No Pleasure Cruise
Last week, I watched the Netflix documentary “Poop Cruise.” It chronicles a 2013 journey of the Carnival cruise ship Triumph, which was scheduled to sail from Galveston, Texas, to Cozumel, Mexico. On the way back, though, a fire in the engine room disabled all the ship’s power, leaving it dead and adrift at sea for several days.
Without refrigeration, food quickly began to spoil. So, passengers had to wait in line for several hours to get lettuce and tomato sandwiches on soggy bread. Even worse, because the vacuum system that evacuates toilet contents requires electricity, passengers were asked to urinate in their showers and defecate in red plastic hazardous waste bags. Because no one wanted to do that, they used the toilets anyway, which began to overflow.
The plan was to tug the ship back to Mexico, but because the Triumph had drifted over 100 miles by the time the tugboats got there, they ended up hauling it to Mobile, Alabama. When the tugboats tied up and turned the Triumph around for its return journey, the ship listed, and raw sewage began running down the walls and flooded several decks.
The incident was the top news story for several days as several media outlets, especially CNN, provided round-the-clock coverage of the plight of the 3,143 passengers and 1,086 crew aboard. Needless to say, Carnival received several negative Yelp reviews.
Immediately after the incident, Carnival offered passengers full fare refunds, reimbursement of travel expenses to and from Galveston, $500 in cash and a future cruise credit. In a statement released in March of 2014, the cruise line said, “Everyone returned safely and were provided with a full refund, a free future cruise and an additional $500 per person.”
Some passengers did not accept the offer, however, with several claiming to have been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder from the incident. Many filed a class action lawsuit against Carnival Cruise Lines. Frank Spagnoletti, a lawyer who represented several passengers in the suit, said, “This was something that was totally preventable, so we definitely had a good chance… The problem is, you run into the ticket.”
Spagnoletti was referring to the clause on Carnival’s tickets that the cruise line’s lawyer argued took away passengers’ right to sue. The provision reads that Carnival “makes absolutely no guarantee for safe passage, a seaworthy vessel, adequate and wholesome food, and sanitary and safe living conditions.” Because of this provision, most of the passengers settled out of court.
After the Titanic sank in 1912, many maritime nations created the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS), an international maritime treaty that sets out minimum safety standards in the construction, equipping, and operation of merchant ships. SOLAS is generally regarded as the most important of all international treaties concerning the safety of merchant ships and has 167 signatory countries, which comprises about 99% of merchant ships around the world.
Similarly, the poop cruise resulted in the creation of the Cruise Passenger Bill of Rights (CPBR). Drafted by the Cruise Lines International Association and adopted by member lines in 2013, the document now strictly prohibits Carnival’s disclaimer language. The CPBR contains 10 rights and addresses such issues and medical care and safety, emergency protocols and refund policies. Member lines must post the CPBR on their websites.
Since the poop cruise, ships are now equipped with emergency backup generators, redundant engine rooms and navigation bridges. Carnival spent $113 million cleaning and refurbishing the Triumph and it was officially christened Carnival Sunrise in 2019.
As a former janitor, all I know is that all-you-can-eat and broken plumbing is a bad, bad combination.
Reg P. Wydeven
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