms,
and they start telling us details
that go quite a bit farther
beyond the press release.
Like, wait, the toilets aren't working?
Something about people
having to go in bags, and I don't even
That's when we started saying,
"This is a story."
More than 4,000 passengers and crew
spent last night stranded aboard
a cruise ship in the Gulf of Mexico.
Here is how one man's wife,
who is on board the ship,
is describing this.
There's no power. They are having to use
the restroom in buckets and bags.
Suddenly, these stories began to appear
about the conditions on board the ship.
A four-day pleasure
cruise has turned into a nightmare.
4,200 people floating. Dead in the water.
Holy Christ. How did that happen?
Now the cat's out of the bag.
It's like the snowball
has started to roll,
and there's no stopping it.
Supplies are running low
on board and emotions are running high
as passengers wait to be rescued.
Every time there's
a maritime disaster, I'm watching it.
You know, it's my business.
I remember seeing the local news stories
with regard to what was happening,
and my hair was standing up.
I was like, "What is this?
I mean, this is absurd."
These are paying passengers.
Carnival's one of the largest
cruise ship companies in the world.
They're a global,
multibillion-dollar business.
But I knew that in those recent years,
they had had some problems
with fires on other boats.
The smell of smoke began to fill
the nearly thousand-foot-long
Carnival Splendor.
So when I saw this
with regard to the Carnival Triumph,
obviously, my antenna was piqued.
At that time, we built everybody up
to getting everybody home
relatively quickly, getting on land.
And then I got a call from shoreside,
and they said the plan has had to change.
They told us that since we lost power,
the ship had drifted
over 100 nautical miles.
Now we were nowhere near Mexico.
So the new plan now
is to take everybody to Mobile, Alabama.
This is gonna add on
a couple of days at least.
My heart just dropped out.
I was just like
Are you kidding?
Like, that's an absolute disaster.
We found out we were going
to Mobile instead of Progreso.
Oh, that made everybody mad.
- That was like getting hit in the face.
- Yeah.
Three more days of this.
It's not gonna get better.
- We were starting to smell urine.
- Yeah.
Starting to smell the toilets.
They weren't draining.
And so it would fill up the showers,
and it would just sit there
with nowhere to go.
That's when we realized that
we are screwed.
When Jen announces that
it's gonna be two or three more days,
it's like,
"I don't know if I can hold it."
"I am not going to make it
without going to the bathroom
and having a number two."
All right.
Back for more.
So I start hunting for bathrooms.
Because there was a rumor
that there were bathrooms
and toilets somewhere that worked.
- Your toilets work?
- No.
No. Our toilets aren't working.
Okay.
But every time I walked into a bathroom,
you open up the door,
"Nope, that one doesn't work."
Go into the next. "No."
"That one's disgusting.
That one doesn't work."
I really had to go number two.
And I found this public restroom,
and I go inside.
And it was...
It was the most nastiest thing
I have ever seen in my life.
People were covering the poop
with the toilet paper,
and then again pooping on top of it.
So it was a layer after layer after layer.
It was like a lasagna.
Decks three, four, five are clean.
Crew members have taken care.
You can go there to use it if you want.
Oh, great. Thank you.
Once I found one toilet that worked,
it certainly was a relief
and also a little bit awkward
with my soon-to-be in-laws.
"Hey. You probably
have to do a number two."
"I found a working bathroom.
Here it is. Hope you're feeling okay."
"Did you use a red bag yet?"
It's a really weird conversation to have.
Carnival was about being fun ships.
And, you know, as crew members,
that is told to us, you know,
"Create those fun memorable experiences."
So the decision was made,
"Let's open up the bar for free drinks."
Ooh.
I was definitely
against the idea of the open bar.
People will go nuts.
Hey!
They just started
giving out liquor for free.
We were like, "This is awesome."
"Free drinks. Let's go."
- Yes!
- Finally, something to do.
- It's something.
- Cruises are supposed to be fun.
It's free booze. Let's go.
People were double-fisting drinks,
taking them back to their rooms.
It was the craziest,
the busiest, the drunkest.
"Just give me the drinks.
Whoo-hoo-hoo! Yes."
Everything was going great.
But then there's people
urinating off the side of the ship.
I was like, "Oh. Oh shit."
People were throwing
their red bags on the lifeboats.
Somebody threw the poop bag,
and... and the wind blew it back
on somebody... on the...
Sitting on the open deck downstairs.
And that person is like, "What the fuck?"
The group next to us in tent city
was a newlywed husband and wife.
They were having sex
right in front of me on the chair.
There was no,
"You want a sheet to put over you?"
No, they were right there.
Don't know if they couldn't
handle their liquor, but fights broke out
It was getting very scary.
As a dad, your job is to protect,
and I couldn't do anything.
It was, uh
You know, you feel so small.
Because all this is going on around you,
and there ain't a darn thing
you can do about it.
It just was like this,
"Nah, we gotta...
We gotta put a stop to this."
"Close the bar."
It felt like a small victory, right?
Like, we got a little bit
of our... our fun back,
and it took our mind off of the reality.
We're stranded at sea by ourselves.
We were so excited when we saw
that the tugboats had finally arrived.
AAA finally got here.
Because that means we're moving.
There was an end in sight.
It looks like the boat's going that way.
This one is keeping
our tail from swinging.
It's probably in reverse.
Looks like it's definitely in reverse.
But when the tugboats started to pull us
Whoa!
everything shifted.
Man, this, like, listing
is gonna be nuts on video.
We were now on our way,
but also the angle
of the ship had adjusted,
and everything tilted to the side.
Tugboats are pushing us.
Hold on to your phone.
Suddenly, the weather
turned for the worse.
- Oh!
- Oh!
Now, I became very aware
that this was probably the tipping point.
And that's the moment everything spilled.
