Warning...on Caribbean Princess

[Julia’s Journey’s]

Seems like there a too many stinky ships out there lately and the number seems to be growing:eek: :eek:

[Colo Cruiser]

I would think that anytime a letter of this nature is written it would be to inform the service provider in order to correct a problem. The service provider must then respond (offering compensation if appropriate) and correct the problem. If they fail to do so .. they run the risk of losing a customer(s).

 

Personally, I think if the persuer's desk was informed during the cruise ... the issue is being addressed and corrected to the best of the cruise line's ability. I'm not sure a letter is necessary ... JMHO.

 

 

Princes looses 100's of customers every week, but they also gain 100's weekly so it is a wash.

 

Obviously they read the boards but choose not to address any of the multitude of problems expressed here from small to large. :rolleyes:

[CrusinAgain]

Yikes that doesn't sound good - I am sure they will have the problem fixed soon - and they will address it some more when they go in for a dry/wet dock and new bedding in early may

 

We stayed on Emerald deck in October and all was fine but that doesn't mean it hasn't changed. What has changed is since December folks have been able to book her for the entire month of May when she was suppose to go to drydock. What in the heck happened? The crew and entertainers talked about her going to drydock in early May and now people are booking her. Is there a change in dates or a big error to be discovered?

[pnjkeith]

I jsut got off on 02/11. We had smell in bathroom also, Cabin Boy put Clorox in drains, smell gone the rest of the week.

[marinearchit]

I was on CB about 4 months ago. We were staying on Aloha but I roamed all over that ship. I didn't notice any smells at all.

 

There could have possibly been problems with some of the machinery on the ship (Purification, watsewater, etc.) which caused this.

[jayz]

According to some, that problem has existed for years always in the same place. I don't think that problem will go away. Probably a mechanical design of the ship that cannot be reversed without major dollars involved.

Houses need stink stacks for ventilation and are usually on top of the roof. Same with ships I suppose..

If enough of you complain,perhaps they will take the issue more seriously.

[from the desert]

Don't we smell these same smells in our homes, and offices, and sports arenas, even a restaurant. Waste systems are built for a certain capacity, and if the demand is extremely high the system will have a certain amount of "recovery" time.

 

The topic of smells on the ships seems to get a disporportionate amount of space on these threads. As soon as a poster mentions that he had a problem with his cabin on his cruise, hundreds of posters jump on the bandwagon and soon it is blown completely out of proportion.

 

Smells are normal, nasty smells will and do occur, plumbing is not always fool proof and those of you who continue to complain should be more aware of the smells that occur in your daily lives. Bet they are the same.

 

Now, since I disagree with most of you, please flame me and call me a Princess cheerleader....

[LUCY55]

life as good, About your comment regarding the location of the restrooms: Don't know whether it is any connection to the stink problem however our rooms are quite a bit forward from that location. We all have our tolerances, but to me when you pay thousands of dollars for a cruise, sewage smell problems are unacceptable. I do study deck plans. I have read the threads on the smell problems on the Grand class ships and still am not sure where the worst locations are!!

[CruisinChris]

We were in baja 708 on the same cruise and also smelled the sewage smell. It wasn't overpowering in our area but was certainly present when we went out on the balcony on 3 different days. I attributed it to the fumes from the vent stacks being drafted back onto the ship. Certainly didn't ruin our cruise but was a minor annoyance that I would have prefered not to have smelled.

 

Thanks for saying this. Off and on for 5 years on these boards I have tried to tell folks that the smell is NOT sewage but that of fumes being drawn back into the ship. Apparently certain fuel will cause this more than others. I have been told this by reliable sources onboard. I may smell like sewage; but it's not. the fumes have a very sulfourous note to them. As other posters have noted, the smell can be very noxious and strong and may even be detected in your cabin. It can last for days and there's really nothing the ship can to do about it until they bunker new fuel (and change fuel type).

[CruisinChris]

We were in baja 708 on the same cruise and also smelled the sewage smell. It wasn't overpowering in our area but was certainly present when we went out on the balcony on 3 different days. I attributed it to the fumes from the vent stacks being drafted back onto the ship. Certainly didn't ruin our cruise but was a minor annoyance that I would have prefered not to have smelled.

 

Thanks for saying this. Off and on for 5 years on these boards I have tried to tell folks that the smell is NOT sewage but that of fumes being drawn back into the ship. Apparently certain fuel will cause this more than others. I have been told this by reliable sources onboard. I may smell like sewage; but it's not. the fumes have a very sulfourous note to them. As other posters have noted, the smell can be very noxious and strong and may even be detected in your cabin. It can last for days and there's really nothing the ship can to do about it until they bunker new fuel (and change fuel type).

