One of Netflix's Most Disturbing Docs Is Now Blowing Up the Charts
Netflix has a formula, and it's working: take something horrifying, sprinkle in public humiliation, and package it as a documentary. Audiences can't get enough.
The latest success? Trainwreck: Poop Cruise — which, yes, is exactly what it sounds like.
Currently climbing Netflix's Top 10 Movies in the U.S., the doc covers the infamous Carnival Triumph disaster, a 2013 cruise gone so catastrophically wrong it earned the nickname "the poop cruise."
The ship's engine caught fire in the Gulf of Mexico, shutting down all propulsion, power, and plumbing. That last part is what made headlines — because when 3,000+ passengers lose access to working toilets for days on end, things go downhill fast. Sewage flooded the halls. People slept on deck. Someone started flinging bags of waste overboard… only to have them fly back and hit the ship.
Key facts from the Carnival Triumph disaster:
- Engine fire occurred on February 10, 2013, leaving the ship stranded for five days
- Over 3,100 passengers and 1,000 crew were onboard
- Toilets stopped functioning within hours
- Sewage backed up into cabins and hallways
- Carnival was later forced to pay $500 in compensation to each passenger, plus travel refunds
- Lawsuits followed, including one class-action suit alleging unsanitary and unsafe conditions
Poop Cruise isn't exactly journalism, but it doesn't need to be. Like the rest of Netflix's "Trainwreck" lineup — from Rob Ford's public collapse to the violence of Woodstock '99 — the appeal is in the gawking. What elevates it, if anything, are the interviews with passengers and crew who somehow manage to recount this rolling sewage fire with a mix of horror, sarcasm, and a whole lot of dark humor.
One standout is Abhi, a shipboard chef who steals every scene he's in. His most memorable contribution? Describing one clogged hallway mess as a "poop lasagna." That alone pretty much guarantees Poop Cruise will be remembered longer than most actual cruise vacations.
The documentary doesn't offer solutions or moral lessons. It's not here to make you think — it's here to make you uncomfortable. If Netflix's goal was to ensure an entire generation never sets foot on a cruise ship again, mission accomplished.
Welcome to the golden age of disaster tourism. This one just smells worse.