Oh my gosh.
The whole thing's flooding.
It's sloshing out here too.
What?
Imagine everything that goes in a toilet,
right, piss, shit, all of it,
it's just, you know... it's everywhere.
Oh my gosh.
- Watch out.
- Watch out.
I'm telling you, it got bad fast.
Everything overflowed into the floor
and just kept overflowing.
Raw sewage water.
- Whoa! Shit.
- That is slippery.
You walked down the hallway,
and all of a sudden, squish, squish
And you know what you're standing in.
Ugh.
We were in excrement.
As soon as I jumped
from my top bunk, I had water on my feet.
And I was like, "What the fuck?"
It was really bad.
I had to hold my breath.
It was It was disgusting.
It was everywhere.
At that point,
I was like, "Just get me off this ship."
In the overnight hours,
all these new details started coming in
about the description
Ugh!
of what is happening on this cruise.
Our room is flooded.
There's sewage, raw sewage,
in the hallway.
There's shit and piss
on the floors in the cafeteria.
This was like
Holy shit.
At this point, our new boss, Jeff Zucker,
constantly looking to raise the ratings,
made a decision
to go all in on this story.
It was a risk,
and he needed to take a big risk.
He was the new big boss,
and we needed eyeballs on the TV screens.
And he was willing to put all the chips
in the middle of the table.
A dream vacation
has fast become a nightmare
for thousands of passengers
on board this Carnival cruise ship.
Sewage is dripping down the walls.
It was like wall-to-wall coverage.
Let's take a closer look
inside this giant ship.
Lots and lots of people
in a little space here
We would talk to maritime lawyers,
infectious disease people.
E. coli, salmonella, shigella.
I might've even talked
to a psychologist or someone
to help us understand
what it would've been like
for these people to be in such an ordeal.
We'd be racking our brains,
trying to think of any possible angle
to cover this story
morning, noon, and night.
Every time I was watching it on the news,
there was a report
of more problems on the vessel.
I said, "My God, it's chaos."
So I started looking into it,
and I was shocked at what I'd discovered.
In two years, there were
nine incidents of faulty fuel lines
while these vessels were at sea
that were potentially
causing fires on board.
I mean, it's unbelievable.
In my plain language,
that's called Russian roulette
with people's lives.
At that point, I didn't know
what day it was, what time it was.
I didn't know how many days
we had been on the boat.
I had no idea.
Like, you lose track of everything.
And so you just wake up to go to sleep
to hopefully get back home.
I think, when you get stuck
at sea like that, your mind wanders.
And I think
we just wanted to get back home.
We were done.
We were feeling cabin fever.
There's nothing people can do.
We're, like, captive to the problem.
You feel like a prisoner.
We were just like, "Doomsday."
It was almost like Survivor, right?
I remember, at one point,
there was an older gentleman
even setting up a Bible study.
How precious did
That grace appear
The hour
I first believed
From the start, I had it
all planned out for it to be great.
But then it turns so bad
that it's like, this is not what I wanted
that I fail... I failed.
Don't look at me 'cause I'll look at...
It was just a bad situation,
and nothing you could do about it.
Yeah.
I drove all night to get to Mobile.
I was going to be on that dock
when my daughter got there.
So I pulled right up
to the edge of the water.
And all of a sudden, the news attention,
it's just... it's everywhere.
You know, everyone's calling.
Everyone's wanting interviews.
Huge.
The last thing that she said to me,
that, um... that was
the hardest of all, is, um,
"Mommy, I'm so scared
I won't ever get to see you again."
That last day
seemed to just really, really drag.
I just wanted it to be over.
I wanted people
to just get off and go home,
and get in a hot shower, a nice bed.
And, you know, for me, I kind of just
wanted a little bit of peace for me.
Helicopter's arrived.
- All right.
- All right.
As we got closer to shore,
we started to see
more planes, more helicopters.
And at that point,
we knew it was most likely the media.
Just about 30, 35 miles off coast here,
this... this cruise line
is finally heading for Mobile.
Now the stories and the video
is beginning to come out.
It got really bad.
It went into the elevator.
And it started dripping so bad,
it sounded like it was raining.
It was raining sewage.
The story metastasized, basically.
It kept on getting
bigger and bigger and bigger.
It just would not die.
You know when you're on Twitter,
and you see that there's
a freaking hashtag
you know that
everyone's paying attention.
The risk paid off for CNN.
"Poop Cruise" was the biggest news story
in all of America.
Thank you...
And welcome back to the Fiesta Ballroom
here on Carnival Cruise Triumph.
The superstar karaoke bar
is now officially a toilet. Okay?
The nightmare trip
on Carnival Cruise Ship's Triumph.
stranded at sea
for six days crapping into a plastic bag.
At this point,
this had become a PR catastrophe.
Hey, that's enough.
Enough with the headlines.
We anticipated it just being
a complete media bloodbath
when the ship got into port.
Here she comes in now.
As soon as the ship starts pulling in,
we see people are yelling.
They have signs for us.
We can just kind of start feeling
their energy of excitement
that we're finally here.
- The relief.
- We're finally here.
Listen to that horn!
Look how happy they are to hear that.
I just remember thanking the crew.
I mean, where in their job description
was "Picking up people's feces"?
Yeah.
I will never take
a private bathroom for granted again.
I was really proud of myself
for getting through it
and not cracking.
And
And just... Yeah, like, just proud
of the team, really,
for everybody sticking together
and working so, so hard.
It looks like
we could be seeing people come off.
Yes, these are actually people coming off.
Look at the employees
running back and forth.
Although we thought
that it would be completely negative,
what the guests would say
as they exited the ship,
far and away, we were shocked and relieved
that so many of them
credited the Carnival crew members
with superhuman effort.
I remember coming off the boat,
and I ran to my mom.
