Navigator...not so luxurious....we are not happy cruisers at the moment

To those cruising on the Navigator soon....we are in suite 724 and the brownish water in our cabin for 4 straight days makes us think we are on the cruise from he**. The staff is completely unhelpful and while they are "looking into it", we feel totally helpless. Kind of hard to do basic things with brown water. Okay enough ranting....just an FYI, we have cruised on Regent over a dozen times....we are not novices. This may be our last.

Nice to see you post again but sad to see that it is under these circumstances. The water thing on Navigator has been so off and on for some time. We stopped brushing our teeth from the sink water on Navigator many years ago.

Have you spoken with the GM?

CruiserPK - Any ideas as to whether this is a "widespred problem" throughout the ship (or in other staterooms and public areas) or limited to just your stateroom (and perhaps one or two others in the immediate vicinity to yours?). I think you've been FAR MORE PATIENT that I would be. Going on for 4 days now?! Really!?

I think I'd be "okay" if the bar ran out of Glenlivet and I had to switch to Glenfidich or McCallan. But 4 days of brown water in my stateroom? No way! After just one day (or a few hours), I'd be ramping this issue (politely at first, but more directly by the second day) up to the General Manager - at a minimum - for "immediate resolution". I would not be accepting "complete unhelpfulness from the staff" for a single moment! And I'd be seeking an immediate upgrade, or at least a transfer to another cabin (assuming the ship was not completely sold out - which I doubt) that was not experiencing "brown water".

Once the cruise is over - without resolution or making a compensatory offer/resolution to you, I can assure you that the staff/Regent will be approaching this as a "problem that just simply never happened". You would never receive a compensation (in some form or another) once you leave the ship.

Nw, I'm not one of these people who are "sue happy" or inclined to make a "big deal" out of a small incident - if quick resolution by management is accomplished. But this is completely unsatisfactory and I would think that brown water in stateroom does not meet Regent's self-proclaimed standards of "elegance" and "luxury" cruising.

After 4 days of putting up with this, you have given them far more than enough time to resolve this situation to your satisfaction - not their's - one way or another. Fixing the problem quickly (not 4 days later) or moving you immediately to another stateroom would be the "solution" as far as I'm concerned.

Is this brown water just coming out of the sink, or is it also occuring in the toilet bowel after a flush and/or in the shower, as well? Is just the cold water, or both cold and hot water affected? We had no problem when we were on Navigator (just one time) with any brown water.

At the very least (if I were to sail on Regent again, after experiencing what you have), I'd be asking for a complimentary upgrade (not an "upsell") on a future cruise - if there was to be one. And I'm not sure I'd be booking on Navigator again if this is an endemic/recurring problem. Best Regards.

CruiserPK - I forgot to ask you in my last post to please keep us all informed as to Regent's handling/resolution (or NOT!) of this problem. Did you bring it to their attention - anyone's attention - 4 days ago when you first noticed the brown water coming out of the faucet?

If Regent had handled your first complaint about the situation in a very proactive, concerned, and immediate way, I doubt that you would have ever felt compelled to even bring this up in a public forum such as CC. But now, after 4 days of their treating it as a "non-issue", or certainly not as a compelling one - thousands of us are reading about it on CC.

I'm sure Regent would have preferred that this (your taking the issue public) hadn't have happened. In saying that I'm by no means blaming you. I'm faulting the way the issue, and your complaint, was not correctly and immediately handled to your satisfaction by Regent.

The very fact that you even think that the staff has been "completely unhelpful" (I would say that assessment was correct after 4 days of non-resolution) pretty much means, by definition, that the staff HAS been completely unhelpful! In customer service matters, the customer's perception IS the cruise line's reality. And even if you simply mentioned the problem to your room attendant - 4 days ago (!) - that should have evoked the same concerned immediate response (and correction) from the staff, as if you had gone directly to the GM in the first place.

I'll bet that if you had lit up a cigarette in your stateroom 4 days ago - you most certainly would have gotten the immediate attention of "top management" within about 1 hours of the occurrence! So we obviously know from this that an issue (like brown water coming out of a faucet) is only "important" if management "thinks it's important"!

