Rumours of Sewage Smell on Quest

[taxman1]

On a recent thread I have read about a sewer smell on the Quest. As my family and I will be sailing the Quest beginning June 15th we are somewhat alarmed. Is there anyone currently sailing or recently returned from a sailing on the Quest who can confirm whether or not the rumour is true and how has Seabourn handled the matter? Thanks.

[MARIANH]

On a recent thread I have read about a sewer smell on the Quest. As my family and I will be sailing the Quest beginning June 15th we are somewhat alarmed. Is there anyone currently sailing or recently returned from a sailing on the Quest who can confirm whether or not the rumour is true and how has Seabourn handled the matter? Thanks.

 

We sailed on the Quest, Venice to Athens 23 April.

 

The sewage smell was present most days. Sometimes a whiff, sometimes more intrusive. Deck 5 seemed to be regularly affected. The good news is we never smelled it in our suite -it was mostly in the corridors. There were reports that bathrooms on Deck 4 had been affected for a while.The less good news was the Seabourn staff I spoke to appeared to be in denial. Rumour had it there was a " vent issue" that would be worked on at the next dry dock. I have no way of knowing if this was correct.

 

The bottom line was that it was not bad enough to spoil our cruise. But it was an ongoing topic of discussion by some passengers

[taxman1]

Great; our cabin is on deck 5. Well I guess all we can do is cross our fingers. Thank you for the information. Other than the smell, did you enjoy ship and crew?

[Focused1]

Great; our cabin is on deck 5. Well I guess all we can do is cross our fingers. Thank you for the information. Other than the smell, did you enjoy ship and crew?

 

Disembarked the Quest last Friday. I agree with others that deck 5 was where the smell was most noticeable but it seem to be contained in the center atrium area on deck 5 and not throughout that deck.

[Mr Luxury]

Great; our cabin is on deck 5. Well I guess all we can do is cross our fingers.

 

Crossing your fingers will not get rid of the smell.

 

Might I suggest taking a clothes peg with you.Or you could utilise your snorkel

[MARIANH]

Great; our cabin is on deck 5. Well I guess all we can do is cross our fingers. Thank you for the information. Other than the smell, did you enjoy ship and crew?

 

This was our best Seabourn cruise for many years. Thoroughly enjoyable. Great itinerary. Ship in good condition. Crew generally friendly and enthusiastic - some tried particularly hard. A few remembered our names - impressive on a large ( for Seabourn) ship. Little evidence of smoking - a good feature for us. Wine list better than expected with a few gems - still the same ( expletive deleted) champagne ( IMHO!) Fellow cruisers genial - especially a large Aussie contingent.

 

Against this background, the pong did not intrude too much. It was a topic of speculation and discussion from time to time. Seabourn staff just went through the motions when asked about it and were not forthcoming.

 

Enjoy your upcoming cruise:)

[wripro]

Did anyone speak to the hotman about this? Certainly he should be able to initiate some kind of correction.

[lexus man]

??!

[MARIANH]

Did anyone speak to the hotman about this? Certainly he should be able to initiate some kind of correction.

 

First Point - Yes.

 

Second Point - No. Rumour had it that the problem was associated with a vent circa around deck 5. Short of sticking his socks into the offending outlet, I doubt there was much he could do. And that could have made it worse.

 

Quote " this will be addressed at the next dry dock, probably by extension of vents to facilitate the dispersion of odours". I have no way of knowing if this is correct or if it will be effective. Seabourn staff were understandably reticent about discussing the issue.

 

While the presence of the pong was unpleasant at times, it did not detract materially from our enjoyment of the excellent cruise. However it did stimulate a fair amount of discussion, debate and speculation.

 

So we will fondly remember our cruise for its effluence, its affluence and its ambience. Not necessarily in that order.;)

[MARIANH]

??!

 

Ah, you got it:)

[Harvey2442]

This must quite a new problem as we were not aware of it or heard about it on the first sector of the World Cruise earlier this year

[taxman1]

Thanks Marianh for the additional feedback. It is somewhat encouraging hearing from others on the world cruise this may be a more recent issue and not a structural one requiring a dry dock to fix.

[won2go]

We are currently on the Quest. At dinner with the Chief Engineer he explained that they were well aware of the problem, which was caused by the grey water not being processed correctly by "good bacteria". It would appear that time will allow for the production of more good bacteria.The sewage smell was noticeably less yesterday and I think that it will be gone by the end of this cruise in five days time and it has not bothered us at all. We are having a wonderful cruise.

[stamfordian]

Thanks Marianh for the additional feedback. It is somewhat encouraging hearing from others on the world cruise this may be a more recent issue and not a structural one requiring a dry dock to fix.

 

We were on Quest from Dubai to Venice in April and did not notice any sewage type odours - and we were in 531 so seems like it could be recent problem. Like Marianh we had no major problems with smoking, although the heaviest preponderance of tobacco smells was on Deck 5 near the crew offices.

[MARIANH]

We are currently on the Quest. At dinner with the Chief Engineer he explained that they were well aware of the problem, which was caused by the grey water not being processed correctly by "good bacteria". It would appear that time will allow for the production of more good bacteria.The sewage smell was noticeably less yesterday and I think that it will be gone by the end of this cruise in five days time and it has not bothered us at all. We are having a wonderful cruise.

 

Hello. Good to meet you on the Quest and to hear you are still enjoying your cruise. And that the sewage smell is diminishing!

 

However, with the greatest respect to the Chief Engineer, the pong is very unlkely to have come from just "greywater " .Greywater ( Graywater in US speak) is water from sinks, showers, laundry and galleys.

 

The pong was characteristic of the odour from sewage treatment ie sewage from toilets/ urinals etc.

 

He may have been economical with the actualitee or perhaps his message suffered in translation.

