smells??

[AliceSprings]

A river cruise brochure:

 

"While we take reasonable steps to minimize noise, vibration and odour may be experienced"  so has anyone experienced this?  and what smells would it be?

 

 

[Peregrina651]

Smells are all around us -- exhaust fumes, detergents, shampoos and other cleaning products, other people's perfumes, etc. etc. etc.

 

Honestly, the caveat reads like they are warning people that no river boat is free of noise, vibration or odors, so be prepared. These are the things that people seem to complain about most and the cruise line is saying that they are inescapable. Maybe they are hoping that a bit of advanced warning will reduce the complaints.

[G.M.T.]

Yes, even local residents living near the docking areas get the full range of stinking and smelly diesel fumes, when the ships runs it's diesel motors all night for the "comfort" of the passengers - what about the local inhabitants.

[Hoyaheel]

On Avalon a couple years ago, we were mid-ship on the middle level. Once we smelled fuel, and once or twice (depending on wind) we smelled smoke from the rear outdoor smoking area. A cc-er who was also on our cruise was a few cabins closer to the rear and she smelled smoke more often, if I recall.

[Roz]

Just like your home,  a ship has vents,  including sewer vents.  Odors may periodically escape.  

[mapsd]

On any mobile septic system, "swamp"/exhaust gases can travel the wrong direction.

Highly recommend to stop your bathroom sink, and leave a 1/2" of water in the sink at all times.

Will help immensely with smells in your cabin.

[coevan]

14 hours ago, G.M.T. said:

Yes, even local residents living near the docking areas get the full range of stinking and smelly diesel fumes, when the ships runs it's diesel motors all night for the "comfort" of the passengers - what about the local inhabitants.

 

 

They probably do not run their engines at night. They would use generators which emit less stink stuff as they run at low RPM's

[WisRiver]

As you go through the locks, if you have a balcony with sliding glass doors, you can get a fishy, old water smell.  We learned to close the balcony doors, unless we wanted to reach out a touch the lock walls.  In a 21 day river cruise from Bucharest to Amsterdam, the locks were the only place I remember unpleasant smells.  

[chengkp75]

On 2/15/2020 at 7:55 PM, coevan said:

 

 

They probably do not run their engines at night. They would use generators which emit less stink stuff as they run at low RPM's

Many of the river boats use diesel electric propulsion, and those that do use direct diesel propulsion, the propulsion diesels will run at lower rpm's than the generators.  However, the generators for hotel load are smaller, so they will emit less exhaust.

[pete_coach]

Smells?

Yes, there will be smells. You are so much closer to the water and going so much slower that there can be odors coming from the water.

Also, being rivers and docking will often be in the industrial parts of cities. There will be odors there too.

We docked in Cologne, down some canal in a busy industrial area and it did smell and it was noisy. We did not sit on the upper deck after dinner for very long.

[coevan]

2 hours ago, chengkp75 said:

Many of the river boats use diesel electric propulsion, and those that do use direct diesel propulsion, the propulsion diesels will run at lower rpm's than the generators.  However, the generators for hotel load are smaller, so they will emit less exhaust.

 

 thanks Chief, nice to see you over here on a more civil board 😁

[orchidj5]

Not smells but noise-we had an "aquarium level" room for our Rhine Christmas cruise in 2018.   It was the first week that traffic was flowing after the river being mostly closed for 12 weeks of drought.  We experienced a significant amount of noise from oncoming river traffic. Didn't damage our experience but the next cruise is booked in a room a level up.

[dogs4fun]

We have not noticed any unpleasant smells on any of our river cruises.

[pontac]

1 hour ago, dogs4fun said:

We have not noticed any unpleasant smells on any of our river cruises.

 

And we have never even thought about leaving water in our sink 🙂

[Daisi]

The only time we noticed any smells on our cruise was when a boat was rafting - as it was coming in or taking off, you could smell it's engines.  We were on the mid level, about 4 cabins from the rear of the boat, so sometimes would be in direct line of the engines.  

 

Never heard any noise from the engines either, and we are both very light sleepers.

[CruisingAlong4Now]

Whenever we rafted, we could smell the other boat.  Their exhaust was exactly in line with our balcony. Even closed the fumes come in.

[Hoyaheel]

On 2/19/2020 at 10:31 AM, WisRiver said:

As you go through the locks, 

 

Also, locks can be noisy, since this post was about smells and noise. You're often sailing at night so if you're not a heavy sleeper, maybe bring earplugs or a white noise machine/app.....