I just ran to her full speed
and jumped into her arms.
Oh gosh,
the... the absolute relief that I felt
when I hugged her up that first time.
And just the tears
of... the tears of release.
I feel a little stronger
than I was before.
I went on this cruise
to... for it to be just the happiest time,
how great Bekah and Daddy are together.
But then it turned out
being not only that,
but how we can get through
things together.
Good or bad.
It felt good to get to land.
And it was me,
my soon-to-be father-in-law.
We were, like, shaking hands,
and hugging, and being like,
"We totally made it
through this together, didn't we?"
"And we didn't have to use a red bag."
That ship never should've set sail.
And these documents tell you that
this vessel had a propensity for fires.
This was something
that was totally preventable.
So we definitely had a good chance.
The problem is you run into the ticket.
These passengers have no right to sue
because Carnival's attorneys say
when you buy your ticket,
the ticket contract
You don't see
that disclaimer on the commercial.
It's amazing.
I think if most people
actually knew that existed at the time
they probably would never buy a ticket.
I certainly wouldn't.
28 degrees, 41 minutes, 30 seconds.
There are scenarios that come along
that just grab everyone's attention.
I mean, I remember
just the rush to get there,
and knowing we wanted
to start getting eyeballs
on this giant story.
We had camera people,
correspondents, photojournalists.
We had crews on boats.
We had a... a helicopter up in the air.
We couldn't get enough.
America couldn't get enough.
Three, two, one, right under us.
Shit!
Now we're getting our
first look at that stricken cruise ship
that's become a floating disaster area.
And take a look at this.
Uh, our helicopter, uh, captured
passengers lying on the deck,
spelling out the word
"help."
What the is happening
on this cruise ship?
You start to haul ass
at the bottom of that shit.
Whoo!
We just love going on cruises.
The food, the pool, the water slide.
I mean, what more could you ask?
Everything was great.
We're having the most fun.
It's so nice to just really uncheck
from the real world.
We're having a great time.
We were like, "This is awesome!"
Whoa!
And then the lights go out.
Oh my gosh.
That's when all of us were like,
"What the fuck?"
More than 4,000 people
are stuck on a cruise ship
that is dead in the water.
A dream vacation has fast become
a nightmare for thousands of passengers.
I'm telling you, it got bad fast.
Oh my gosh.
Suddenly, everyone's out for themselves.
It was terrifying.
All of a sudden, we were like,
"Oh shit, the ship is on fire."
Let's go. Let's go.
Oh my God, this is it. We're going down.
Go, go, go.
Turns out it wasn't the fire
that was the problem.
It was the freaking toilets.
There's shit and piss
on the floors in the cafeteria.
There's only so much a toilet can take.
It was just a floating Petri dish.
Oh my God.
Save us! Help!
It was a slowly unfolding nightmare
that you couldn't stop.
Just get me off this ship.
Hi.
The first time
I heard about going on a cruise
was a simple phone call from my fiance
saying, "My family's going on a cruise."
"Let's do it together."
"Everything's taken care of."
And it was an easy yes.
The itinerary was two days at sea.
And then we were going
to stop at Cozumel, Mexico.
Then we were gonna get back out to sea
and have a nice day back to Galveston.
It's going to be great.
But I was a little nervous
because I was gonna be spending
a lot of time with my fiance's father.
I had just asked him
for permission to marry her.
And so, of course,
I wanted him to like me.
You know, I wanted him to be excited
that I was the man
who was gonna marry his daughter.
I went on the cruise with the one intent,
and that was for me and Bekah
to have daddy-daughter time.
I had just recently got divorced,
and that was a very difficult time.
My dad's my best friend.
So, um, I did miss him, and I was excited
to spend time with him for sure.
Definitely. Definitely.
There's the ship.
That's the ship we're going on.
Looks like a building.
I don't think you realize
how big cruise lines are
until you're standing in front of it,
realizing you're standing in front
of a skyscraper on its side,
and it's floating.
It's humongous.
When you walk in, there's this grand foyer
with a spiral staircase and chandeliers.
You walk over here, and it's an arcade.
Welcome to the casino.
Suddenly, you're
in this grand hall with unlimited food.
Then there's a theater
where you can see live entertainment.
And then suddenly, you're out on deck,
and, like, there's gigantic chess pieces
and, like, people enjoying, like,
having a good time at a spa.
It just seems like everywhere you look,
there's something to do.
I was getting married.
It was my bachelorette party.
I wanna make sure I don't flash anybody.
We all talked about it and discussed
and decided that a cruise
would be a fun way to celebrate.
I remember being so excited.
It's a cruise. It's gonna be perfect.
We put our luggage down
and we went straight up to the bar.
We were supposed to go
to some safety briefing,
but I remember being like,
"We're not gonna need this information."
"What are the chances
we need to remember a muster station?"
We wanted to get the party started.
Let's take a selfie.
And then they honk the big horn,
and you're like, "Okay,
it's the start of a great vacation!"
Crazy excited.
The first thing we did was, you know,
grab a drink, go out on deck.
Sit, enjoy,
have a chat with my father-in-law,
let him know I'm a good guy.
We were in the sun all day,
drinking cocktails.
It was amazing.
Whoo!
I remember walking up to the bar,
and, suddenly,
this voice breaks through the ceiling,
and it's this, like,
positive British woman.
"Hi! Hi, hi. This is Jen. So excited!"
She was great.
Good afternoon.
Welcome on board
the beautiful Carnival Triumph.
Jen was the voice of the Triumph.
- Jen.
- Jen.
She's Vacation Barbie.
Come and join us. Come around the table.
Hit that music. Should we take it away?
I loved my job.
I absolutely loved every aspect of it.
I genuinely really liked the passengers.
I've always said this.