Again, please let us know if/when things are resolved to your satisfaction. By the way, I "rode" a 25-year old WWII-era cruiser in 1968 - 1970, a 50-year old aircraft carrier in 1980, and a nuclear Sub on a 3-month continuous underwater deployment in 1985, and I NEVER/EVER saw brown water coming out of a faucet the entire time I was on any of those ships - and we were having to "make our own fresh water" on a daily basis from seawater on all 3 ships! :o

I experienced brown water in the laundrette on deck 11 while we were on the Navigator. If you ran the tap for 20 seconds it went away. Luckily we never experienced this issue in our suite. I can't imagine 4 days of brown water. I'd be demanding a move or immediate fix and would not leave the GMs office until a resolution was found. In the meantime, good luck. I know it is hard to enjoy your cruise with such a significant issue.

Is the water just brown colored, or is it nasty contaminated water? Big difference. We used to live in a town, where periodically, depending on the weather, the water from our tap would turn brown In color. It was nasty looking, but perfectly safe to drink and cook with. It was a problem washing laundry. If just brown in color, I would not worry about if. Now if contaminated, that is totally unacceptable. And you should ask to be moved, unless the problem is ship wide.

The water has been brown on Navigator off and on for years. This is not new.

Hi Paula, nice to see you posting on the Regent board (and cruising Regent) again. Sorry to hear about your Navigator concerns presently, hoping they get fixed soonest. Pls keep us posted.

RachelG - The OP probably didn't happen to bring along his water-testing kit on the trip with him so he doesn't have the ability to test the water in his own stateroom. Having owned a mountaintop cabin in rural ("very rural") West Virginia for 30 years, I know all about Iron (rust) that is almost always present in mountain well water. We don't really know if "Iron" is the cause of this particular problem and the OP isn't getting any information or reassurance from the ship staff.

If untreated (there's the key), generically high-iron content water (if that's the actual problem) can stain laundry, make the water cloudy (and even brown or red), and can stain all porcelain toilet bowls and other sink fixtures. If not corrected, this discolored water will be coming out of EVERY tap and fixture, both hot and cold, in the structure that is being supplied by that water. It won't just appear in one faucet (in one stateroom) and not in another stateroom supplied by the same water source.

And why would high-iron content water happen to be in the holding tanks of a cruise ship in the first place? I suspect there is another problem at work here. Particularly given the sporadic and widely dispersed nature of the occurrence onboard this ship.

Is it "harmful" to drink (if it really is high iron content), from a health standpoint?. Usually, No! But it's still disgusting and not something that paying passenger (or crewmembers) should have to tolerate. It's a condition you don't want to have on a "normal basis" in your house, or any restaurant, and certainly not on a "luxury" cruise ship.....not even on an "ordinary" cruise ship. I would never go back to a restaurant where they brought me a cloudy (or "brown") glass of water to my dining table. Would you? I suspect the problem that the OP is experiencing is not caused by Iron in water that "just happens" to be piped into Stateroom 724 or to a particular laundry room on Deck 11. Is Regent's new marketing slogan - "Some of our ship drinking water is brown, but you'll still love the cruise."

The condition (of high Iron content) is permanently and easily correctible with the installation of proper filters and water softener equipment in the plumbing lines right after the water source. A filter is not going to correct a problem of eroding/rusting supply pipes throughout a water deliver system - if that's what's causing this. Of course, in the case that the OP has experienced on Navigator, we're of course not talking about a cabin sitting on a mountaintop in WV, either.

We're talking about a cruise ship which ostensibly gets it's water from "inspected sources" and stores it all together in huge inspected and well-maintained storage tanks and all supplied to every area on the ship through clean and thoroughly inspected distribution systems. Everyone is drawing from the same central water source on the ship and therefore, the water should all "look the same" - no matter which deck or stateroom - unless there are rusty supply pipes or other defective components within the overall ship's fresh water supply system. If the central water supply was compromised (like in your town's example), ALL the water would on the ship would be cloudy/brown, and not just "some" water.

