bad sewage smell on star

[KauaiKris]

Kris, Hope your cruise is smooth and smells good. Our Thanksgiving cruise had rough seas and winds. Possibly that caused the bad sewer smells we experienced. Let us know when you get back.

 

Thanks, StewCrews. I'm feeling optimistic. I'll be sure to let you know what my experience is. :)

[worried cruiser]

I noticed an odor in a few random areas. It was no different then odors I found on HAL, Carnival, RCI and Celebrity. I can also add that I did not hear anybody on the ship talking about an odor.

 

I have set up a cruise for a few people on the Star Princess for March 17, 2007 ans after reading all of these complaints I'm a little worried. This is my second Princess cruise I have benn on the Golden and loved it. Please let me know any tips on making this cruise enjoyable. The other couple have never cruise and are going by my opinion on the Princess line. We have inside room on the Caribe mid ship.

[stewcrews]

I have set up a cruise for a few people on the Star Princess for March 17, 2007 ans after reading all of these complaints I'm a little worried. This is my second Princess cruise I have benn on the Golden and loved it. Please let me know any tips on making this cruise enjoyable. The other couple have never cruise and are going by my opinion on the Princess line. We have inside room on the Caribe mid ship.

 

We went on the Star because my father had great cruises on the Grand Princess and other Princess ships. He never had the bad smells or tendering problems like on the Star. I have been on NCL and never had to smell sewer daily. I would choose another ship until the problems with the Star are corrected.

[worried cruiser]

I called the Princess cruise line and asked about the smell. They replyed you must of been on the cruise critic sight, I replyed yes and that there must be a least 100 complaints about this order. She said she new about the compalints but herself never recieved a complaint on this order. I told her I was a little worried about this, she said she would look into this for me. I am calling her back next week.

[bdjam]

They replyed you must of been on the cruise critic sight, I replyed yes and that there must be a least 100 complaints about this order.

One hundred?

[NorcalGuy]

Just of the Star (12/01) and was in cabin D219 - Starboard side and found no smell in the cabin, on our balcony, or any where on the ship. In fact I found the ship to be immaculate with no indication that there was ever a fire aboard. Trust me if there was a so called "smell" on board I would have know because I am very sensitive to them. I am unable to pump my own gas without becoming asthmatic and I have to hold my nose when I enter the detergent aisle in the supermarket!

That is indeed incouraging news!

Starboard side and no noticable smell. I don't in any way disbelieve the OP. Just glad to hear something has changed.

[worried cruiser]

read back from this site from page one it scary .

[DFD1]

I just read a post over on the Holland America Board from a passenger there who is in the meat business and quite smell sensitive.

 

He indicated there was a foul smell on his balcony very late at night that, at first blush smelled like sewage, but was actually from the kitchen incinerator used to incinerate old spoiled kitchen scraps.

 

This made me wonder if the bad smell on the Star might be coming from a similar source rather than from the waste disposal sewage system.

 

Curious....

[perucho]

I wrote Princess about the issue and received a letter yesterday. It basically says that they understand my concern, and have noted my record. They cannot guarantee that I will not have a problem with smell/plumbing issues (their words, I never mentioned plumbing), but if I do, to let the purser's desk know so they can correct the situation. They never explicitely acknowledged they had a problem, though...

 

Regards,

 

Enrique

[loveJake]

I just returned from the Star, Forward, Starboard Baja Deck. I called Princess before I left and was assured there is no smell. Well I can tell you the smell is there especially while in port. Our room smelled so bad the one time that I went down and reported it and asked to have the room aired. Nothing more then a I'm sorry from the girl at the pursers desk. When we returned from dinner the smell was gone. I did not tell my DH before we left about the smell so there would be an honest opinion, well the first time he commented that there was a terrible odor in the room I told him that I had heard there was a problem but before sailing was told there is no problem and no other cabins were available to move, of course I didn't ask to be moved so Princess trying to move me was in fact telling me they know there is a problem. This happened on all port days when we returned, and the balcony door was closed. I put the smell problem on our comment card and wonder if I should call Princess now. This did not ruin our cruise, but was not very nice, the smell is really bad.

[iancal]

We were on the Star 12/2-9. We had a portside mid/aft balcony on Caribe. We did not notice the smell on our balcony or in ship but we did smell it on deck. Noticed it most when we were on the foredeck, in port. We could sense it at the sailaway and again when we were tied up in Jamaica. Others noticed it as well. It did not bother us, we moved to another area of the ship. I would not want to have a balcony on the starboard side. We did notice engineering officers on the deck a few times. They were stopped a few times and talked to each other. My guess is that they were checking out the 'problem' . I have no doubt that Princess will NOT say that there is a problem. If they do admit this, then they are obligated to rectify it. This may not be in the cards given the approaching busy season and whatever dry dock/mtce schedule exists.

[stewcrews]

I was hoping the problem we had was gone but it seems the same. Port side is OK. Starboard side and public areas stink. They had lots of complaints from our Thanksgiving week cruise and still NO admission and NO repair.

