Original subtitles

...23,976 fps [HD] dokumentary ... ... for [CC] .. Hi .. (SDH) ...

[plane engine humming]

[air control operators speaking indistinctly]

[ominous music playing]

[man 1] 28 degrees, 41 minutes, 30 seconds.

[woman 1] 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.

- [suspenseful music playing] - [man 2] Three, two, one, right under us.

Shit!

[male newscaster] 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...

- [eerie sting] - ..."help."

What the... is happening on this cruise ship?

[man 3] You start to haul ass at the bottom of that shit.

[laughs]

- [upbeat music playing] - Whoo!

[man 4] We just love going on cruises.

The food, the pool, the water slide.

I mean, what more could you ask? Everything was great.

[all cheering]

[woman 2] We're having the most fun.

It's so nice to just really uncheck from the real world.

[people cheering]

We're having a great time. We were like, "This is awesome!"

[men] Whoa!

And then the lights go out.

[power hum fades]

[woman 3] Oh my gosh.

[dramatic music plays]

That's when all of us were like, "What the fuck?"

[male newscaster] 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.

[dramatic music continues]

I'm telling you, it got bad fast.

[man 5] Oh my gosh.

Suddenly, everyone's out for themselves.

[people clamoring]

It was terrifying.

All of a sudden, we were like, "Oh shit, the ship is on fire."

- [alarm sounding] - [man 6] Let's go. Let's go.

Oh my God, this is it. We're going down.

[man 5] Go, go, go.

Turns out it wasn't the fire that was the problem.

It was the freaking toilets.

[liquids dripping]

[woman 4] 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.

[ominous music plays]

- [ship horn blaring] - [upbeat music plays]

Hi.

The first time I heard about going on a cruise

was a simple phone call from my fiancée 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 fiancée's father.

[music continues]

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.

[Rebekah] 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.

[music ends]

[man] There's the ship. That's the ship we're going on.

Looks like a building.

[hopeful, adventurous music playing]

[Devin] 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.

[mellow music plays]

[women conversing indistinctly]

[Ashley] 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.

[eerie music plays]

[Jayme] 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.

[festive music plays]

Let's take a selfie.

[camera shutter clicks]

- [festive music continues] - [ship horn blaring]

[cheering]

And then they honk the big horn,

and you're like, "Okay, it's the start of a great vacation!"

[cheering]

Crazy excited.

[people cheering]

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.

[man] Whoo!

[Devin] I remember walking up to the bar,

and, suddenly, this voice breaks through the ceiling,

and it's this, like, positive British woman.

[British accent] "Hi! Hi, hi. This is Jen. So excited!"

[American accent] She was great.

[enchanting music plays]

- [intercom chimes] - [Jen] 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. - [people cheering]

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.

[Jen] But it's not all fun and frolics and having a lovely time with the guests.

The ship is very much two worlds.

[intriguing music plays]

We had about 1,200 crew members from all over the world.

[woman] 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.

[laughs]

[music ends]

[ship horn blares]

[mellow music plays]

[Devin] 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.

- [laughs] - [camera shutter clicks]

[Devin] 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.

[people cheering]

[camera shutter clicks]

We were drinking harder in Cozumel than we were on the boat.

[projector clicking]

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. - [camera shutter clicks]

[Ashley] We left our dignity in Cozumel.

[camera shutter clicks]

As soon as my head hit the pillow, I was out.

[ominous music plays]

[music fades]

[snoring gently]

[ship horn blaring]

[alarm beeping steadily]

[ominous music plays]

- [ominous sting] - [alarm continues]

I just remember opening my eyes and, like, looking around, pitch black.

Like, "What is going on?"

- [alarm continues] - [ominous music continues]

[Devin] The noise is coming from, like, a speaker in the ceiling.

And so you're staring at it.

[alarm continues]

And then, suddenly, you hear, "Alpha Team, Alpha Team, Alpha team."

[male announcer over intercom] 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."

- [Jayme] Right. - "Somebody needs to turn it off."

[announcer] 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.

[announcer] Alpha team...

I was like, "Okay, something is going on."

[eerie music playing]

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?"

[eerie music intensifies]

[Jen] I went up to the bridge, and...

[exhales]

...as soon as I walked in, I knew

this is-- this is-- this is something serious.

- [phones ringing] - [people talking indistinctly]

People were on phones and radios, and there were alarms going off.

- [people talking indistinctly] - [ship horn blaring]

People were running, banging on doors.