I wonder how many passengers onboard ANY cruise ship, let alone Regent, could simply and reasonably be asked to "not worry" about brown water that was coming out of the water tap in their stateroom's bathroom. Particularly if it was in "their" stateroom and not everyone else's, as well? What if you were served a glass of "brown water" at a local restaurant and were just told by the waiter "don't worry about it - go ahead and drink it - there's nothing wrong with it"; and you saw glasses of water being brought to other tables that was perfectly clear?

Regards.

RachelG and tallship are correct. The water is probably not contaminated... just a bit brown. Drink bottled water and you'll be fine. This is not something that a general manager can fix (or anyone else on board). There are reasons that this happens that was explained to us years ago ..... but still, it is upsetting.

Try to enjoy everything else on the ship.:o

Hi Paula, nice to see you posting on the Regent board (and cruising Regent) again. Sorry to hear about your Navigator concerns presently, hoping they get fixed soonest. Pls keep us posted.

Who is Paula?

If it is the Paula I'm thinking of (used to post on the Regent board) I don't see her on this thread:confused:

my bad, was thinking of PaulaJK vs CruiserPK.

Still hope Pam's Navigator issues get resolved soonest.

Well, we are potential Regent clients, and this thread is not a "glowing" customer service report. The brown water issue is current and the reason "why?" has not been reported back by the OP. Also what remedies where offerred.

I have a STRICT RULE to NEVER drink or use brown, grey, yellow or any hue of water EVER!!!! I will NEVER drink any suspect water even if anyone tells me it's "SAFE!"

Fortunately there is plenty of bottled water on every Regent ship I've been on. And there are myriad alternatives at every restaurant and bar on the ships.

Dirty showers is another problem.

My understanding is that it takes some time to "flush" the system. Four days is bad though but we have seen it last for the whole cruise.

It is my understanding that, if the ship's electricity is turned on and off for any reason, it stirs up the silt (or rust or ???) at the bottom of the tanks resulting in brown water. I'm curioius if this is happening ship wide or only on some decks. The Navigator tanks (may be called something else) were replaced a two dry docks ago. I wonder why ships have to use tanks that can rust (could be like Ford that uses heater coils that rust while Toyota uses plastic ones that never rust?) BTW, the same thing can (and has) happened on the other ships. The poor little Navigator just seems a bit more sensitive to it than it's big sisters.

Really sorry that this is causing distress on your cruise.

It is my understanding that, if the ship's electricity is turned on and off for any reason, it stirs up the silt (or rust or ???) at the bottom of the tanks resulting in brown water. I'm curioius if this is happening ship wide or only on some decks. The Navigator tanks (may be called something else) were replaced a two dry docks ago. I wonder why ships have to use tanks that can rust (could be like Ford that uses heater coils that rust while Toyota uses plastic ones that never rust?) BTW, the same thing can (and has) happened on the other ships. The poor little Navigator just seems a bit more sensitive to it than it's big sisters.

 

Really sorry that this is causing distress on your cruise.

Agree with TC...we have experienced once or twice on Mariner as well but always worse on Navigator

Agree with TC...we have experienced once or twice on Mariner as well but always worse on Navigator

My DH just said that we had brown water on the Voyager. He noticed it when he filled the bathtub. He said it is the "boilers" and they are made out of cast iron. "Nothing that you can do about it. Boilers rust. If you keep the water flowing then you don't even see the rust". He just added that you could drink the water and it would be fine -- you'd drink iron (and, "most people could use it"):o

Edited to add that the problem could be solved if recirculating pumps were put in but they are not about to do that because it is a huge job ("enormous"). They would literally have to re-plumb the whole ship.

He thinks that it is a good idea for the Explorer since it is being built from the ground up. OR, you could put in stainless steel boilers at a very high cost.

Twice in the 40 years we've lived in our house, I've noticed my bath water gradually turning brown. The first time I ignored it and several months later we found a flood in our lower level caused by the rupture of our water heater. The second time I noticed the bath water turning brown, we proactively had a new water heater installed. :-)

It may be nothing more than rust as TC suggests, but I still probably wouldn't drink the tap water and I'd insist that Regent explain what the problem is.

Amazing that people who are not Engineers familiar with what is causing the water to be brown, don't know if it is unique to one suite, a few, or the entire ship, and are not familiar with the inner construction of the ship know what the problem is and are even making suggestions for the build of the new ship based on theory without facts and lack of knowledge of what the new build entails or includes.

