Live from Diamond Princess: Great, Good and Smelly

[avalon1025]

Day 4 on the Diamond Princess from Auckland to Sydney. Some quick notes:

 

Great: The ship is verynice, for some reasons I like this ship much better than the other grand class ships. The ship is still quite new feeling. The crew has been very professional and friendly

 

Good: the Food has been better than I expected. We have had issues with Princess food in the past, but no probelms on this cruise. Nothing amazing, but everything is consistently good.

 

The Smelly: We are in cabin D739, a Suite on the aft end of the ship. From the moment we boarded the cabin smelled like rotten garbage/sewage, concentrated out on the verahdah. After several inquiries at the pursars desk, we were told there is a design defect on the ship and on aft Dolphin deck is where there is an exhaust of some sort creating this smell. Its getting worse as the cruise progresses (I assume as garbage piles up). The ship is full so we can not move to anything close to our current cabin (cate wise), so the verandah is completely useless (which is sad as we are part of a group and thought of using the verandah for get togethers etc especially in Milford Sound). I applaud the personel on the ship for owning up to the issue and they are contacting the LA office to see what they should do. Its really a shame, its a lovely cabin. Though if I think of how much we paid for it, I will become angry...

 

It stinks so much, it wakes you up inthe AM as the ship pulls into port and the winds shift or the ship is not moving...nasty!

 

Otherwise we are having a great time. The Diamond is a lovely ship.

[cactusrose]

So sorry to hear about you oder problem. If it's the same smell that I've experienced on other ships, I know that smell and it's terrible. Is yours the only cabin that is effected or is it all the stern cabins on Dolphin? You're being a very good sport about it.

[avalon1025]

Looks like its the cabins aft on Dolphin deck (if you look at the back of the ship there are some vents in the middle, my guess, its comming from there). Will let you all know what the Santa Clarita office says when the passenger relations person calls us back.

[CKforensic]

Hi Avalon. Thank you for the info. I'm sorry to hear about the smell...my wife and I were on the Star in December and there was a strong sewage smell on that ship as well, but fortunately it wasn't on our balcony. How has the weather been so far in New Zealand? We will be embarking on the Diamond when you arrive in Sydney next week and I was wondering if you have any info about purchasing alcohol from room service (ie. Smirnoff vodka). I read some threads a while back about people purchasing bottles of alcohol from the ship, but nothing recently...especially with the Diamond. Any info that you can provide would be greatly appreciated.

 

Have a wonderful cruise and thanks again for the report!!

 

Cheers,

Chet

[GottoCruise]

Thanks for the 'alert' - Appreciate it very much.

 

I've copied/posted it to the thread for our April 14 sailing to be forewarned!...

 

So sorry..........Smells are not a pleasant addition to your cruise.

 

Hope the rest of your journey is enjoyable!

 

GotToCruise

[jckvpa0]

Wow what a great attitude you have!

 

I would be interested to know if this has been an on going problem & if so I do not think they should be selling it until the problem is fixed!

[SPI_Rick]

Avalon, thanks for the information. For those of us who will be boarding next week (and who don't have aft cabins) it sounds like we'll really like the ship.

[bjkTX]

it seems since several folks on our 25 Feb cruise on the Grand reported the same smelly situation.

[xavier]

Avalon:

WE are booked in the same suite that you are infor the Mexican Riviera Cruise on the Diamond in NOvember. Do you think all the VS aft suites have the smelly problem or just the 2 on the Dolphin deck? Thanks so much any information would be much appreciated.

[Marmarjudy]

My aunt is on this same cruise. When I read this posting I emailed her with my concern because she has an aft Dolphin balcony cabin. She said she has no odor problem...

[Kiwi Kruzer]

Hi Avalon,

I have been following the ships bridge cam and it looked a bit rough this morning.Did you make it into the Fjords?