- You could hear the panic. - [man banging on door] Wake up.

- Get out! Get out! - [woman screams]

[eerie music playing]

I'm like, "Oh my God. This is it. This is the Titanic. We're going down."

"Where is our muster station?"

[eerie music building]

[music fades]

I put a couple of the, uh-- the radios on

just to hear what was going on from up on the bridge.

- [static crackling] - [man] Fire team...

[Stephen] I can hear them calling the fire team to head down to deck zero.

[man over radio] 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.

[alarm blaring]

- [woman screaming] - [people shouting indistinctly]

[Ashley] 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."

- [suspenseful music plays] - [ship horn and alarm blaring]

[Jen] 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?"

[people talking indistinctly]

[baby wailing]

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.

- [people speaking indistinctly] - [Jen] 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..."

[exhales] "...I need to-- I gotta tell the guests."

[intercom chimes]

[Jen] 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.

[intercom chimes]

[Devin] That was reassuring.

And so I told my fiancée, "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.

- [power hum fades] - [ominous music plays]

Whoa.

[chuckling] This is just like the cruise.

[Jen] Suddenly, it went dark on the bridge.

Everything's out.

It's like... [blows] ...darkness.

What the hell's going on?

Totally dark. You can't see anything.

Then we audibly heard the AC cut out.

[AC powering down]

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.

[ominous music continues]

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.

[Ashley] I immediately turned on my cell phone to text my fiancée,

and I quickly realized that the cellular was out too.

[walkie-talkie beeps]

[Jen] We've had power cuts before,

and engineers go and do whatever they do to turn it back on.

[people conversing indistinctly]

[Jen] 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.

[music fades]

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.

[tense, whimsical music plays]

They needed electricity.

So they weren't gonna flush,

which is, with thousands of guests, a major issue.

- [people conversing] - [dramatic music plays]

[Jen] We had to come up with a plan of what to do.

[buzzer sounds]

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. - [woman screams]

[buzzer sounds]

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."

[music stops]

And then... for the number two,

that... that was definitely a trickier problem than number one.

[intercom chimes]

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. - [Jen] 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. - [breathes deeply]

[intercom chimes]

What the fuck?

[chuckles]

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.

- [defecation sound] - Do it in a plastic bag.

Tie the bag, put it in a bin,

- and then dispose of them down below. - [dings]

The-- Like-- It really was a genius plan.

[amusing music playing]

As soon as I saw the red bags, I was like, "Oh no. Oh no."

- [tense music plays] - "Mm-mm."

"No."

I was like, "Red bag? No way. Not happening."

I immediately started taking Imodium.

[Stephen] At that point, we needed to let Carnival head office know

what was happening on board.

Fortunately, we had a satellite phone that worked...

- [beeps] - ...and it became my responsibility

to, uh, keep that communication going with shoreside.

[wind gusting]

- [line ringing] - [suspenseful music playing]

[phone ringing]

[man] 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.

- [clicks mouse] - [computer chimes]

[suspenseful music continues]

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.

[male reporter] The Carnival cruise ship Triumph is drifting along...

[woman] 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."

[tense music plays]

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.

[ominous music plays]

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?"

[indistinct conversations]

[Larry] 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."

[inhales deeply] And so I was like, "Y'all, I really-- I need to pee."

"Does somebody wanna come with me?"

- Because it was dark. - [Jayme] Yeah.

So you kind of want, like, a buddy system. I don't wanna go alone.

[chuckling] 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.

[Kalin] So the whole time,

you have, like, this discotheque going on while you're doing it.

[electronic music plays]

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."

[drain gurgles]

- It was just horrible. - Like, it's pretty disgusting.

[groans in disgust]

[chuckling] Are you for real? Oh my God.

[ominous sting]

[indistinct conversations]

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.

[eerie music plays]

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?"

- [phone beeps] - [intriguing music plays]

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.

[bell dings]

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."

- [wind gusting] - [mysterious music plays]

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.

[suspenseful string music plays]

[Rebekah] 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.

[Larry] In my mind, I'm thinking, "This is not good."

[chuckling] You know?

[camera shutter clicking]

I think all of us were just ready to go to bed.

- It had been an emotionally taxing day. - [Kalin] 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.

[music ends on ominous note]

[squawking]

But when I woke up, I was like, "Oh... Oh. Oh shit."

[bell dings tensely]

"Where in the hell is Mexico?"