Would be better to avoid these unfounded suggestions which won't help anyone and possibly annoy people currently on board until the OP reports back with what they find out from the ships responsible parties.

The responsible parties on board are the only ones who are able to determine the cause and the fix and not unqualified people thousands of miles away from the ship. While many of these people making suggestions have previously endured similar situations and received information from responsible people on the ship, there is no way to tell if thie circumstances are the same, similar or completely different.

Let the experts on board solve this unacceptable issue.

Wow - what an unkind post. Why would you say those things? My DH is an engineer but even so, do you know for sure what is causing this? We have actually spoken to people (engineers) onboard the Navigator regarding this issue so I would assume that we know at least a tiny bit more than some people.

One would assume that the problem would have been fixed by "experts" by now if the fix were that easy. This goes back years. As my DH indicated, it could (could is not a definitive word) require replumbing the entire ship to fix the problem. This could be correct whether we are on the Navigator or several thousand miles away (not sure what difference that makes).

Mr. rallydave, kindly allow posters who may or may not have helpful information (or not) post without belittling them as if they were naughty children.

pingpong1: The Navigator would have had to be inspected numerous times since this issue began (to say nothing of the same issue being on other ships). She would not sail if it were not safe to do so.

I truly understand your concerns but wonder if this is not alarming current and future cruisers more than necessary? I am not sticking up for Regent here - and certainly acknowledge that this is a problem.

In the meantime, I'm looking forward to hearing more from those on the ship.

It would seem that if specific cabins were having recurring unfixable problems then they should have been taken out of service until a remedy was found. I would find it a hassle to fuss with bottled water in the bathroom or hike elsewhere to take a shower. Is this problem unique to this cruise in terms of the water not clearing after letting it run for awhile? It will be interesting to hear what the Hotel Manager suggests.

it should not be brown.

Wow - what an unkind post. Why would you say those things? My DH is an engineer but even so, do you know for sure what is causing this? We have actually spoken to people (engineers) onboard the Navigator regarding this issue so I would assume that we know at least a tiny bit more than some people.

 

One would assume that the problem would have been fixed by "experts" by now if the fix were that easy. This goes back years. As my DH indicated, it could (could not be a definitive word) require replumbing the entire ship to fix the problem. This could be correct whether we are on the Navigator or several thousand miles away (not sure what difference that makes).

 

Mr. rallydave, kindly allow posters who may or may not have helpful information (or not) post without belittling them as if they were naughty children.

 

If telling the truth is unkind, that guilty as charged but, in reality there was nothing in my post that was unkind. No I don't know what is wrong that is causing the brown water and obviously experts have unsuccessfully tried to fix the problem without success. Yes, your DH is an Aerospace Engineer and am sure has a little knowledge in this area however without getting into the bowels of the ship, highly doubt anyone could come up with a solution; in fact Regent, am sure have had experts in the various systems on the ship that could cause this situation and have not yet come up with a solution. You may have talked to ships Engineers years ago when you last sailed Navigator and since the problems haven't yet been fixed, it is likely that there are more issues now than back then and, what was thought back then is obviously not the problem

Re-plumbing the entire ship might very well solve the problems however there is no way Regent would take the ship out of service for the time this task would entail nor would they spend the many millions of dollars at this stage in Navigators' life.

I was in no way belittling any posters and simply informing others that the solutions being suggested where simply second guessing the experts that have tried unsuccessfully for several years to fix the ongoing water problems and that ideas and conjecture posted on this board are not going to get the problems fixed and that unless and until we learn what the problems and solutions from experts on the ship it is simply wishful thinking.

What is unacceptable is the lack of communications that the OP described. From all reports, it is obvious that there is not a simple or quick solution and failing to be honest and communicate with the passengers with the unacceptable water quality is completely unacceptable.

And, thought you had me blocked and were not reading any of my posts?? I have every right to my opinions as you do. What is unacceptable for any poster is to post as fact items which the poster is simply stating as opinion when it is impossible for the poster to know the factual answer. That is the case on this thread as well as several others.