[KauaiKris]

Back from the 12/9 sailing. I'm one of those that was very concerned about the smell going into the cruise, because we had a Caribe starboard balcony cabin.

 

There were eight of us on the cruise -- Four of us knew about the problem in advance, the other four knew nothing. We didn't want to put the others on "alert" for a problem.

 

There were a number of times I smelled something unpleasant on the cruise. A few times were in stairwells, a few on the lido deck. However, like the experience some other posters have shared, usually it was brief and passing and not a big deal.

 

There were two times in my cabin that the smell was particulary bad. One of the days was when we were docked in Cozumel. We woke up to the smell that morning. My husband said it was even worse up on the jogging track than it was in our cabin. But that was fairly short lived, and was tolerable. Another time the smell was there when we returned after being ashore. It was worst when you were very first hit by it; after being in the cabin a while, we seemed to adjust very quickly.

 

While a smell drifted by now and again, I never felt the smell was bad enough to make us uncomfortable out on the balcony, and we were out there a fair amount of time since we had four cabins in a row that we accessed throughout the cruise by way of the doors in the balcony dividers.

 

Of the four in our group that hadn't been told in advance of the problem, none ever said anything about a smell. To be honest, they are all positive and upbeat people, so they may have smelled something but not let it impact their cruise; or it simply may have never been bad enough to bother them. They are all excited to cruise again.

 

I hope others have the same experience as we did, and this helps reduce some concerns.

 

Kris

[stewcrews]

Back from the 12/9 sailing. I'm one of those that was very concerned about the smell going into the cruise, because we had a Caribe starboard balcony cabin.

 

There were eight of us on the cruise -- Four of us knew about the problem in advance, the other four knew nothing. We didn't want to put the others on "alert" for a problem.

 

There were a number of times I smelled something unpleasant on the cruise. A few times were in stairwells, a few on the lido deck. However, like the experience some other posters have shared, usually it was brief and passing and not a big deal.

 

There were two times in my cabin that the smell was particulary bad. One of the days was when we were docked in Cozumel. We woke up to the smell that morning. My husband said it was even worse up on the jogging track than it was in our cabin. But that was fairly short lived, and was tolerable. Another time the smell was there when we returned after being ashore. It was worst when you were very first hit by it; after being in the cabin a while, we seemed to adjust very quickly.

 

While a smell drifted by now and again, I never felt the smell was bad enough to make us uncomfortable out on the balcony, and we were out there a fair amount of time since we had four cabins in a row that we accessed throughout the cruise by way of the doors in the balcony dividers.

 

Of the four in our group that hadn't been told in advance of the problem, none ever said anything about a smell. To be honest, they are all positive and upbeat people, so they may have smelled something but not let it impact their cruise; or it simply may have never been bad enough to bother them. They are all excited to cruise again.

 

I hope others have the same experience as we did, and this helps reduce some concerns.

 

Kris

 

Thanks Kris, Glad the smell did not impact your trip too much. We never had smells on NCL and my dad has been on the Grand Princess and never had to smell the odor. He was on the starboard side and it impacted his cruise. We were on port and had no sewer on our balcony. How was your tendering at Princess Cay??

[WarmWaters]

We were on the Dec 9 - 16 sailing and did smell a faint odour about 5 times in total, on the outer decks and once in a hallway, the entire cruise. As most posters said its on the starboard foreward side. For us it was a very faint smell, nothing serious and we also didnt hear anyone talking about it during the cruise. If I didnt read the thread about it we would not even know what the smell was, it just smells a bit odd I would not go as far as to say the ship stinks. The Star is a wonderful ship in great condition with very dedicated staff.

 

I do feel sorry for those who had paid for a balcony room starboard side, the impact of that on your room would have been so much more.

 

So I would say if you dont have a balcony starboard forward booked, dont even worry about the smell onboard. We had a very memorable cruise and I have a lot of good things to say about this ship and its crew and really very few, if any complaints.

[azsunshine]

We had booked the Star about 3 years ago, but we had to cancel and were not on board. I do remember then that there was a long posting, and comments about the smell on the starboard side. I remember that because we had booked the Port side just opposite from the smell. I don't think this is new. I also remember it being about 5 or 6 cabins forward of the aft. I don't recall what deck.

[HRM]

The smell was TERRIBLE and I am very upset to find out that this has been a long-term problem that Princess has not resolved. I didn't know that it was less noticeable on port side or less in the rear of the ship (I was never in those rooms), but I can say from my own experience that it was unmistakable on the forward-mid starboard side. We avoided the port sides of the decks because they were polluted with cigarette smoke, so instead we were left with the sewer-smell, slightly less disgusting to inhale.

I sailed aboard the Diamond to Alaska in July and had an exceptional cruise experience and was pleased with Princess. I did so much reading and planning for that trip, and then I kind of just decided to wing it on this one. I read up on the ports and planned out our shore days, but I didn't do any homework on the Star itself. I did not read these boards precruise, was too preoccupied with work and holiday shopping and figured everything would be just fine so I was completely unaware of this thread and the "odor" problems. But we discovered it all by ourselves as soon as we got onboard.

