Emerald Princess Cigarette Smoke/Ventilation Issue

Hi all,

Just putting this out there as an FYI/ warning to really push for resolution of any issues you encounter. I apologies for the length.

My wife (who is pregnant) and I just got off the June 18th Emerald Alaska sailing. We've cruised several times together and separately, but usually cruise with Princess, as it's been our favorite. I usually book balcony rooms, but, have found people do often smoke on their balconies. I know, I know, smoking policy says no, but we always seem to be near at least one cabin renegade who does it anyway. So in an absolute abundance of caution, I booked an oceanview for this cruise, to ensure we are as far away as possible from cigarette smoke, because of the pregnancy.

Well, day 1 - suddenly there's strong cigarette smoke odor in our room out of the blue. Last for a few minutes, like someone is smoking a cigarette. It took a while to even wrap our heads around if it was really happening, since we were in an oceanview away from all smoking areas. But we call passenger services, and by the time they send the deck supervisor in, he says he doesn't smell it, and tells me all the reasons why our room shouldn't/wouldn't smell like smoke, but to call back ASAP if it happens again. So we say ok, chalk it up to a weird one-time thing and move on. Next day, exact same thing, so we call ASAP. Again, by the time he gets there, the smoke smell is gone, so we go through the whole thing again, where he essentially is saying he doesn't smell it, so it's probably really not there. Multiple times a day this is happening (we eventually stopped calling, because it was clearly futile), but before all was said and done, I had spoken to two deck supervisors (each twice), passenger services (agent and supervisor), and security, pretty desperate for someone to at least look into what could possibly be happening, or just talk to our neighbors and remind them of the policy, all to no avail. I should also mention our next door neighbors totally independent of us also complained about the smell of smoke in their room. So fast forward to the last day of the cruise, we walk into our room and there's the cigarette smoke again, but this time, the deck supervisor happens to be around the corner. We bring him and in and he finally agrees that, yes, despite all the reasons why there shouldn't be cigarette smoke in our room, there, in fact, is.

The worst part to me about all of this, despite the fact that my poor pregnant wife was around way more cigarette smoke than ever should have happened, is that about three hours after the supervisor smelled it, they found the source of the smoke (there was a break in the ventilation that was letting the smoke in through the AC vents), which tells me that despite the fact that for a whole week I pleaded with them to look into what was happening and that they assured me they were, they really didn't do anything at all until they saw it for themselves. I find that so, so disappointing considering it's a health and safety issue, involves a pregnant passenger, and that two different cabins verified the same complaint.

I know this is long, but I say all this because I am so absolutely horrified by how this was handled that I wanted to put it out there just in case you have similar issues on this ship or others, and to forewarn you not to take "we're looking into it" at face value.