Meraviglia cabin odors

[davy jones]

A number of Meraviglia reviews mention a "sewer" odor in the cabins.  Is this widespread and constant?  If it is, then the ship's sanitary system is inadequate.

 

I am wondering how much this happens.  Reports of all experiences are welcome.

[shipgeeks]

I've read this complaint from time to time on lots of cruise lines. Best advice is easy, and DIY: Find the little hole in the bathroom floor (not the shower drain), and pour a glass or two of water into it.  If that drain has become dry, it can develop an odor.  This usually freshens everything.

I'm sure many people don't know this, and just report/complain.

[RosieRoo]

Our bathroom in our YC cabin had a sewer smell the first day. I noticed the room steward covered all the bathroom floor vents with towels after the first day and the odor wasn’t noticeable anymore. 

[dexddd]

We've done Mera three times fourth coming up.  No smells.

 

That being said, things can vary widely ship to ship day to day.  Example, NCL Sun aft area widely debated for over 15 years. 

[jame_g]

Our YC bathroom was okay when we boarded the Mera back in March, but was unbreathable before we left port. We had to say something to the cabin steward. They called maintenance to fix it and actually said there was something wrong that they had to correct. After that I think we had a mild odor a couple times during the cruise, but nothing near as bad as that first evening.

[mackfam]

We also had a sewer odor in our YC inside cabin on Mera in June. We didn’t notice it until about day 3 then brought it to the attention of our butler. He had maintenance check but couldn’t find the source- it did not appear to be from within the bathroom, more from the vents. After two days of asking if they had a solution, the concierge gave us some story about the filter in the vent needed to be changed but they couldn’t do it until after our cruise ended. The YC was full so they couldn’t move us to another cabin. It was an annoyance, but we really didn’t spend any appreciable time in our cabin other to sleep, so we let it go, especially as our poor butler was quite upset by the situation and was crawling around on his hands and knees trying to locate where the smell was coming from.

When we checked our account on the last day they had given us $100 OBC for the inconvenience. I didn’t realize that this was an ongoing problem on the Mera. I’m hoping it’s not repeated on our cruise on her this November.

[Two Wheels Only]

I had no problem at all with odor when I was on Meraviglia.

 

Chengkp75 knows all about this stuff (and many other things) so I'll just quote him.....

 

"The most common cause of sewer smells in cabins is the bathroom floor drain (not the shower), that typically hides under the toilet, or is a trough drain at the door. These drains see little water into them, so the dry air from the AC tends to dry out the water in the trap, and odors back up. A glass of water down these drains will normally do more than pouring it down the sink or shower."

 

 

There was an issue a few years ago when Seaside first went into service. There was an incorrectly installed pipe that was causing a sewage smell problem throughout various parts of the ship. It took a few months but it was fixed before I sailed Seaside in 2018.

 

The more likely scenario as far as what people sometimes smell in the stateroom is probably what Chengkp75 described.

 

 

 

 

[Illbcruzn4life]

on Mera deck 9 in June we had the smell in every cabin. As soon as you opened the shower door it would smack you in the face. 

 

If that ever happens again I'll have to remember the water in the drain trick.

[davy jones]

It sounds like there are a couple of simple work arounds.  Good to know.

 

I just have to find the floor vent.

Edited August 29, 2023 by davy jones

[oceans.calling]

In YC it was between shower wall and toilet. Left if looking at it from doorway. 

[Morgsmom]

We had that issue in the bathroom on the Divina (in YC).  The ole water down the hole thing worked!

[ReneeFLL]

On 8/28/2023 at 4:54 PM, shipgeeks said:

I've read this complaint from time to time on lots of cruise lines. Best advice is easy, and DIY: Find the little hole in the bathroom floor (not the shower drain), and pour a glass or two of water into it.  If that drain has become dry, it can develop an odor.  This usually freshens everything.

I'm sure many people don't know this, and just report/complain.

We had this problem on Royal a couple of cruises back and that’s exactly what they did.

[Soaperstar]

I am on the Mareviglia now in a YC balcony room and the sewer smell from the bathroom is nauseating. Tried the water trick, didnt work. Hoping they can do something. We have the balcony door open for air. Any suggestions on how to address this?  This is my first MSC experience and so far- not impressed. 

[blueslily]

31 minutes ago, Soaperstar said:

I am on the Mareviglia now in a YC balcony room and the sewer smell from the bathroom is nauseating. Tried the water trick, didnt work. Hoping they can do something. We have the balcony door open for air. Any suggestions on how to address this?  This is my first MSC experience and so far- not impressed. 

 

Oh no. Other than this smell, what else is impacting your disappointment? That's a lot of money to be "not impressed". So many folks on here rave about YC and make it sound like the only way to cruise. 

 

Hope your experience improves. 

Edited September 25, 2023 by blueslily

[shipgeeks]

8 hours ago, Soaperstar said:

I am on the Mareviglia now in a YC balcony room and the sewer smell from the bathroom is nauseating. Tried the water trick, didnt work. Hoping they can do something. We have the balcony door open for air. Any suggestions on how to address this?  This is my first MSC experience and so far- not impressed. 

Unfortunately, having the balcony door open will shut off your AC, and that of surrounding cabins.

[3some]

13 hours ago, Soaperstar said:

I am on the Mareviglia now in a YC balcony room and the sewer smell from the bathroom is nauseating. Tried the water trick, didnt work. Hoping they can do something. We have the balcony door open for air. Any suggestions on how to address this?  This is my first MSC experience and so far- not impressed. 

What floor is your cabin and are you port or starboard? We'll be in 14007 on Oct 25. Hoping not a problem.

[JamieLogical]

17 hours ago, Soaperstar said:

I am on the Mareviglia now in a YC balcony room and the sewer smell from the bathroom is nauseating. Tried the water trick, didnt work. Hoping they can do something. We have the balcony door open for air. Any suggestions on how to address this?  This is my first MSC experience and so far- not impressed. 

 

Have you talked to your butler about it?

[MaggieNY]

Ask to smell the natural disinfectant they use to clean the room. I thought I smelled a sewer smell in our room. The next day my husband and I worked out in the gym. We used the disinfectant spray to clean down our machines and it had that same sewer-like smell to it.

[benjaminnicholas]

I have a friend who's a travel journalist and is sailing on an upcoming Mera cruise.  He's contacted their media team to confirm this is an ongoing issue with the ship and what they plan on doing about it.

 

If MSC knows it's someone on assignment for Conde Nast, they tend to want to fix the issue.

[Georgia_Peaches]

We smelled it when we embarked directly from the terminal tunnel to the ship. It was strongest at the card scanning podium as we entered. Didn’t smell it after that. 

[gizfish]

16 hours ago, shipgeeks said:

Unfortunately, having the balcony door open will shut off your AC, and that of surrounding cabins.

Nope.  On ships that have the A/C shut off with the balcony open, just the cabin that has the balcony door open has the A/C automatically stopped.  That function is to keep that cabin from affecting all the other cabins who share it's A/C system.  

[dexddd]

14 hours ago, benjaminnicholas said:

I have a friend who's a travel journalist and is sailing on an upcoming Mera cruise.  He's contacted their media team to confirm this is an ongoing issue with the ship and what they plan on doing about it.

 

If MSC knows it's someone on assignment for Conde Nast, they tend to want to fix the issue.

Ok, great.