The dramatic February 2013 sailing will forever infamously known as the “Poop Cruise” by passengers, crew, and onlookers across the globe.
Natasha Decker•Jul 2, 2025
Imagine – you embark on a four-day getaway via a Carnival Cruise Line vessel. However, three days into the vacation, an engine fire leads to an unfortunate series of events. In this nightmare scenario, for the next several days, you and thousands of others are in sweltering heat, sleeping in “tent cities,” and surrounded by poop.
Guests awoke to that unimaginable reality around 5:30 a.m. February 10, 2013, when the emergency alarm aboard a Carnival vessel started blaring and calling out for the “Alpha Team.” Due to an engine room fire, the ship’s power went out, essentially making the vessel stagnant and powerless in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico. Additionally, no cellular service meant no one onboard could contact their loved ones.
Neither were the electricity-powered toilets working – leaving thousands onboard without proper and sanitary plumbing for when nature called. Guests were advised to pee in their showers and do their number twos in red plastic biohazard bags. Regarding the latter, Carnival’s onboard crew said to drop the bagged waste in trash cans located in the ship’s corridors.
Of course, as documented in a recently released Netflix special, the suggestions for modified bathroom behavior didn’t go over well. Nor did they even bode realistic or doable for some passengers and crew who recounted their stories. In addition to being unable to use the toilets, those onboard also had to do their bathroom business in the dark – or via a flashing life jacket light.
“I immediately started taking Imodium,” candidly admitted Ashley from Cabin #2330, a passenger featured in the documentary.
Everything said and done, the dramatic sailing became forever infamously known as the “Poop Cruise.”
Eventually, more twisted turns of events escalated the situation from bad, to worse, to completely sh***y. The 14-deck high and around 900 feet long vessel took off February 7, 2013 from Galveston, Texas. After stopping in Cozumel, Mexico, it began its Texas return, and things began going horribly wrong. Reportedly, over 4,200 people were on the ship in total. Jen Baxter, the cruise’s onboard director, noted in the Netflix doc that the Poop Cruise had “about 1,200 crew members from all over the world.”
Throughout the ordeal, people entered survival mode, created their own “tent cities,” and began hoarding food and any other resources and conveniences they could obtain. As a tugboat tried to pull the ship, the Triumph angled, and everyone’s days’ worth of bathroom bodily functions spilled around everywhere onboard.
Devin Marble, another passenger featured in Netflix’s Trainwreck: Poop Cruise, shared that with determination and patience, he managed to find a working toilet to flush away his number two amid the power outage.
In the Netflix documentary, the Poop Cruise’s guests recalled the days’ sweltering heat. It bled into the nights, and even prompted people to bring their mattresses into the ship’s hallways or out onto the decks.
Ashley said, “By noon, we were trying to go about our day as ‘normal’ as we could. But we had the hot sun blaring down on us.”
“Inside the boat, it was even worse. I mean — it’ll suffocate you in minutes. Because there’s nothing stirring — nowhere at all,” recalled Larry, a man who took the Poop Cruise with his young daughter.
According to the accounts of passengers and crew, the open bar prompted lots of drunkenness and rule-breaking. Think people peeing off the ship’s sides, fights, a couple having public sex, and passengers throwing their poop bags overboard. One tossed waste bag even allegedly flew into another passenger’s face.
Despite the scheduled itinerary being four days, the stranded Poop Cruise passengers and crew didn’t disembark until day eight, at around 9:30 p.m. in Mobile, Alabama.
“That last day seemed to just really, really drag,” recalled Jen. “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.”
“As soon as the ship starts pulling in, we see people are yelling. They have signs for us,” recalled Ashley. “And we can just kind of start feeling their energy of excitement that we’re finally here… I just remember thanking the crew.”
“I will never take a private bathroom for granted again,” added Jayme Lamm, who was vacationing onboard with Ashley and another friend.
According to the documentary, the contract that passengers signed notified them that Carnival “makes absolutely no guarantee for safe passage, a seaworthy vessel, adequate and wholesome food, and sanitary and safe living conditions.”
Notably, Carnival has reportedly removed the controversial tidbit from its terms and conditions.
Netflix detailed that Carnival spent $115 million on “cleaning, repairing, and refitting the Triumph.”
Since 2019, the same vessel has been sailing as the Carnival “Sunrise.”
Reportedly, Carnival offered Poop Cruise guests $500, plus a free cruise opportunity should they want another ride on the line’s vessels. Additionally, the passengers also reportedly received a full refund, and got their transportation expenses covered.
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