Cruise documentaries cover ship operations, emergencies and outbreaks
Programs featuring Holland America Line, MSC, Carnival and Costa ships examine life at sea and several major incidents.
The eight-part 2025 Channel 4 documentary series Supercruising: Life at Sea follows Holland America Line ships Rotterdam and Nieuw Statendam. Narrated by Nick Brimble, the series covers Rotterdam cruises in the Caribbean from Fort Lauderdale and Nieuw Statendam voyages in Europe and North Africa from Dover.
The one-hour 2018 Channel 5 documentary The Secret Life of the Cruise explores behind-the-scenes operations aboard MSC Seaside. A freely available YouTube episode of Mighty Ships / Mighty Cruise Ships follows MSC Meraviglia in 2017.
Netflix documentary Shipwrecked: Nightmare at Sea examines the 2012 Costa Concordia disaster. The report states that 31 passengers and crew died. Another Netflix production, Trainwreck: Poop Cruise, covers the 2013 Carnival Triumph incident, when an engine-room fire left the ship in the Gulf of Mexico without power, air conditioning or toilets. Carnival Triumph was renamed Carnival Sunrise in 2019 after a refit valued at $200 million.
HBO documentary The Last Cruise examines an early COVID outbreak aboard Diamond Princess as the ship cruised around Japan in January and February 2020. It includes interviews with passengers and crew and addresses how the virus spread aboard despite quarantine procedures. The book Cabin Fever by Michael Smith and Jonathan Franklin chronicles a March 2020 outbreak aboard Holland America ship Zaandam while it cruised around South America.