Royal Princess - Soot on Balcony

[lovevacadays]

When the Patter lists the 8:00 MUTS showing as: Gone With The Wind, I'm heading below deck!!

 

Too funny!:D:D:D

[cibaygirls]

This problem becomes more and more concerning. I appreciate very much people reporting back with their experiences. I am going to still wait it out a bit, but do want to have a back up plan. I too love using my balcony and the idea of sailing on the Royal in one of the cramped standard balcony does not seem appealing to me. So it seems like it will be either seeking out one of those angled balconies or maybe skipping the Royal all together. As we have D729 booked for next years repositioning from NY to the Caribbean, I can't imagine not being able to use the balcony with so many sea days.

 

Dana

[ONT-CA]

Originally Posted by Pam in CA

 

Learned today from Karen, who took the UST...But what was interesting is the soot problem. Apparently, the wind tunnel and other design tests demonstrated that there would be no soot problem but that was without MUTS being installed. They think the screen is causing whorls that are redirecting the soot and debris. This is being looked into and will be corrected

Remove MUTS. Win! Win!:rolleyes:

[RichNY]

I sail in 2 weeks and have an aft cabin on Rivera deck. It's completely uncovered. I'll report back.

 

It's a shame if this problem is that severe. These aft cabins are the only ones on the entire ship that I am willing to take on the Royal. I am a huge balcony user and could never be happy with those tiny ones on the sides!! Might be my only time on the Royal (or Regal).

 

 

Forget the muts screen and the wind tunnel tests. The real question is why is a brand new system emitting soot to begin with..just thinking out loud.

[silvercruiser]

I never thought about the slanting configuration of the aft portion of the ship contributing to problems like this when I took an upsell to an aft mini suite last summer for 35 days on HAL's Veendam. Luckily there was no slant, the large balcony totally covered and absolutely NO SOOT. It was total heaven to sit out there and look out at the sea. After that experience I too would have been horrified to have encountered the problems some of you experienced on the Royal with soot. It's just not right

[SeaBands]

we found soot there in the morning. I guess the overnight rains bring it or makes it stick. I would rather have a smoker next to me than the soot.

[curiouscat]

Originally Posted by Pam in CA

 

Learned today from Karen, who took the UST...But what was interesting is the soot problem. Apparently, the wind tunnel and other design tests demonstrated that there would be no soot problem but that was without MUTS being installed. They think the screen is causing whorls that are redirecting the soot and debris. This is being looked into and will be corrected

Remove MUTS. Win! Win!:rolleyes:

 

wow, that's a major engineering fail.. !

 

CC

[CaioBella]

Does anyone know if E729 also has a soot problem?

[smglass]

Has anyone heard of this soot problem before and do you think they will have it cleared up by March? We will be in B735 and now i am nervous, we have always sailed Princess and this time we are bringing friends. Maybe we should change to another ship. Any suggestions would be helpful.

[emairs]

Does anyone know if E729 also has a soot problem?

 

We were in E728 on the TA, and other than the occasional flake, we did not have a soot problem. We spent a lot of time on our balcony - relaxing during the day, and having friends over for happy hours and sail aways.

[butternut1]

We were in E728 on the TA, and other than the occasional flake, we did not have a soot problem. We spent a lot of time on our balcony - relaxing during the day, and having friends over for happy hours and sail aways.

 

Was your balcony partially covered? Thanks.

[need2cruisesoon]

Was your balcony partially covered? Thanks.

 

Here is a pic of the aft:

 

 

Looks like the E729 is partially covered but not by much looking at those loungers.

[CinWin]

We will be in E727 in a deluxe veranda cabin which faces the side of the ship but next to aft mini suite (E729). We are worried about having the soot problem mainly because of problem with asthma. We were upgraded to this cabin before we read about the soot. :(

[tip]

After having read this thread, I decided to take a chance. We have booked balcony cabin C710 which is not really an aft cabin on the stern, but is adjacent to the aft elevators along the port side of the ship. I am hoping to be able to use our balcony sans soot!!