People are there to have a nice holiday.
And you're there just to facilitate that
and help them out to do it.
That's all it is.
People wanna have a nice time.
Another beautiful day
on the Carnival Triumph. Day two.
But it's not all fun and frolics
and having a lovely time with the guests.
The ship is very much two worlds.
We had about 1,200 crew members
from all over the world.
As a kid growing up in the Soviet Union,
I could never imagine I will be working
on a cruise ship with Americans,
saying, "Yee-haw" and enjoying it.
I mean,
it's two completely opposite universes.
You know, it's an American industry.
Guests, they are there to enjoy
and you are there to work.
For the kitchen,
you have to work at least 70 hours a week,
sometimes more.
Initially, it was really, uh,
difficult for me
because when I came from India,
I was... I was not used to working so hard.
But at the same time, we had a lot of fun.
Oh, damn, there is so much fun
on the cruise ship when you are a crew.
There is lots of sex on the cruise ship.
Damn! So much sex, you don't wanna know.
Like, everything is hard and fun.
Arriving at Cozumel was awesome.
It's colorful and there's music.
And people welcome you
when you get off the boat.
So, yeah, we were ready
to continue the great time.
I remember Rebekah
was splashing around in the water,
playing, laughing,
and having a great time and
And it was perfect. Amazing.
When she's happy, I'm happy.
It was a great time.
I was getting along with my father-in-law,
and, uh, we had some wonderful food.
We stuffed our faces.
We were drinking harder in Cozumel
than we were on the boat.
This was absolutely
the bachelorette party I had dreamed of.
When we walked back to the ship,
we realized we've only got one day left.
Now you're headed back home.
Everything went perfect up to that point.
I mean, it really was.
Couldn't ask for any better.
I literally don't remember
getting back on board.
So I could've been crawling.
I could've been carried.
I don't remember that part.
We left our dignity in Cozumel.
As soon as my head hit the pillow,
I was out.
I just remember opening my eyes
and, like, looking around, pitch black.
Like, "What is going on?"
The noise is coming
from, like, a speaker in the ceiling.
And so you're staring at it.
And then, suddenly, you hear,
"Alpha Team, Alpha Team, Alpha team."
Alpha Team, Alpha Team, Alpha team.
Attention. Alpha Team.
Waking up suddenly like that,
your first instinct is, "I need water."
"I don't feel good."
"This is so loud."
"Shut it off."
- Right.
- "Somebody needs to turn it off."
Alpha team
I'm nervous. I have no idea
what Alpha Team Alert means.
I was not in my own cabin
when the alarm went.
You know, it happens.
I was in this guy's cabin
who works in the engineering room,
and I see him jumping off the bed,
putting on his overalls.
Alpha team
I was like, "Okay, something is going on."
I was in the kitchen, working night shift.
At that time, I thought it was a drill.
But within a few seconds,
I saw smoke coming out
from the drain of the sink.
All of us were like, "What the fuck?"
I went up to the bridge, and
as soon as I walked in, I knew
this is... this is...
This is something serious.
People were on phones and radios,
and there were alarms going off.
People were running, banging on doors.
- You could hear the panic.
- Wake up.
Get out! Get out!
I'm like, "Oh my God. This is it.
This is the Titanic. We're going down."
"Where is our muster station?"
I put a couple of the, uh... the radios on
just to hear what was going on
from up on the bridge.
Fire team
I can hear them calling
the fire team to head down to deck zero.
Aft engine room
No amount of training can prepare you for
It was like a numb feeling.
You know, I maybe should not admit this,
but I can't really swim.
Once we got up to the lido deck,
the first thing I remember seeing,
it's, like, etched in my brain,
is seeing the big red fin.
There were flames just shooting out of it.
And that's really when I woke up
and was like,
"Oh Oh. Oh shit, the ship is on fire."
The captain came over and said,
"There's a fire in the engine room."
Then you're like, "Oh my Oh What? Like"
"Are we going down?
We have to get the lifeboats?"
"Is this general emergency?
I mean, is... What... Is this it?"
Fire on a boat is even more terrifying
than a fire on land.
It can spread everywhere,
and there's nothing you can do.
There's no firefighters
that can come save you.
I just stood there,
waiting for the captain
to tell me what was going on.
He said, "There's been a fire
in one of the six diesel generators,
um, but it's out."
So, you got five others, five spares.
We're good. We're great.
And then I... And then I
kind of was like, "Oh, okay"
"I need to... I gotta tell the guests."
Everything is completely under control.
So please, folks, there's no point
waiting in the muster stations.
Go back to your cabin, go back to bed,
have some coffee, have some breakfast.
There's nothing to worry about.
No need to be waiting
in the muster stations.
That was reassuring.
And so I told my fiance,
"Everything's gonna be fine."
"We should get some coffee."
I think I'm gonna order the cream caramel.
And then the lights go out.
Whoa.
This is just like the cruise.
Suddenly, it went dark on the bridge.
Everything's out.
It's likedarkness.
What the hell's going on?
Totally dark. You can't see anything.
Then we audibly heard the AC cut out.
When power goes, that's it,
everything's out.
You know, from the little things
like making a cup of tea or a coffee
or a slice of toast
to the whole propulsion of the ship.
So technically,
we are just floating dead in the water.
Now, it's obvious
there's no control of the boat.
I remember the feeling of uncertainty,
not knowing what was gonna happen.
I was terrified.
I immediately turned on
my cell phone to text my fiance,
and I quickly realized
that the cellular was out too.
We've had power cuts before,
and engineers go and do
whatever they do to turn it back on.
So I just thought
once the engine room cools down,
they'll go in,
they'll turn everything back on.
And then we'll be back to normal
in an hour or so.
In the meantime, though,
it was like, "What are we gonna do?"
"What's the immediate problems
that we can work on now?"