[nschurr]

I may smell like sewage;

 

Maybe a shower would help! (LOL)

[cruzinchris]

Smells are normal, nasty smells will and do occur, plumbing is not always fool proof and those of you who continue to complain should be more aware of the smells that occur in your daily lives. Bet they are the same. Now, since I disagree with most of you, please flame me and call me a Princess cheerleader....

 

No flames, FTD. (Guess you'll be busy tomorrow delivering all those flowers :D ). Your comments are right-on.

 

My sister and I went on a short cruise together several years ago. I had cruised previously but she hadn't. One evening when we stepped outside the cabin to head to dinner, she said, "Why does it always smell like **** out here?" :eek: I pointed out the stateroom "water-closets" that were back-to-back along the alleyway and said, "When you use the toilet, where do you think "it" goes?" She actually thought that "it" went into the sea around us :eek: , and I assured her that this was not the case and that the vessel had its own sewage treatment plant onboard to get rid of the **** :D .

 

Truth is, I have yet to sail on any cruiseline, any ship and not detect the occasional odor of "sewage" during the voyage. When DH and I walked the Promenade on the Dawn recently, we always warned one another to "take a deep breath" as we walked beside the treatment plant all the way forward on the ship.

 

Now, let me go find my best asbestos suit...:p

Chris

[bovs]

I was on Lido deck, L103, we noticed a smell once and after that never noticed it.

 

We were on the exact same cruise as well.

 

 

Have you noticed that all the cabins reporting the odor have a zero in the middle of their cabin number? Obviously they must all be in the same area of the ship. Different decks, same area. Must be a vent stack that waifs back into the ship there somewhere. It probably would help if it were raised to a proper high to dispel it more..... JMHO

[jlp20]

I am not going to defend Princess, since I have no knowledge of what actually happened. I do, however, have knowledge of how the ships are supposed to operate.

 

All cabins have positive air pressure from that large air vent above the bed (s). The majority of this positive air pressure is vented out through the bathroom-powered vent. Additional venting is through the louvers at the bottom of the front door. On one cruise, the entire hallway stank of “Ben Gay” from one cabin. Any odor from the bathroom to get to the living area of your cabin has to overcome both the venting system and the direction of airflow.

 

At your home or apartment, sinks and toilets have “traps” or an S bend in the drain. There is a water barrier to keep sewer gases from getting into the bathroom or kitchen. The same exists in the sink drains in your cabin. I am sure one exists under the shower, but it would have to be so small to fit in that space it may be ineffective. The entire sewer system has piping much smaller than anything on land, and can be clogged much easier. That’s one reason for those turbo-charged toilets the comedians love. . When flushed, the pressure from those toilets has to go somewhere if there is some type of restriction in the pipes.

[cruzflyer]

We were on the 1/28 - 2/4 Caribbean Princess cruise and my wife and I commented on the strong smell of sewage as we were walking past the Internet room. This happened on more than one occasion, and we had wondered about whether cabin mates would have similar problems with odors. I guess your message confirmed our fears.

[Ontario Traveller]

We were recently on the Crown. When we first entered our cabin, there was a bit of a sewer gas smell but not much. But later in the evening it got much worse. The negative pressure air vent in the bathroom worked very well, so it wasn't that. We were in a cabin that was accessible for the disabled, so the bathroom design was different from other rooms -- there were several large floor drains (covered with grating), some of them in locations that would not normally get water flowing into them. I took the ice bucket and put a couple of buckets of water into each of the 5 floor drains in the bathroom. That fixed the problem! As the previous post said, the S-traps are drying out and allowing sewer gas into the rooms. The same problem was occurring in some of the public bathrooms on Promenade deck, but I figured I'd leave those to Princess to deal with. We hadn't noticed this problem a few years ago. I wonder if the new ships are being built to a different "building code" with lesser requirements for S-trap volume. Or they are designing bathrooms with drains in locations that aren't getting enough water fill.

[sandysav]

Of the ten cruises I have been on, I have never smelled anything like that until the star princess. To the person who said we pay thousands of dollars and the smell is not acceptable, I say good for you and me for having the guts to say it. Also it is my understanding that gray water is showers and baths and black water emission is toilets. Since a staff member said to me that the smell was black water emissions, I'd say they admitted it. Now they should do something about it. All those loyal princess cruisers who tolerate it and say that its normal should perhaps try another line and see the difference. We enjoyed everything about our cruise except the horrible, unacceptable smell, which until princess can guarantee that they have fixed black water smell, they wont see us again or get any good references from our group that went.

[Mitchum]

We just sailed the CB on the Feb 4th sailing and did not notice this problem at all. We were in an inside cabin, Riviera Deck, port side. Never noticed it in any of the public areas or on deck either.