While we did everything possible to make the most of our cruise and not let the smell RUIN our vacation, it did have a major impact. We were in a Baja balcony room on starboard side right by the forward elevators and the smell on the balcony was so disgusting every single day of the cruise that we were unable to spend anytime on it. What was even worse was that a stronger (more concentrated) smell came into our bathroom, up our drains, and stank so bad that it made me gag. The smell permeated everything in the bathroom; it even made our towels reek! Our steward always left our new bath and pool towels on our beds each day because he knew it was stinky in there and we would wait to bring them into the bathroom until we were ready to shower. On embarkation day the smell was so bad in the bathroom that we had to keep the door closed and use public restrooms elsewhere on the ship. I complained to the purser and he sent maintenance to my cabin, who remedied the situation by pouring some deodorizing liquid down my bathroom drains. That was a 12 hour bandaid, giving some temporary relief, but it did not eliminate the odor. Because the bathroom is so small, it was 10x worse in the bathroom than out on the balcony or up on the sun decks and just unbearable the first day before the deodorizing cleaner.

I complained several times while onboard, starting on the first day. What's weird is that at first you don't really know what it is or that it is actually from your ship. We were still in Ft. Lauderdale in port and I thought that the smell was coming from our surroundings, not from the ship itself. And then the smell persisted after we sailed away and I still thought it was just polluted waters. It is amazing how I tried to justify it in my head and attribute it to anything other than our ship. Finally on day two, when it persisted into the day at sea, I realized it wasn't going away and continued my complaints and request for something to be done about it. I tried everything. I called the pursers desk. I went to the purser’s desk. I told my steward. Later in the cruise after we felt that nothing had been remedied, I went to the purser and I politely requested to speak with the purser's manager/supervisor. The supervisor then told me flat out that this "odor problem" had just started on my cruise which was very unfortunate for us, that he was aware of it, had received several complaints onboard, and they could not do anything for me on the ship other than to apologize. Various staff onboard referred to it as different things: "a ventilation problem", "wastewater program problem", "sewage problem". While I was complaining at the pursers desk, another woman claimed the smell was in their room and they had heard others complaining as well, so I know I am not crazy and it wasn't just me. I asked for a refund for the difference between a balcony cabin and an ocean view room since essentially that is all I ended up with and the supervisor said that he did not have authority to do anything Shipboard and I would need to write to Princess on land. He delivered a letter to my cabin on Princess letterhead memorializing our conversation and I will be writing to Princess following this post.

We had rough seas on our cruise and didn't have ideal Caribbean sun, sun, sun weather, but I don't complain about that because that type of stuff can happen anytime and is not anything that Princess can control. We made the most of our cruise and enjoyed ourselves, but I am very disappointed in Princess and the "smelly" situation they have let continue aboard the Star Princess. I would never sail that ship again, not with all the other ships available, why risk it! The way Princess rectifies this for me will determine if I will continue to sail with them or redirect my business elsewhere.

Hope this is helpful.

[flvol77]

Great - we never book a mid ship mini - we love the aft minis - but this cruise we decided we would book a AA mini becuase it was the same price as an AC mini in hopes that we COULD be upgraded - well, I knew that wasn't going to happen and it will not now, the ship is sold out, and the problem is from mid to forward -

 

I guess you should book the room you really want.

[LUCY55]

Is this problem only on the Star?

[flvol77]

Seems to be - every now a then on the CB I would smell something (maybe once or twice) but it seems as though the star is having this as an on going problem.

[stewcrews]

Is this problem only on the Star?

 

My father has sailed Princess many times and many ships. He never had the sewer smell on any other ships. He was very upset that he could not use his starboard mini. He was sad that he booked his family on a smelly ship.

[flvol77]

My father has sailed Princess many times and many ships. He never had the sewer smell on any other ships. He was very upset that he could not use his starboard mini. He was sad that he booked his family on a smelly ship.

 

do you mind telling me where his mini was?

 

We are in D529 and I am a little worried

[NorcalGuy]

Back from the 12/9 sailing. I'm one of those that was very concerned about the smell going into the cruise, because we had a Caribe starboard balcony cabin

KauaiKris, was your cabin forward or aft? Glad you didn't have a problem. Cabin # if possible?

[Steelersngators]

I'm just off the 12/9 - 12/16 sailing. We were in B744 (aft, left side looking forward) and the smell on the balcony was horrendous. The only time there was relief from the sewage smell was when we were docked next to the Disney ship. They were cooking something on board that smelled so good you didn't notice the sewage smell. We did not let the smell ruin our cruise and used the balcony often. However, the smell was almost always there. We could smell it on the pool deck as well. My wife and I joked they should change the name to "Sewage of the Seas".

[wdrl]

Does anyone know if cruise ships use a grease trap like restaurants do? I know that when they fill up they are really smelly. Since a cruise ship is a gigantic restaurant (or chain of restaurants), could the "grease trap" be part of the of the problem. I didn't see anything about a "dirty water" problem on the CDC's green sheet inspection last month for the Star.

 

Is the bad odor something that should be reported to the CDC?

 

--Denise