Smell ruined our cruise

We've jsut returned from a 1 week cruise around the western Caribbean on the magic. The cruise was fantastic but throughout most of the cruise we couldn't use our balcony in cabin 6558 because of an awful smell of diesel!!!

We reported this to guest services on day one but they shrugged it off.. 4 days later I reported it formally and the deck manager / chief engineer tired to tell us that this was a normal operating smell!! Rubbish, as 2 days later the smell had completely gone.... There was obviously something wrong but they didn't admit it an as a result we paid for an outside cabin which we couldn't use for the majority of our holiday!!!

Not impressed!!

Has anyone else experienced this???

It could have been related to which way the wind was blowing. On the earlier days it might have been blowing the exhaust down onto your balcony which might explain why it stopped. Did you ask to be moved?

It was nothing to do with the exhaust fumes/wind direction. It was present when in port standing still.

There are several issues that can cause this, and some may be ones they could not do anything about immediately (for example, they may run different generation sources at different times and ports)

That doesn't excuse their lack of proper response/explanation however.

Looking at the deck plans.... that was a mid-ship cabin, just outside the mid-ship elevators.

Did neighboring cabins have a concern? I know some of us are "noise-blind" to certain odours.

Also could you smell it on deck 4 or top deck when coming out the mid-ship elevators?

It was nothing to do with the exhaust fumes/wind direction. It was present when in port standing still.

Just out of curiosity, what other cruises have you taken to compare this experience to?

When in port, where does the electricity to run the ship come from? (Vancouver, LA ports aside when cold ironing aside)

Where do you think the smell of diesel was coming from?

Floor drains, general smog?

Not defending DCL's handling of this situation, but maybe your post title should be Smell ruined your Balcony, not cruise as you have said it was a great cruise trip?

ex techie

In port the smells are almost always the worst for Diesel & Sewer. This is normal!!

This is not adding up. Especially no one else is noting the odor.

The only thing I can think of is if your cabin is anywhere near a engine room or diesel oil vent and they were working on something in the engine room with diesel or a like odor. The odors spread from the vent and blew down(or up) to your balcony. The same thing could happen at sea or in port depending o the wind direction and force.

It is not unheard of to have engine room odors around any ship.

Cheng75...if you see this, any ideas?

AKK

We were on the Magic the week of March 15th and I will say that I noticed the diesel smell while on the upper decks. I figured it was apart of normal operations and didn't think much of it. After all, I was on a diesel driven cruise ship, there is bound to be various smells at different points.

We were on the Magic the week of March 15th and I will say that I noticed the diesel smell while on the upper decks. I figured it was apart of normal operations and didn't think much of it. After all, I was on a diesel driven cruise ship, there is bound to be various smells at different points.

Up on the open top decks especially Aft whilst underway depending on the wind you can get some blowdown from the smoke stacks and that is completely normal.

In port that could be in any way the wind is blowing, but they generally only need to run one engine gen set on the Magic Class instead of four as they need no propulsion and the galleys are not running at full capacity with all of the equipment. They may start another engine if another high consumption department needs additional power (like if the theater needs to check all of their lighting rig or have a show rehearsal for a new cast, or if it is extremely hot and humid and they need to have the AC running really high).

When a ships engine starts, they tend to blow a hell of a lot of sooty nasty smoke at first before they get up to full running temperature.

ex techie

This is not adding up. Especially no one else is noting the odor.

 

The only thing I can think of is if your cabin is anywhere near a engine room or diesel oil vent and they were working on something in the engine room with diesel or a like odor. The odors spread from the vent and blew down(or up) to your balcony. The same thing could happen at sea or in port depending o the wind direction and force.

 

It is not unheard of to have engine room odors around any ship.

 

Cheng75...if you see this' date=' any ideas?

 

AKK[/quote']

 

I agree Skipper.

The massive air intake funnels on deck 10 (Magic Class) can and do occasionally suck in polluted air, and I imagine they do on any ship!

 

ex techie

This is not adding up. Especially no one else is noting the odor.

 

The only thing I can think of is if your cabin is anywhere near a engine room or diesel oil vent and they were working on something in the engine room with diesel or a like odor. The odors spread from the vent and blew down(or up) to your balcony. The same thing could happen at sea or in port depending o the wind direction and force.

 

It is not unheard of to have engine room odors around any ship.

 

Cheng75...if you see this' date=' any ideas?

 

AKK[/quote']

 

Hey, Skipper. Yeah, I saw this, and really wasn't going to touch it unless the OP came back with more details. My big question is whether it was exhaust or fuel smell. Another question I have is what port were they in, and whether the ship was on diesel or heavy fuel. Heavy fuel, when hot, has a distinctive aroma (I can smell a leak from the engine room door), but most of the tank vents are run up the funnel for this reason. They may have had an engine open for maintenance, and the fuel smell was coming from an engine room exhaust vent, like you said. The smell would normally come and go, and definitely depend on wind speed and direction. Most of the ventilation as well is ducted high up in the ship, close to the funnel, for this reason, and we used to get the most complaints from the aft cabins.

All, many thanks for your replies.