 

I am not familiar with the fine details of the Advanced Wastewater Processing System used on Seabourn but most plants utilise aerobic bacteria to digest the gunge. There is an odour attached to this process and I opine that this is what we smelled on the ship. It is usual to have a ventilation arrangement to manage this odour so that it does not enter public areas.

 

If , as it seems from other posts, the pong is a recent manifestation then presumably the System on Quest has an "issue"( perhaps with the System ventilation ) that hopefully will be resolved soon.

 

In any event, I suggest that you use best endeavours to keep adding your personal contribution to the "good bacteria". This requires a goodly consumption of rich food and copious quantities of alcoholic beverages.

 

Happy cruising:)

 

Regards

[sananda]

We were on the Sojourn in early April (6-13) and noticed the same problem. The smell was most concentrated around the central staircase, especially decks 5-7. The smell was absolutely disgusting. I have been to many places with horrid smells (as part of my undergrad research project I had to go to a pig slaughterhouse to collect samples, way worse than any farm smell or sewage plant imo) but this may have been the worst. The smell only came when the ship was in port, giving us all extra incentive to get off the ship. Some passengers even joked that this was Seabourn's passive aggressive attempt to get us off the ship to lower their expenses. The smell disapated when we were underway. The smell affected the health of some passengers I talked to, causing migraines in a few and nausea in several others. Personally, I couldn't think about eating for a few hours after a whiff of that vile smell, but was otherwise unaffected.

 

The biggest problem was that the crew would pointedly avoid the subject of the smell. I mentioned the smell to at least a dozen crew members and they would all get a nervous look on their face and change the subject. I was only able to get someone to acknowledge the smell by dragging a girl from Seabourn square to the stairwell to have her experience it first hand. With a look of utter revulsion on her face, she promised to have someone look into the smell, then she fled back to the square as fast as her legs could carry her. Three days later, the smell was just as bad.

[MARIANH]

The biggest problem was that the crew would pointedly avoid the subject of the smell. I mentioned the smell to at least a dozen crew members and they would all get a nervous look on their face and change the subject. .

 

As I said in an earlier post - " The elephant in the room":(

[wripro]

Obviously, the crew has been instructed not to discuss the problem with guests.

[Mr Luxury]

Obviously, the crew has been instructed not to discuss the problem with guests.

 

Yes,what a shame.Quality should not have to be economical with the truth.

[sananda]

Obviously, the crew has been instructed not to discuss the problem with guests.

 

The Seabourn response seems very odd to me. It made for some very strange interactions between the passengers and crew, with them pointedly ignoring any questions about the smell. With the first couple of inquiries, my wife and I wondered if the crew were a little bit off mentally, simply rude or possibly using drugs. It is hard to put in words how weird things feel when the crew tacitly ignores / pretends something is not happening.

 

Wouldn't Seabourn be better off instructing the crew to give an official response? Even if it was all a lie, wouldn't a simple statement like "We are aware of the odor and are deeply sorry for any inconvenience it may have caused. Our engineers are working to remedy the situation as soon as humanly possible." With the current tactic, Seabourn is unresponsive to passenger concerns.

 

Given Seabourn's response, I have to believe that they are very much aware of the problem, but there is no simple solution. I think future cruisers should be aware of the stinky ships and that Seabourn doesn't do anything about the problem.

[LewiLewi]

Is this odor problem just on the Quest or other Seabourn ships as well? We are reconsidering a cruise that we were thinking of booking this fall on the Quest.

[gofish]

We were on Mar 11 to Apr 2, Hong Kong to Dubai.

The smell is on the port side on deck 5 half way back.

You cant miss it.

We were on deck 6 about 4 cabins forward of the staircase and our balcony was usually affected, I couldn't go out there. The starboard side was usually not a problem.

The staircase distributed it well for the other floors when the doors on deck 5 were opened.

The wind helped disburse it but we had a too many calm days.

Seabourn has to be very aware of the smelly problem.

[sananda]

The smell is not just on the Quest. I have never been on the Quest. We sailed on the Sojourn, which is the same style of ship and believe me smelled really badly. I think the smell may be a common engineering flaw to all 3 of the larger Seabourn ships. The smell is unavoidable in the indoor common areas from about 10:00 A.M. to about 5:00 P.M. It so happened that our cruise was in port everyday at those times. I am not sure if the smell is associated with some ship operation that occurs only in port, or if the smell occurs at this time on sea days as well.

 

What I do know is that there are so many choices for luxury and super luxury cruises and I won't set foot on this class of ship until I am satisfied that the odor problem has been dealt with.

[Seabourntraveller]

The smell is not just on the Quest. I have never been on the Quest. We sailed on the Sojourn, which is the same style of ship and believe me smelled really badly. I think the smell may be a common engineering flaw to all 3 of the larger Seabourn ships. The smell is unavoidable in the indoor common areas from about 10:00 A.M. to about 5:00 P.M. It so happened that our cruise was in port everyday at those times. I am not sure if the smell is associated with some ship operation that occurs only in port, or if the smell occurs at this time on sea days as well.

 

What I do know is that there are so many choices for luxury and super luxury cruises and I won't set foot on this class of ship until I am satisfied that the odor problem has been dealt with.

 

Funny, I am currently on the Sojourn since Apr 13th and there is no smells of what you talk about above.:eek::confused::eek:

[sananda]

We got off the Sojourn on the 13th. The first few days the smell was more constant. By the end of the cruise the smell was intermittent. Just when you think they had it fixed, you'd walk by and get a whiff of it. Maybe they have got it fixed? The people complaining about the smell on the Quest also cruised before I did.

 

If you got on the 13th. Did you meet Peter and Lynn O'Shea. They stayed on after us and were quite the fixtures in the observation bar. They would have let you know about the smell.