[ominous music plays]

[intercom chimes]

[Jen] 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.

[indistinct conversations]

[Devin] That's the food line. That's two of four food lines.

[Ashley] 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.

- [Devin] What are those? - These are ladyfingers.

[Devin] I'll have a couple of those.

Thank you.

[dramatic piano music plays]

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.

- [woman] I want one hamburger. - [man] One burger.

Tell the people who are getting ten to give them back. I just want one.

[Stephen] 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.

[chuckles]

[Devin] It's like a shantytown around here.

People are sleeping everywhere.

[Larry] 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.

[camera shutter clicks]

"This is my area, these are my people."

"And don't come messing with us."

You saw that a lot.

- [Devin] So your GPS puts us on the F? - [man] Yeah.

[Devin] Because we're fucked.

- [chuckles] - [man] Yeah, maybe.

[wind gusting]

All of a sudden, we look out and we see another ship.

[ship horn blaring]

- [upbeat, intriguing music plays] - [people] Thank you!

I was like, "This is it. They're gonna save us."

[people cheering, applauding]

[Jen] One of the other sister ships, the Legend, was close by.

They stopped by and helped us out.

[woman cheers]

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.

[man] He broke it.

[woman gasps]

Oh my God.

[sputtering] Not an option.

[upbeat rock music playing over speakers]

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.

[Devin] 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?"

[Rebekah] We were all trying to get as close as we could

to steal cell phone reception from it.

[Devin] Everyone's out on deck,

holding their phones up in the air, trying to get reception.

[woman] Can anybody get a signal?

And we started to get signal.

[phones chiming, ringing]

[Stephen] 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."

[tense music playing]

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.

[female reporter] A four-day pleasure cruise has turned into a nightmare.

[male reporter] 4,200 people floating. Dead in the water.

Holy Christ. How did that happen?

- Now the cat's out of the bag. - [line ringing]

It's like the snowball has started to roll,

and there's no stopping it.

[dramatic musical sting]

[male reporter] Supplies are running low on board and emotions are running high

as passengers wait to be rescued.

[tense music continues]

[man] 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.

[male reporter] 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.

[disorienting music plays]

[Stephen] 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.

[ominous music playing]

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... [sighs]

Are you kidding? Like, that's an absolute disaster.

[Larry] 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. - [Jayme] Yeah.

Starting to smell the toilets.

[gurgling]

They weren't draining.

And so it would fill up the showers,

and it would just sit there with nowhere to go.

[gurgling]

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."

[amusing music plays]

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.

[woman talking indistinctly]

- [Devin] Your toilets work? - No.

No. Our toilets aren't working.

[Devin] 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."

[suspenseful music plays]

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.

[chuckling] It was like a lasagna.

[ominous sting]

[woman] Decks three, four, five are clean. Crew members have taken care.

You can go there to use it if you want.

[Devin] Oh, great. Thank you.

- [lighthearted music plays] - [toilet flushing]

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.

- [music stops] - [chuckles]

[indistinct conversations]

[Stephen] 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."

[Devin] Ooh.

I was definitely against the idea of the open bar.

People will go nuts.

- [people cheering] - [upbeat rock music plays]

[Devin laughing] Hey!

They just started giving out liquor for free.

We were like, "This is awesome."

"Free drinks. Let's go."

- [bottles clinking] - [people cheering]

- Yes! - Finally, something to do.

- It's something. - Cruises are supposed to be fun.

It's free booze. Let's go.

[people cheering]

People were double-fisting drinks, taking them back to their rooms.

It was the craziest, the busiest, the drunkest.

[people cheering, whistling]

"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.

[urinating]

[ding]

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...

[chuckling] ...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.

[moan]

There was no, "You want a sheet to put over you?"

No, they were right there.

[people cheering]

Don't know if they couldn't handle their liquor, but fights broke out...

[men shouting indistinctly]

[glass shatters]

It was getting very scary.

[sounds become muffled]

As a dad, your job is to protect, and I couldn't do anything.

[disorienting music plays]

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."

[music fades]

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.

[ominous music plays]

- [people cheering] - [music fades]

We were so excited when we saw that the tugboats had finally arrived.

[Devin] AAA finally got here.

[Ashley] Because that means we're moving.

There was an end in sight.

[ship creaking]

[Devin] It looks like the boat's going that way.

[man shouts indistinctly]

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. - [ominous music plays]

[woman] Tugboats are pushing us. Hold on to your phone.