And they, of course, were lights.
There's no lights,
but the emergency lighting was on.
So that wasn't a major issue.
Air-conditioning, meh.
People, if they're inside,
can go up to the open deck.
It's also not too bad.
Um
And then somebody realized
that the toilets weren't working.
They needed electricity.
So they weren't gonna flush,
which is, with thousands of guests,
a major issue.
We had to come up
with a plan of what to do.
Initially, it was, you know,
the idea of peeing overboard.
Like, for a man, it's okay,
but not for a woman.
You know, they could fall in.
Half-jokingly, I was like,
"Well, we can do
a number one in the shower,"
which seems
like a really feasible option."
So it was,
"Uh, yeah, oh, that... that sounds good."
"Let's... Let's go with that."
"Pee in the shower."
And then for the number two,
that that was definitely
a trickier problem than number one.
Um, very important information, folks.
As you probably know by now,
the toilets are not flushing
and it's gonna start
causing a little bit of a problem.
- Holy shit. I remember this.
- We've come up with a plan.
So, folks, if you do need
to do a number one, everybody,
you can do it in the shower,
and if you do need to do a number two,
what we're gonna do
is we're gonna deliver some red bags
to all of the bathrooms on board.
And if you do need to do a number two,
we ask that you do it in the red bag
and drop it off in the bins,
in the corridors.
Thank you, folks.
I'll be back with any more updated info.
What the fuck?
You want me to what?
Excuse me?
No.
I'm not doing that.
Like, it was just like,
"Oh, what world are we living in?"
"This can't be real."
I mean,
I never thought in my weirdest dreams
that I will see a day
when I will have to poop in a red bag.
I know it was hideous,
but that's the only option that we had.
Do it in a plastic bag.
Tie the bag, put it in a bin,
and then dispose of them down below.
The... Like... It really was a genius plan.
As soon as I saw the red bags,
I was like, "Oh no. Oh no."
"Mm-mm."
"No."
I was like, "Red bag?
No way. Not happening."
I immediately started taking Imodium.
At that point, we needed
to let Carnival head office know
what was happening on board.
Fortunately, we had
a satellite phone that worked
and it became my responsibility
to, uh, keep that communication
going with shoreside.
When I heard
about the fire on the Triumph,
it was immediately crisis mode.
You have to remember, a cruise ship
is the biggest machine on the planet.
And so when things go wrong,
they typically go wrong in a big way.
In the event of an emergency like this,
the first step is to put out
a holding statement, very short,
and distribute that to the media.
Something to the effect of,
"The Carnival Triumph has experienced
a fire in the engine room."
"The ship is without propulsion right now,
and we're working to fix it."
We did not mention
that the toilets were not working.
You give them what you believe they need
and no more than that.
The first time CNN people in the newsroom
would've heard anything about Carnival
it would've been
through this press release.
It said there had been a fire
on board the Triumph.
It was contained.
Um, you know, some things aren't working,
but for the most part, everyone's okay.
I'm thinking, "We're fucking CNN."
"We've got the State of the Union,
Iraq, uh, Pyongyang, Vatican."
The Pope resigning is a story, okay?
So there's easily eye rolls
over a cruise story at first.
I don't think so.
I would imagine
some local affiliates picked up the story,
but not national news.
The Carnival cruise ship
Triumph is drifting along
I was at home when my phone rang,
and it was my friend from work.
"Oh, did you hear about the fire
on the Carnival Triumph?"
And I'm like,
"No, I didn't hear any of that."
"My daughter's on that ship
with her daddy."
Instantly, the anxiety and the frustration
and the fear came over me.
I couldn't get her on the phone.
I couldn't talk to her at all.
I was frantically
trying to find information
on what had happened on that ship.
That's my baby out there.
I didn't know if she was okay.
As a 12-year-old, it's very scary
to not be able to talk to your mom
and tell her everything that's going on
and tell her, you know, how you feel.
You just want both of your parents there
to hug you and hold you,
and you can't have that.
By noon, we were trying to, you know,
go about our day as "normal" as we could.
But we had the hot sun blaring down on us.
Um, you know,
trying to find some cold water.
Just rummaging around the ship,
trying to figure out, like,
"Okay, what do we eat? What do we drink?"
"And why the hell isn't the bar open?"
Inside the boat, it was even worse.
I mean,
it'll just suffocate you in minutes
because there's nothing stirring
nowhere at all.
I suddenly felt
so claustrophobic almost, um,
and that's when I had
that thing of, like, "Okay,
I have never needed
to do a number one, that's wee,
this bad in my life."
And so I was like,
"Y'all, I really... I need to pee."
"Does somebody wanna come with me?"
- Because it was dark.
- Yeah.
So you kind of want, like, a buddy system.
I don't wanna go alone.
It's too scary.
One of the guests on the boat was like,
"This is what you need to do."
So we had taken the beacon
out of the life jacket.
He told us to pour, like, soda on it,
so it gets wet and it starts to light up.
So the whole time,
you have, like, this discotheque going on
while you're doing it.
It was a very bizarre experience.
This is my first cruise,
but I don't think this is normal.
And then I was like,
"I've gotta at least rinse off. Ugh."
- It was just horrible.
- Like, it's pretty disgusting.
Are you for real? Oh my God.
So about 1:30,
the temperature had finally dropped down
in the engine control room,
and fire safety and the safety team
were able to get in
and inspect what happened inside.
That's when the chief engineer discovered
that this was a lot more serious
than first imagined.
They came back and said that
pretty much the fire
had burned through all the...
All the power cables to the whole ship.
So there was no hope
of getting the... the power back.
That was it.
Your heart just drops.
Like, "What do... What do we do now?"
Shoreside's plan was to call up
to Progreso, Mexico,
the closest port,
and get a tugboat to come out
to start pulling us in.