[Woobstr112G]

After having read this thread, I decided to take a chance. We have booked balcony cabin C710 which is not really an aft cabin on the stern, but is adjacent to the aft elevators along the port side of the ship. I am hoping to be able to use our balcony sans soot!!

 

Other than fellow aft balcony types like me, I didn't hear of any near aft passengers that had soot issues.

 

Bob

[emairs]

Was your balcony partially covered? Thanks.

 

No, it was uncovered.

 

Sorry, the photo seems to be upside down. Don't know how to do this!

Edited October 30, 2013 by emairs
To apologize for photo!

[Mom33]

No, it was uncovered.

 

Sorry, the photo seems to be upside down. Don't know how to do this!

 

Well, in this position, one could consider your balcony covered.;):D

[Nervouslyexcited]

Is this also a problem on the Dawn Princess - Caribe deck. Just booked this week C747

[ellie1145]

We have just booked caribe 718 and 719 and are worried.

 

Does this soot problem extend to the balconies on the side of the ship at the aft?:eek:

[5:00_Somewhere]

We have just booked caribe 718 and 719 and are worried.

 

Does this soot problem extend to the balconies on the side of the ship at the aft?:eek:

 

Not to worry: both from our own experience and as reported by others here on CC, the soot problem only affects the aft-facing balconies, but not the side-facing balconies, even if the cabins are near the stern of the ship.

 

You'll be fine. :D

[ellie1145]

Not to worry: both from our own experience and as reported by others here on CC, the soot problem only affects the aft-facing balconies, but not the side-facing balconies, even if the cabins are near the stern of the ship.

 

You'll be fine. :D

 

Thank you so much for that information.

 

We are very much looking forward to our cruise, especially my daughter and son who will be experiencing a balcony for the first time.

 

One more question, guess you can't look directly down at the sea as there seems to be a small promenade deck below???

[oz cruiser 65]

We have just done 21 days on majestic...for at least 18 days we had soot falling on our delux balcony D731 (same position exactly as on the photo above of the royal)... the 3 days no soot we had strong winds across the ship taking the soot onward over the side.

Do you think princess should compensate us for not being able to use the balcony .

[Lucky TGO]

Messy Cat I'd invite the Captain up for lunch:D

 

 

CC

You can. But my guess is after he see all the pictures. He not going to except the invitation. :D

Tony

[capriccio]

We have just done 21 days on majestic...for at least 18 days we had soot falling on our delux balcony D731 (same position exactly as on the photo above of the royal)... the 3 days no soot we had strong winds across the ship taking the soot onward over the side.

Do you think princess should compensate us for not being able to use the balcony .

 

Did you complain while you were on board? We had a soot issue on an Owner's Suite balcony on the Royal Princess in December 2013 and complained to passenger services. They were not surprised and offered us a small token amount of compensation. They didn't seem surprised when we rejected that. They opened a customer service complaint with corporate and gave us the complaint number to use in further correspondence after disembarkation.

 

When we returned home we emailed customer service, citing our complaint number, providing a non-emotional description of the issue, and attaching photos of the soot on the balcony on various days and the stained carpet throughout the suite from previous occupants tracking in soot from the balcony.

 

We reached a satisfactory agreement and received an on board credit for our next cruise within a couple of weeks (and this was over the Christmas and New Years holidays so I was impressed with the speed of the resolution). We were not trying to to get a free cruise; I had determined how much of the space we had paid for was unusable and for how long and had determined a percentage refund that would be acceptable. Princess must have used a similar algorithim because that is exactly what they offered.

[Colo Cruiser]

We have just done 21 days on majestic...for at least 18 days we had soot falling on our delux balcony D731 (same position exactly as on the photo above of the royal)... the 3 days no soot we had strong winds across the ship taking the soot onward over the side.

Do you think princess should compensate us for not being able to use the balcony .

 

 

Did you bring this up onboard?

 

If not.........it must not have been that big a deal while onboard.

 

I would say no on the compensation.