A couple from Missouri says their honeymoon cruise was ruined by sewage spewing from a shower drain, leaving them to celebrate amid the smell of “poop” inside their cabin.
Christine Parker and John Shoemaker, of St. Louis, detailed their foul experience in November aboard the Carnival Triumph in an interview with the Miami Herald, claiming unsanitary conditions on the 14-deck, 893-foot mega-ship turned what should have been a celebration into a potential health scare.
“We didn’t have a good honeymoon,” Parker told the newspaper. “People expect you to come back so excited and we have been fighting with the Carnival staff and smelling poop in our room. We were exhausted and angry.”
To make matters even worse, Parker claimed crew members aboard the ship acted as if black sewage reeking of fecal matter was no big deal.
“I understand that that’s their job to minimize it,” Parker said. “But what if that stuff had gotten into a cut on our feet and we would have gotten an infection?”
Parker, who could not be reached for comment Wednesday, said the vile black liquid bubbling out of the shower drain forced her and her husband to use bathrooms in the ship’s spa during their five-night trip.
Video shot by Parker also shows a crew member acknowledging that something obviously isn’t right with the shower, saying, “This is very bad and it smells very bad.”
For her troubles, Parker said Carnival offered her a $300 credit to be used on the ship and 15 percent off her next cruise with the company — which she doesn’t intend to book anytime soon.
The ship, which arrived back in south Florida on Nov. 11, was later given a failing grade by inspectors from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Vessel Sanitation Program.
Two other Carnival Cruise Line ships — the Breeze and the Vista, the company’s newest vessel — failed similar inspections in December, bringing the company’s tally to three failed inspections within two months, according to the Herald.
A Miami-based maritime attorney told the newspaper that failed inspections on cruise ships typically occur roughly two or three times per year, making the rash of poor grades a rarity.
Violations aboard the ships included potentially dangerous food, dirty dishware, improperly functioning machinery and overflowing garbage bins near food-handling areas. In a statement to the Herald, Carnival officials said they take the inspections “very seriously” and that the Triumph has since been reinspected and received a passing grade.
“We take these inspections very seriously and share lessons learned and best practices with every ship in our fleet,” Carnival spokeswoman Jennifer De La Cruz told the Miami Herald. “We appreciate the work of [United States Public Health] in identifying areas for improvement and we have taken immediate action to address the issues identified during recent ship inspections.”
Reports detailing what corrective measures Carnival officials have taken aboard the Vista and Breeze have not yet been submitted by the company, according to the Herald.
“Rest assured we will leverage our learnings from this process as a best practice,” De La Cruz said. “We remain confident that our shipboard operations, especially in food handling and preparation, are of the highest quality and we are always committed to delivering an exceptional experience to our guests.”