That's when we heard
the new plan which is,
"We're gonna get tugged back
to Progreso tomorrow."
So this is not the time to go
to the bathroom in a trash can.
Uh, I was determined.
"I am not gonna use the red bag."
"I'm gonna make it."
As we got closer to dusk,
as we got closer
to the end of the first day,
the first night is coming,
we realize we cannot sleep in these rooms
because it was just so hot.
We've been floating
for like 9, 10, 12, 13 hours?
What is it? Six o'clock.
About 12, 13 hours.
That's when I started to see people
dragging their mattresses out on deck.
We left our floor,
brought our mattresses up,
and we laid in the hallway.
There's people laying beside you
you've never met
or probably would never talk to.
In my mind, I'm thinking,
"This is not good."
You know?
I think all of us
were just ready to go to bed.
- It had been an emotionally taxing day.
- Mm-hmm.
And we just wanted to wake up
and see the Mexican shoreline
and, you know, jump on that shore
and have a margarita.
But when I woke up,
I was like, "Oh Oh. Oh shit."
"Where in the hell is Mexico?"
A very good morning to you,
ladies and gentlemen.
I hope you did manage
to get some sleep last night
despite these challenging conditions.
The tugboat is scheduled
to arrive at 12:00 noon today.
I'll talk to you soon.
The next morning we woke up
and everything had changed.
I went down to the lower decks
and saw and smelt
and felt the air of sickness.
Here are the infamous poo bags.
That's probably full of feces.
And then there was the food.
The next day morning,
I threw away all the perishable food
and started to make sandwiches,
onions, tomatoes, whatever we could find,
for the 3,000 hungry guests on board.
That's the food line.
That's two of four food lines.
You would have to wait in line
for two hours.
But when you got up to see what it was
that you were waiting on,
it was, like, a soggy bread
and tomato-lettuce sandwich.
It took a complete turn from the first day
where there's food everywhere,
and there's ice cream machines
and there's pizza.
- What are those?
- These are ladyfingers.
I'll have a couple of those.
Thank you.
Suddenly, people
were very much, like, in survival mode.
Everyone's out for themselves.
They're in line to get food
and they'll get as much as they can.
- I want one hamburger.
- One burger.
Tell the people who are getting ten
to give them back. I just want one.
The hoarding on board was ridiculous.
People were just grabbing everything
and taking it to their little camps.
It made me think
that, huh, now all these Americans, uh,
somehow can feel
what it was in a dictatorship country
where shit like this happens,
and it doesn't surprise anyone.
Yeah. Welcome to the Soviet Union, people.
It's like a shantytown around here.
People are sleeping everywhere.
There were people taking sheets
and putting them over chairs
and making tent cities.
There was a rush to get a deck chair.
And people were tugging and fighting.
"This is my area, these are my people."
"And don't come messing with us."
You saw that a lot.
- So your GPS puts us on the F?
- Yeah.
Because we're fucked.
Yeah, maybe.
All of a sudden,
we look out and we see another ship.
Thank you!
I was like,
"This is it. They're gonna save us."
One of the other sister ships,
the Legend, was close by.
They stopped by and helped us out.
It was more food supplies than anything,
because logistically and safety wise,
you can't just walk 4,500 people
from one ship to the other.
Like, it's a huge procedure.
It's lowering boats,
having a small percentage of people
jump on board,
bring it across, tie it up,
transfer the passengers,
and then repeat again.
He broke it.
Oh my God.
Not an option.
They were just taking pictures of us
like we're the freak show
in the middle of the ocean.
And they are partying.
They don't stop dancing.
They're doing the YMCA,
and I'm over here popping Imodium.
We're like a scenic detour
on their cruise.
Yeah.
Wow. They are really close.
That was the beginning of, like,
this "aha" moment where we thought,
"Hey, can we get
a Wi-Fi signal from that boat?"
We were all trying
to get as close as we could
to steal cell phone reception from it.
Everyone's out on deck,
holding their phones up in the air,
trying to get reception.
Can anybody get a signal?
And we started to get signal.
I was thinking to myself,
"This could be bad,"
because all the people
are gonna try and do is call home
or call whoever to let them know
they're stuck in the middle of the ocean,
there's no power,
and they're taking shits in red bags,
you know?
Immediately, I called my mom.
I... I can't even begin to describe
how I felt, you know,
seeing her name light up my phone.
I told her the electricity went out
and about the red bags.
I told her that everything
was just going sideways.
I'd never expect
Rebekah would be telling me
she's having to poop in a red bag.
It's like something
that came out of a nightmare movie.
When all this is happening on board,
I'm wondering
why there's not any news coverage of it.
Family members
start actually reaching out to us at CNN.
They start contacting newsrooms,
and they start telling us details
that go quite a bit farther
beyond the press release.
Like, wait, the toilets aren't working?
Something about people
having to go in bags, and I don't even
That's when we started saying,
"This is a story."
More than 4,000 passengers and crew
spent last night stranded aboard
a cruise ship in the Gulf of Mexico.
Here is how one man's wife,
who is on board the ship,
is describing this.
There's no power. They are having to use
the restroom in buckets and bags.
Suddenly, these stories began to appear
about the conditions on board the ship.
A four-day pleasure
cruise has turned into a nightmare.
4,200 people floating. Dead in the water.
Holy Christ. How did that happen?
Now the cat's out of the bag.
It's like the snowball
has started to roll,
and there's no stopping it.
Supplies are running low
on board and emotions are running high
as passengers wait to be rescued.
Every time there's
a maritime disaster, I'm watching it.
You know, it's my business.
I remember seeing the local news stories
with regard to what was happening,
and my hair was standing up.
I was like, "What is this?
I mean, this is absurd."
These are paying passengers.
