Trainwreck: Poop Cruise

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 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.

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