Review of "How Luxury Cruise Turned Into Nightmare for Passengers" on The Infographics Show

By: Shane Lambert
The original time of writing: January 25th, 2025 at 8:17am 

The Infographics Show is my favorite YouTube channel. Recently, I watched their 20-minute episode called "How Luxury Cruise Turned Into Nightmare for Passengers." It tells the story of a 2013 Carnival cruise that became known as the "Poop Cruise" after a chainlink reaction of mechanical failures led to the passengers basically having to live amid their own waste material during the cruise.

YouTube channel: The Infographics Show
Episode: How Luxury Cruise Turned Into Nightmare for Passengers
Uploaded: January 24th, 2025

A big part of the story of this cruise is establishing the contrast between what the customers were paying for and what they ultimately got. There is a reference to the Titanic in the show, arguably, one that is undeserved. But tear the show's start, the narrator explains how the ship was "once hailed as a floating palace of luxury" but became "a prison of filth and despair."

One thing I did not like about this episode was there was a segment of the show that felt like an advertisement -- for none other than Carnival. They show a smiling customer service agent and describe Carnival in favorable terms, mainly for offering affordable cruise line vacations. It really did feel like a commercial for Carnival -- if only for 15 seconds. Maybe they were scared of some blowback for airing the episode and wanted to balance things with a bit of a plug (see the screenshot below).

A screenshot from the episode.

But, like they always do, The Infographics Show gives you a pretty good understanding of what happened for the topic that they covered. In this case, the ship had underlying mechanical problems that never got the attention that they warranted. I won't ruin too much of the show but for a cruise that was renamed "The Poop Cruise," I think that you get the picture that this didn't end up being a holiday for anyone.

If you are looking for a happy ending, then you won't find it with this episode. The passengers on board the ship didn't actually get favorable settlements.

The first reference I found to "poop cruise," in relation to the Carnival cruise, in newspapers came in the March 15th, 2013 edition of The Miami Herald. That doesn't mean there are no earlier references but among the databases I searched in that was the first.

One thing that really came through with this episode, is just that no one was there to rescue the passengers on "The Poop Cruise." This event did not happen in 1913 - it happened in 2013. When it comes to modern events involving human suffering, I think the phrase "where there's a will there's a way" applies. The passengers on the cruise could have been rescued. Instead of laying blame, let's just say that if we wanted to save the people on "The Poop Cruise" from an extended ordeal, then we could have.

Instead, the food that they had to eat started to spoil on the ship as their ordeal carried on and on. Of course, diarrhea resulted and they had to live amid this as the ship's sanitation system failed.

What I really took away from this is just how these people were left to suffer -- I suspect because the cost of their rescue was measured against their legal leverage for litigation. Concerning the latter, they ended up having very little due to the maze of legalities involved with cruise ships, which negotiate international waters and can bear the flags of third-world countries, countries that have no choice but to bend to corporate pressure.

While "The Poop Cruise" is a bit of a comedic title, let's not ignore just how sad this story really was. I think it's about how human suffering has a price tag associated with it.

There is a lesson for everyone to learn here. If you are in a position where you need to be rescued, don't idly wait for someone to improve your condition. Take a look in the mirror and do what you can with what you have because help might be a long ways away.