Carnival's one of the largest
cruise ship companies in the world.
They're a global,
multibillion-dollar business.
But I knew that in those recent years,
they had had some problems
with fires on other boats.
The smell of smoke began to fill
the nearly thousand-foot-long
Carnival Splendor.
So when I saw this
with regard to the Carnival Triumph,
obviously, my antenna was piqued.
At that time, we built everybody up
to getting everybody home
relatively quickly, getting on land.
And then I got a call from shoreside,
and they said the plan has had to change.
They told us that since we lost power,
the ship had drifted
over 100 nautical miles.
Now we were nowhere near Mexico.
So the new plan now
is to take everybody to Mobile, Alabama.
This is gonna add on
a couple of days at least.
My heart just dropped out.
I was just like
Are you kidding?
Like, that's an absolute disaster.
We found out we were going
to Mobile instead of Progreso.
Oh, that made everybody mad.
- That was like getting hit in the face.
- Yeah.
Three more days of this.
It's not gonna get better.
- We were starting to smell urine.
- Yeah.
Starting to smell the toilets.
They weren't draining.
And so it would fill up the showers,
and it would just sit there
with nowhere to go.
That's when we realized that
we are screwed.
When Jen announces that
it's gonna be two or three more days,
it's like,
"I don't know if I can hold it."
"I am not going to make it
without going to the bathroom
and having a number two."
All right.
Back for more.
So I start hunting for bathrooms.
Because there was a rumor
that there were bathrooms
and toilets somewhere that worked.
- Your toilets work?
- No.
No. Our toilets aren't working.
Okay.
But every time I walked into a bathroom,
you open up the door,
"Nope, that one doesn't work."
Go into the next. "No."
"That one's disgusting.
That one doesn't work."
I really had to go number two.
And I found this public restroom,
and I go inside.
And it was...
It was the most nastiest thing
I have ever seen in my life.
People were covering the poop
with the toilet paper,
and then again pooping on top of it.
So it was a layer after layer after layer.
It was like a lasagna.
Decks three, four, five are clean.
Crew members have taken care.
You can go there to use it if you want.
Oh, great. Thank you.
Once I found one toilet that worked,
it certainly was a relief
and also a little bit awkward
with my soon-to-be in-laws.
"Hey. You probably
have to do a number two."
"I found a working bathroom.
Here it is. Hope you're feeling okay."
"Did you use a red bag yet?"
It's a really weird conversation to have.
Carnival was about being fun ships.
And, you know, as crew members,
that is told to us, you know,
"Create those fun memorable experiences."
So the decision was made,
"Let's open up the bar for free drinks."
Ooh.
I was definitely
against the idea of the open bar.
People will go nuts.
Hey!
They just started
giving out liquor for free.
We were like, "This is awesome."
"Free drinks. Let's go."
- Yes!
- Finally, something to do.
- It's something.
- Cruises are supposed to be fun.
It's free booze. Let's go.
People were double-fisting drinks,
taking them back to their rooms.
It was the craziest,
the busiest, the drunkest.
"Just give me the drinks.
Whoo-hoo-hoo! Yes."
Everything was going great.
But then there's people
urinating off the side of the ship.
I was like, "Oh. Oh shit."
People were throwing
their red bags on the lifeboats.
Somebody threw the poop bag,
and... and the wind blew it back
on somebody... on the...
Sitting on the open deck downstairs.
And that person is like, "What the fuck?"
The group next to us in tent city
was a newlywed husband and wife.
They were having sex
right in front of me on the chair.
There was no,
"You want a sheet to put over you?"
No, they were right there.
Don't know if they couldn't
handle their liquor, but fights broke out
It was getting very scary.
As a dad, your job is to protect,
and I couldn't do anything.
It was, uh
You know, you feel so small.
Because all this is going on around you,
and there ain't a darn thing
you can do about it.
It just was like this,
"Nah, we gotta...
We gotta put a stop to this."
"Close the bar."
It felt like a small victory, right?
Like, we got a little bit
of our... our fun back,
and it took our mind off of the reality.
We're stranded at sea by ourselves.
We were so excited when we saw
that the tugboats had finally arrived.
AAA finally got here.
Because that means we're moving.
There was an end in sight.
It looks like the boat's going that way.
This one is keeping
our tail from swinging.
It's probably in reverse.
Looks like it's definitely in reverse.
But when the tugboats started to pull us
Whoa!
everything shifted.
Man, this, like, listing
is gonna be nuts on video.
We were now on our way,
but also the angle
of the ship had adjusted,
and everything tilted to the side.
Tugboats are pushing us.
Hold on to your phone.
Suddenly, the weather
turned for the worse.
- Oh!
- Oh!
Now, I became very aware
that this was probably the tipping point.
And that's the moment everything spilled.
Oh my gosh.
The whole thing's flooding.
It's sloshing out here too.
What?
Imagine everything that goes in a toilet,
right, piss, shit, all of it,
it's just, you know... it's everywhere.
Oh my gosh.
- Watch out.
- Watch out.
I'm telling you, it got bad fast.
Everything overflowed into the floor
and just kept overflowing.
Raw sewage water.
- Whoa! Shit.
- That is slippery.
You walked down the hallway,
and all of a sudden, squish, squish
And you know what you're standing in.
Ugh.
We were in excrement.
As soon as I jumped
from my top bunk, I had water on my feet.
And I was like, "What the fuck?"
It was really bad.
I had to hold my breath.
It was It was disgusting.
It was everywhere.
At that point,
I was like, "Just get me off this ship."
In the overnight hours,
all these new details started coming in
about the description
Ugh!
of what is happening on this cruise.
Our room is flooded.
There's sewage, raw sewage,
in the hallway.
There's shit and piss
on the floors in the cafeteria.
This was like
Holy shit.