- Suddenly, the weather... - [thunder rumbles]

...turned for the worse.

[wind gusting]

- [woman] Oh! - [Devin] Oh!

[ship creaking]

Now, I became very aware that this was probably the tipping point.

[thunder rumbling]

And that's the moment everything spilled.

[people talking worriedly]

[woman 1] Oh my gosh.

[water dripping]

[man 1] The whole thing's flooding.

[woman 1] It's sloshing out here too.

[woman 2] What?

Imagine everything that goes in a toilet, right, piss, shit, all of it,

it's just, you know-- it's everywhere.

[woman 1] Oh my gosh.

- [man 2] Watch out. - [man 1] Watch out.

[Larry] I'm telling you, it got bad fast.

Everything overflowed into the floor and just kept overflowing.

[Devin's fiancée] Raw sewage water.

- [man 2] Whoa! Shit. - [Devin] That is slippery.

You walked down the hallway,

and all of a sudden, squish, squish... And you know what you're standing in.

[Devin's fiancée] Ugh.

We were in... excrement.

[camera shutter clicks]

[Abhi] 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.

- [camera shutter clicking] - [unsettling music playing]

[music fades]

At that point, I was like, "Just get me off this ship."

[suspenseful music plays]

[eerie sting]

In the overnight hours, all these new details started coming in

about the description...

Ugh!

...of what is happening on this cruise.

[woman 1] Our room is flooded.

There's sewage, raw sewage, in the hallway.

[woman 2] 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.

[clunks]

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."

[ominous music plays]

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.

[ship creaking]

[wind gusting]

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.

[tense music plays]

- [bell ringing] - [ship creaking]

[tense music continues]

[Devin] I think, when you get stuck at sea like that, your mind wanders.

And I think...

[inhales deeply] ...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. - [music fades]

We were just like, "Doomsday." It was almost like Survivor, right?

[people singing]

I remember, at one point,

there was an older gentleman even setting up a Bible study.

[men and women] ♪ How precious did ♪

♪ That grace appear ♪

♪ The hour ♪

♪ I first believed ♪

[somber piano music plays]

[Larry] 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...

[music continues]

that... I fail-- I failed.

- [clears throat] - Don't look at me 'cause I'll look at--

It was just a bad situation, and nothing you could do about it.

[music ends]

[softly] Yeah.

[dramatic string music plays]

[Mary] I drove all night to get to Mobile.

I was going to be on that dock when my daughter got there.

[speaking indistinctly]

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."

- [dramatic sting] - [ominous music plays]

- [baby crying] - [child talking indistinctly]

[Jen] 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.

[chuckles]

- [people talking excitedly] - [dramatic string music plays]

- [man 1] Helicopter's arrived. - [helicopter whirring overhead]

- [man 2] All right. - [man 1] All right.

[people cheering]

[Ashley] 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.

[Brooke] 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.

[man 3] It got really bad. It went into the elevator.

And it started dripping so bad, it sounded like it was raining.

[Brooke] It was raining sewage.

[Buck] 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...

[phone chimes]

...you know that everyone's paying attention.

- [messages chiming] - [intriguing string music playing]

The risk paid off for CNN.

"Poop Cruise" was the biggest news story in all of America.

- [applause] - 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.

[comic] ...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.

[ominous music plays]

[male reporter] Here she comes in now.

[Ashley] As soon as the ship starts pulling in,

we see people are yelling.

- They have signs for us. - [people cheering]

We can just kind of start feeling their energy of excitement

that we're finally here.

- The relief. - We're finally here.

- [ship horn blaring] - [male reporter] Listen to that horn!

Look how happy they are to hear that.

[Ashley] I just remember thanking the crew.

I mean, where in their job description was "Picking up people's feces"?

[Kalin] Yeah.

I will never take a private bathroom for granted again.

[uplifting music playing]

[Jen] I was really proud of myself for getting through it

and not cracking.

[chuckles]

And...

And just-- Yeah, like, just proud of the team, really,

for everybody sticking together and working so, so hard.

[Brooke] 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.

[people cheering]

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.

[gentle music playing]

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.

[Devin] 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."

[exhales in relief]

[mellow instrumental music plays]

[Frank] 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... [reading]

You don't see that disclaimer on the commercial.

It's amazing.

I think if most people actually knew that existed at the time...

[laughing] ...they probably would never buy a ticket.

I certainly wouldn't.

[music fades]

[mellow instrumental music plays]

[music ends]