Source of toilet problems

[cruzincurt]

On our cruise last week, we came back to our cabin late one night and discovered the entire contents of our bathroom waste can dumped in the toilet. Apparently the room cleaner forgot to flush. I wonder if this is standard practice?:mad:

 

In the bowl was our plastic Q-tips, dental floss, plastic tooth picks, etc. No wonder we have toilet problems. On several previous cruises we've come back to the cabin to find the toilet not working. It's irritating to have to call the plumber and wait at 1:00 in the morning. Then they look at us as if we caused the problem!

 

Our lesson learned is now to dispose of such non-paper waste in the cabin trash can, hopefully this will prevent future toilet problems.

[Daenerys T]

Wow - NOT cool at all. :mad:

[LHT28]

:eek:

Did you report this to housekeeping supervisor ?

 

That should not have been dumped in the toilet

[Keith1010]

None of it belongs down the toilet.

 

Keith

[Krazy Kruizers]

Wow -- that is terrible.

JMO -- but in the morning I would have contacted house keeping and told the supervisor that you had to call the plumber late at night and remove the trash from the toilet.

[chengkp75]

On our cruise last week, we came back to our cabin late one night and discovered the entire contents of our bathroom waste can dumped in the toilet. Apparently the room cleaner forgot to flush. I wonder if this is standard practice?:mad:

 

In the bowl was our plastic Q-tips, dental floss, plastic tooth picks, etc. No wonder we have toilet problems. On several previous cruises we've come back to the cabin to find the toilet not working. It's irritating to have to call the plumber and wait at 1:00 in the morning. Then they look at us as if we caused the problem!

 

Our lesson learned is now to dispose of such non-paper waste in the cabin trash can, hopefully this will prevent future toilet problems.

 

And when I worked at NCL, if you had reported this to the housekeeping supervisor, that crew would have been fired. One of the points we stressed with new crew orientation was that flushing of any foreign object down the toilet was a firing offense.

[wwcruisers]

OP -- I'm curious -- what did you do, when you found the trash in your toilet? :eek: Did you try to remove the items yourself, or did you call your room steward? I think I would have contacted guest relations and requested an immediate visit from a housekeeping supervisor.

 

I don't know what ship/line you were on, but Celebrity has housekeeping supervisors on call 24/7. On Eclipse last year, we called the GR desk around midnight to report a balcony smoker next door. I was surprised when the night housekeeping supervisor was sent (rather then security) to deal with the situation. BTW -- he took care of it -- no more problems with that, for the rest of the cruise. :cool:

Edited December 7, 2015 by wwcruisers

[SuiteTraveler]

The septic system on ships is NOT designed to work with trash in the toilet. Only human waste and the special toilet paper they use should be flushed. No feminine hygiene products or anything else as it will clog the entire plumbing sector and can causes the toilets in various cabins in the sector to backup and possibly overflow into the cabins - which is awful.

 

On our Allure cruise some lady flushed something in our sector one night and the ship's plumbers were out all day trying to fix it. It took hours and hours and during that time, the entire mid port side's toilets over several floors were completely out of order. We were luckier than those on the inside as they overflowed in those cabins and the hallways stank of raw sewage. Luckily it was a port day, so we stayed off the ship and by the time we got back around 4pm, the problem had finally been fixed. However the cabin attendants and plumbers had all had a very rough day cleaning up that mess. Our cabin attendant told me she was at it some 7 hours that day and they had to shampoo carpet in many cabins and do a whole lot of extra work to resolve the problem.

 

I wonder if the ship charged her for her mistake? She definitely caused a huge mess.

[chengkp75]

The septic system on ships is NOT designed to work with trash in the toilet. Only human waste and the special toilet paper they use should be flushed. No feminine hygiene products or anything else as it will clog the entire plumbing sector and can causes the toilets in various cabins in the sector to backup and possibly overflow into the cabins - which is awful.

