Passengers who were on the cruise ship at the time recall the chaos they experienced during the sailing, including being told to poop in plastic bags.
In February 2013, thousands of passengers boarded the Carnival Triumph for what they thought would be a dream vacation. But the sailing would quickly turn into the stuff of nightmares.
The latest installment of Netflix's docuseries Trainwreck, titled "Poop Cruise" investigates exactly what happened on the voyage that became known as the "Poop Cruise From Hell," as passengers relive some of the unimaginable acts they were forced into more than 12 years later.
Disaster first struck the ship, which was traveling from Galveston, Texas to Cozumel, Mexico on a four-day cruise, when a fire in the engine room on the last day.
The blaze completely destroyed the electrical cables, knocking out power to the entire ship and leaving it drifting in the Gulf of Mexico without any lights, air conditioning, refrigeration or working toilets.
In the doc, passengers recall waking up in the early hours of the morning to a loud alarm blaring over the speakers in their staterooms. One of the chefs on board, Abhi, remembers seeing smoke wafting up through the drains into the kitchen.
The cruise director, Jen, still vividly remembers the moment: "I went up to the bridge and as soon as I walked in I knew. This is something serious. People were on phones and radios and alarms were going off."
One passenger named Jayme compares the frightening experience to another doomed voyage.
"People were running and banging on doors. You could hear the panic," she says. "I'm like, 'Oh my god, this is it. This is the Titanic. We're going down.'"
Another cruiser named Ashley adds, "Once we got up to the lido deck, the first thing I remember seeing -- it's like etched in my brain -- is seeing the big red fin [featured on every Carnival ship]. There were flames just shooting out of it. And that’s when I really woke up and was like, 'Oh sh-, the ship is on fire.'"
Shortly after an announcement was made by crew that the situation was "completely under control," the lights suddenly went out, followed by the air conditioning cutting off seconds later, passengers recall.
Jen then realized that the toilets had stopped working, "which is, with thousands of guests, a major issue," she added.
She remembers the announcement she had to make to the guests: "So folks, if you do need to do a number one, everybody, you can do it in the shower."
Her announcement continued, "And if you do need to do a number two... What we're going to do is, we're going to deliver some red bags to all of the bathrooms on board, and if you do need to do a number two, we ask that you please do it in the red bag and drop it off in the bins in the corridor."
While passengers followed the new guidelines, many noted how unsanitary the ship quickly became.
"The next morning we woke up and everything had changed. I went down to the lower decks and saw and smelt and felt the air sickness," Devin says. In a video clip that he recorded from the ship, he walks through the hallways and notes, "Here are the infamous poo bags. That's probably full of feces."
Without power, perishable foods quickly started going bad, leading people to "hoard" the non-perishables they could get their hands on. Passengers recall the "tent cities" they made as they had to sleep outside on the decks because it was too hot to sleep in their rooms.
While they waited for tugboats to bring the ship to Mobile, Ala., the crew had the idea to hold an open bar so passengers could still enjoy themselves despite the current situation.
"I was definitely against the idea of the open bar," Jen recalls. "People will go nuts."
Other crew members remember how great the idea seemed at first until passengers started "urinating off the side of the ship" and throwing their used red bags "onto the lifeboats."
Abhi even remembers the moment "somebody threw the poop bag, but then the wind threw it back on somebody sitting on the open deck downstairs."
To make matters worse, fights started breaking out, and the situation suddenly turned "very scary," another passenger remembers, prompting staff to shut down the open bar.
After moments of complete chaos, a glimmer of hope was felt throughout the entire ship once the tugboats finally arrived. However, the weather suddenly "turned for the worse," Jen recalls, causing the ship to rock aggressively as the boats pulled it. The movement caused "raw sewage" water to start flooding out onto the floors.
"You would be walking down the hallway and all of a sudden you would hear, 'squish, squish, squish, squish.' And you know what you're standing in," Devin says.
After days enduring the unsanitary conditions, the ship finally made it to Mobile and passengers disembarked. A disclaimer at the end of the episode states that Carnival gave passengers "a full refund, transportation expenses, a $500 payment and a free cruise."
Earlier in June, when PEOPLE exclusively shared the trailer for the docuseries episode, a spokesperson for Carnival Cruise Line revealed the changes the company has made since the disastrous voyage.
In a statement Shared with PEOPLE, Carnival said, "The Carnival Triumph incident over 12 years ago was a teachable moment for the entire cruise industry. A thorough investigation following the incident revealed a design vulnerability which was corrected and led Carnival Cruise Line to invest more than $500 million across our entire fleet in comprehensive fire prevention and suppression, improved redundancy, and enhanced management systems, all in support of our commitment to robust safety standards. This is in addition to our vigorous Health, Environmental, Safety and Security (HESS) protocols that guide the entire Carnival Corporation fleet as we maintain our commitment to industry leadership in this area."
They added, "We are proud of the fact that since 2013 over 53 million guests have enjoyed safe and memorable vacations with us, and we will continue to operate to these high standards."