This was not a normal operating smell. It was a distint smell of unburnt diesel. My parents who have been on many criuises, and were 4 cabins along from us have never experienced anything like this. In addition, apparently there were other complaints. When guest services finally listened they checked the aircon, deep cleaned the room and gave us an air purifier which worked fine until the outside door was opened. There was no smell directly underneath us on the prominard deck nor on the upper decks. The smell was there for 4 days and disappeared 2 days after reporting it (when we reached castaway cay). It was there in key west, grand Cayman and whilst at sea - day and night. We wondered if it was coming from one of the lifeboats directly beneath us???

Who knows, I guess we will never get to the bottom of it!!

Plus, my wife worked in guest services on the magic for 18 months 8 years ago and she said during her time she never had any complaints like ours!

All, many thanks for your replies.

 

This was not a normal operating smell. It was a distint smell of unburnt diesel. My parents who have been on many criuises, and were 4 cabins along from us have never experienced anything like this. In addition, apparently there were other complaints. When guest services finally listened they checked the aircon, deep cleaned the room and gave us an air purifier which worked fine until the outside door was opened. There was no smell directly underneath us on the prominard deck nor on the upper decks. The smell was there for 4 days and disappeared 2 days after reporting it (when we reached castaway cay). It was there in key west, grand Cayman and whilst at sea - day and night. We wondered if it was coming from one of the lifeboats directly beneath us???

 

Who knows, I guess we will never get to the bottom of it!!

Very odd!

Especially since when underway the smell would be drawn along the ship not upwards.

Bizarre that they would check your air conditioning when the smell was only apparent outside of the Stateroom on the balcony.

I think you are right that maybe we will never know the cause!

ex techie

lifeboats????.....................Now I wonder if the Diesel fuel tank on one of the lifeboats was leaking, either the tank or a fitting on the fuel line or on the engine!

That would be rare, but not impossible, not to mention likely a easy fix and clean up.

AKK

lifeboats????.....................Now I wonder if the Diesel fuel tank on one of the lifeboats was leaking' date=' either the tank or a fitting on the fuel line or on the engine!

 

That would be rare, but not impossible, not to mention likely a easy fix and clean up.

 

 

AKK[/quote']

 

Skipper, are you messing with us?!

 

The smell of an open or leaking fuel tank on a lifeboat wouldn't be worse than an open jerry can of diesel ;)

 

And neither explain the smell whilst docked AND underway surely?

I think even an experienced sniffer or wine taster would have trouble smelling that whilst the ship is underway!

 

ex techie

To add, I would hope that during the re-imagining they did a complete overhaul under the careful watch of Schat Harding of the lifeboats and upgraded them to more current standards if they weren't already?

A diesel leak in a lifeboat would be disastrous once launched and the engine running hot, even if it started at all!

Thats a scary situation that even you would think that was possible to me!

ex techie

Lifeboats are required to be inspected weekly by both a deck and engine officer, and the equipment inventoried monthly by a deck officer. Any fuel leak would be noticed and rectified at this time. And while the odor might be noticeable in port, in calm airs, at sea I doubt it would be noticeable. Many of the lifeboats on passenger vessels have flexible ducting to the A/C system so the boat does not overheat while stowed, since they are kept closed up. This would also tend to create an airflow that would dissipate any fuel odor.

Just a thought...the whole thing seems odd to begin with!

AKK

Skipper, are you messing with us?!

 

The smell of an open or leaking fuel tank on a lifeboat wouldn't be worse than an open jerry can of diesel ;)

 

And neither explain the smell whilst docked AND underway surely?

I think even an experienced sniffer or wine taster would have trouble smelling that whilst the ship is underway!

 

ex techie

It would depend on the direction of the wind, but in general I agree with you.

PS--I am a Sommelier and Wine Educator. ;)

Only the guys on the ship know what it was..

It's strange that once they listened to us and trying to tell us that it was normal 1 or 2 days later the smell had completely disappeared (after it been there for 5 days, 24 hrs a day).

Some may call it a coincidence... I'm not so sure....

I contemplated writing to Disney to complain but decided that it's not really worth the hassle...

Only the guys on the ship know what it was..

 

It's strange that once they listened to us and trying to tell us that it was normal 1 or 2 days later the smell had completely disappeared (after it been there for 5 days, 24 hrs a day).

 

Some may call it a coincidence... I'm not so sure....

 

I contemplated writing to Disney to complain but decided that it's not really worth the hassle...

Ding, ding, ding. We have a winner. Most likely, based on all this info now, the ship is still using residual fuel which needs heating in the storage tanks to pump it. This fuel, depending on the light hydrocarbons in the fuel, can give off a significant aroma even when heated to only 35*C. The smell was probably present while the tank was in use, and after 5 days, the fuel in the tank was exhausted, and a different tank was heated. Just surprising that a tank vent would reliably be smelling in a cabin below. It could be that the OP is hypersensitive to hydrocarbon vapors. Do you really notice gas stations?

The really weird thing about this is that the smell wasn't on deck 4 or the upper decks (presumably the OP went in the Aft section?)

The only thing I can think of for a smell of that prolonged amount of time would be if they were painting the surrounding balcony's or the davits below, but personally I wouldn't associate the paint smell with unburnt diesel.

ex techie

The really weird thing about this is that the smell wasn't on deck 4 or the upper decks (presumably the OP went in the Aft section?)

 

The only thing I can think of for a smell of that prolonged amount of time would be if they were painting the surrounding balcony's or the davits below, but personally I wouldn't associate the paint smell with unburnt diesel.

 

ex techie

Very much still anomalous. But also a "normal operating" smell.