Chaos d'anthologie: La croisière ne s'amuse plus

I watched Trainwreck: Poop Cruise as someone who lives on a boat and has also spent plenty of time off-grid, camping, living simply. So my reaction to the events on the Carnival Triumph was not what the filmmakers may have intended. Yes, the fire was serious. Yes, the loss of power was frightening. But what truly shocked me was not the mechanical failure - it was the passengers.

The documentary reveals something deeply unsettling about modern entitlement: a total inability to adapt when modern comforts disappear. When toilets failed, the crew handed out sanitary disposal bags - a practical, biosecure solution. Most passengers refused. The result? Unsanitary conditions, plumbing backups, and worsening chaos. This wasn't just a systems failure; it was a human failure.

What astonishes me is the genuine horror expressed at the idea of peeing in a shower or using a bag - things our species has done, in one form or another, for tens of thousands of years. Watching people recoil from such basic realities while drifting in the middle of the ocean was, frankly, more apocalyptic than the fire itself.

The film is well-paced and tightly edited, and Carnival deserves scrutiny for its disaster preparedness. But if there's a deeper message here, it's this: modern humans may not be ready to survive without flush toilets and air conditioning - and that should worry us far more than an engine room fire.

Stuff happens. Systems break. But survival requires mindset, not just amenities. If these people are representing the species, then we are doomed.

The Trainwreck series of Netflix documentaries has one underlying theme: Americans, if given free reign, can be as crass and depraved as anything featured in the notorious Penthouse-produced movie Caligula. As an American, I watch these documentaries with a mix of fascination and shock. If we still had a mental health care program in the United States, most of the people featured in these documentaries would probably wind up in wards.

This documentary's title is off putting, juvenile and like something from a National Enquirer tabloid headline. But I watched it anyway for the hell of it. At only an hour, it's not a long time investment. And it has its merits. The recreation of the bad conditions on the ship are engrossing. The most revealing interviews come from the staff of the Carnival ship - mainly Jen the "Julie McCoy" of the cruise, and the chef originally from India (I can't recall his name). An executive from Carnival is interviewed too, which is a surprise. Of course in typical executive form, he is mostly unapologetic, claims the "media" blew the disaster out of proportion (the horrible "fake news" media strikes again...), and all Carnival liners are subjected to rigorous inspections before they launch.

On the other side of the executive perspective, there are interviews with a maritime attorney who specializes in cases against luxury cruise ships. He reveals that at the time, all ticket purchasers of Carnival cruise lines had to agree to a clause, likely in very small print buried on page 5 of the text-heavy application, that passengers are basically on their own in the case of a disaster at sea...anything apparently from hitting an iceberg to a fire that causes the power to go and all of the toilets to stop working.

Thus, the "poop" angle of the documentary. Most passengers interviewed freaked out at the thought of (OMG) doing "number 2" in a red biohazard bag. It's not as if the ship had a shortage of biohazard canisters or toilet paper. So thus begins the American entitlement reveal. Three young women are interviewed prominently. Their only objective on the bachelorette party/cruise is to drink, day and night. They need to take an expensive cruise just to do THAT? They could have saved a ton of money by just spending a long weekend at a hotel next door to an Applebee's.

Other passengers include a young guy who traveled with his fiancé and her father, who seems to be auditioning for a movie most of the time. Besides the two Carnival staff interviewed, perhaps the most sympathetic subjects are a father and daughter duo from Lubbock, TX. But at the time the daughter was 13, and why the hell dad that it was a good idea to "relax" with her daughter (who was 13 at the time) on such a decadent cruise is anyone's guess.

Maybe this is being too critical of the subjects being interviewed. They experienced a horrible ordeal with at one time no end in sight. But whoever at Carnival made the decision to offer free alcohol on the third day of being stranded to these most likely sleep- and nutrition-deprived, hungry, frustrated, and delirious passengers should have his or her head examined. If they wanted total Roman Empire violence, sex, and debauchery, they sure got it, before a wiser employee shut the bar down.

The takeaway from all of this, for me at least, is that if I ever have an itch to take a cruise, it will be on a paddleboat on the Mississippi River. At least then, if anything goes haywire, we can swim to shore.

This documentary validates my fear of being in a crisis with a bunch of (stupid) people. Besides the face that I dont understand why you would rather clog the toilet than use a disposable bag, why on earth when you're stuck on a ship at sea, would you rip of the lights on your life jacket?! Just so you can see a little when you pee?! My biggest fear in this world is stupid humans! Amazed at the ignorance, arrogance and just plain stupid behaviour of the interviewed passengers. I have never felt such a lack of empathy for people before. Credits to the crew for putting up with them (but also why would you think it was a good idea to have an open bar amidst a crisis).

Trainwreck: Poop Cruise (2025) starts off with a weirdly intriguing premise; enough to make you press play out of morbid curiosity. But it doesn't take long to realize there's not much beneath the surface. The documentary feels like typical Netflix filler: shallow, rushed, and you could say, somewhat intellectually insulting.

The incident itself is so anticlimactic, many might've been better off never hearing about it.

The documentary is just short enough to keep you watching, only to leave you wondering why you bothered.

Hopefully this is just throwaway content, and Netflix has something better cooking.

Omgosh a lot of the people who attended the cruise for fun are people I would hate to hangout with. The people who couldnt handle the begining of the problems like poo in the bag and number one in the shower when it wasnt stinky. Are so lame.

Yall never went camping. You guys are not lasting if goverment went down and structures started failing.

I had such a annoyance at those who couldnt handle and complained at the minor indecency.

And to the dude who wanted to hold in and not poo in a bag, could of actually created a health emergency not from bad hygenic outer conditions but because that can come out his mouth.

The documentry itself is kind of funny, love the news coming out, the aftermath, and the crew were the greatest.