At this point, our new boss, Jeff Zucker,
constantly looking to raise the ratings,
made a decision
to go all in on this story.
It was a risk,
and he needed to take a big risk.
He was the new big boss,
and we needed eyeballs on the TV screens.
And he was willing to put all the chips
in the middle of the table.
A dream vacation
has fast become a nightmare
for thousands of passengers
on board this Carnival cruise ship.
Sewage is dripping down the walls.
It was like wall-to-wall coverage.
Let's take a closer look
inside this giant ship.
Lots and lots of people
in a little space here
We would talk to maritime lawyers,
infectious disease people.
E. coli, salmonella, shigella.
I might've even talked
to a psychologist or someone
to help us understand
what it would've been like
for these people to be in such an ordeal.
We'd be racking our brains,
trying to think of any possible angle
to cover this story
morning, noon, and night.
Every time I was watching it on the news,
there was a report
of more problems on the vessel.
I said, "My God, it's chaos."
So I started looking into it,
and I was shocked at what I'd discovered.
In two years, there were
nine incidents of faulty fuel lines
while these vessels were at sea
that were potentially
causing fires on board.
I mean, it's unbelievable.
In my plain language,
that's called Russian roulette
with people's lives.
At that point, I didn't know
what day it was, what time it was.
I didn't know how many days
we had been on the boat.
I had no idea.
Like, you lose track of everything.
And so you just wake up to go to sleep
to hopefully get back home.
I think, when you get stuck
at sea like that, your mind wanders.
And I think
we just wanted to get back home.
We were done.
We were feeling cabin fever.
There's nothing people can do.
We're, like, captive to the problem.
You feel like a prisoner.
We were just like, "Doomsday."
It was almost like Survivor, right?
I remember, at one point,
there was an older gentleman
even setting up a Bible study.
How precious did
That grace appear
The hour
I first believed
From the start, I had it
all planned out for it to be great.
But then it turns so bad
that it's like, this is not what I wanted
that I fail... I failed.
Don't look at me 'cause I'll look at...
It was just a bad situation,
and nothing you could do about it.
Yeah.
I drove all night to get to Mobile.
I was going to be on that dock
when my daughter got there.
So I pulled right up
to the edge of the water.
And all of a sudden, the news attention,
it's just... it's everywhere.
You know, everyone's calling.
Everyone's wanting interviews.
Huge.
The last thing that she said to me,
that, um... that was
the hardest of all, is, um,
"Mommy, I'm so scared
I won't ever get to see you again."
That last day
seemed to just really, really drag.
I just wanted it to be over.
I wanted people
to just get off and go home,
and get in a hot shower, a nice bed.
And, you know, for me, I kind of just
wanted a little bit of peace for me.
Helicopter's arrived.
- All right.
- All right.
As we got closer to shore,
we started to see
more planes, more helicopters.
And at that point,
we knew it was most likely the media.
Just about 30, 35 miles off coast here,
this... this cruise line
is finally heading for Mobile.
Now the stories and the video
is beginning to come out.
It got really bad.
It went into the elevator.
And it started dripping so bad,
it sounded like it was raining.
It was raining sewage.
The story metastasized, basically.
It kept on getting
bigger and bigger and bigger.
It just would not die.
You know when you're on Twitter,
and you see that there's
a freaking hashtag
you know that
everyone's paying attention.
The risk paid off for CNN.
"Poop Cruise" was the biggest news story
in all of America.
Thank you...
And welcome back to the Fiesta Ballroom
here on Carnival Cruise Triumph.
The superstar karaoke bar
is now officially a toilet. Okay?
The nightmare trip
on Carnival Cruise Ship's Triumph.
stranded at sea
for six days crapping into a plastic bag.
At this point,
this had become a PR catastrophe.
Hey, that's enough.
Enough with the headlines.
We anticipated it just being
a complete media bloodbath
when the ship got into port.
Here she comes in now.
As soon as the ship starts pulling in,
we see people are yelling.
They have signs for us.
We can just kind of start feeling
their energy of excitement
that we're finally here.
- The relief.
- We're finally here.
Listen to that horn!
Look how happy they are to hear that.
I just remember thanking the crew.
I mean, where in their job description
was "Picking up people's feces"?
Yeah.
I will never take
a private bathroom for granted again.
I was really proud of myself
for getting through it
and not cracking.
And
And just... Yeah, like, just proud
of the team, really,
for everybody sticking together
and working so, so hard.
It looks like
we could be seeing people come off.
Yes, these are actually people coming off.
Look at the employees
running back and forth.
Although we thought
that it would be completely negative,
what the guests would say
as they exited the ship,
far and away, we were shocked and relieved
that so many of them
credited the Carnival crew members
with superhuman effort.
I remember coming off the boat,
and I ran to my mom.
I just ran to her full speed
and jumped into her arms.
Oh gosh,
the... the absolute relief that I felt
when I hugged her up that first time.
And just the tears
of... the tears of release.
I feel a little stronger
than I was before.
I went on this cruise
to... for it to be just the happiest time,
how great Bekah and Daddy are together.
But then it turned out
being not only that,
but how we can get through
things together.
Good or bad.
It felt good to get to land.
And it was me,
my soon-to-be father-in-law.
We were, like, shaking hands,
and hugging, and being like,
"We totally made it
through this together, didn't we?"
"And we didn't have to use a red bag."
That ship never should've set sail.
And these documents tell you that
this vessel had a propensity for fires.
This was something
that was totally preventable.
So we definitely had a good chance.
The problem is you run into the ticket.
These passengers have no right to sue
because Carnival's attorneys say
when you buy your ticket,
the ticket contract
You don't see
that disclaimer on the commercial.
It's amazing.
I think if most people
actually knew that existed at the time
they probably would never buy a ticket.
I certainly wouldn't.