 

On our Allure cruise some lady flushed something in our sector one night and the ship's plumbers were out all day trying to fix it. It took hours and hours and during that time, the entire mid port side's toilets over several floors were completely out of order. We were luckier than those on the inside as they overflowed in those cabins and the hallways stank of raw sewage. Luckily it was a port day, so we stayed off the ship and by the time we got back around 4pm, the problem had finally been fixed. However the cabin attendants and plumbers had all had a very rough day cleaning up that mess. Our cabin attendant told me she was at it some 7 hours that day and they had to shampoo carpet in many cabins and do a whole lot of extra work to resolve the problem.

 

I wonder if the ship charged her for her mistake? She definitely caused a huge mess.

 

Couple of minor points. There is no "special" toilet paper that the ship uses, it is the cheapest stuff out there. A vacuum system is different from a small boat head, which does require quick dissolving toilet paper, but that is a disadvantage in a vacuum system.

 

If the toilets overflowed, they were not working correctly in the first place. There is a rubber valve that separates the toilet bowl from the vacuum piping (which is why the toilet isn't always sucking stuff down), and this valve will not open unless there is vacuum present to operate it. If the pressure from a backed up line backflowed into a toilet, this valve was leaking all the time, and there would have been a sucking sound in the toilet, or there would have been a chronic loss of water in the bowl.

 

Having said that, and if you look for my many posts on vacuum toilet systems here on CC you will find things that have been flushed down and caused clogs, there are an unbelievable amount of items that make their way all the way through the pipes to the engine room without clogging the system. We find Kotex applicators, crack pipes, coke spoons, ammunition, syringes, and a host of other things in the "parts catcher" just before the vacuum pumps.

[Lionesss]

Maybe the attendant did flush and the stuff was circling for a repeat performance:eek:

 

 

This would make me very upset if the super duper pooper system clogged because of someone putting down it not flushable iterms.

 

I still shudder every time I flush a toilet on board, and always wonder what if that force blew it back at me and the lid flew open and i was well lets just say .............................not pretty.

 

Now I will flush and run.

 

Sea Ya

[chengkp75]

Maybe the attendant did flush and the stuff was circling for a repeat performance:eek:

 

 

This would make me very upset if the super duper pooper system clogged because of someone putting down it not flushable iterms.

 

I still shudder every time I flush a toilet on board, and always wonder what if that force blew it back at me and the lid flew open and i was well lets just say .............................not pretty.

 

Now I will flush and run.

 

Sea Ya

 

Don't worry. There is no "force" to blow back at you. There is either suction or no suction. Think of your vacuum cleaner nozzle. If you suck up a sock into the hose, is there anything that can blow that sock back at you? No. And the only time there is any "product" at all in the pipes is when there has been a blockage, and that is generally just the amount of the flush that is the "culprit". Just like your vacuum hose, once the suction is blocked, there isn't any more at the nozzle (the toilets), and the flushing mechanism uses vacuum to operate. No vacuum, no valves opening. This is the cause of the infamous "phantom flushes" where you push the button and nothing happens, and then two hours later the toilet flushes; you commanded a flush, but until the vacuum is restored there is nothing to operate the valves, and when there is vaccum, the valves will operate.

[lisiamc]

On our cruise last week, we came back to our cabin late one night and discovered the entire contents of our bathroom waste can dumped in the toilet. Apparently the room cleaner forgot to flush. I wonder if this is standard practice?:mad:

 

In the bowl was our plastic Q-tips, dental floss, plastic tooth picks, etc. No wonder we have toilet problems. On several previous cruises we've come back to the cabin to find the toilet not working. It's irritating to have to call the plumber and wait at 1:00 in the morning. Then they look at us as if we caused the problem!

 

Our lesson learned is now to dispose of such non-paper waste in the cabin trash can, hopefully this will prevent future toilet problems.

 

Were we on the same ship? We had exactly the same thing happen on our recent Celebrity cruise. Maybe it's some horrible new trend! We handled it exactly the same way too.

 

I know we could have/should have reported it to Housekeeping, but we didn't like the fear of our toothbrushes being used to used to scrub the loo. :eek: It was easier to put the rubbish in the other bin than to keep our toothbrushes in the safe.

 

I think the assistant steward probably knew that we were on to him when there was never another thing in the bathroom bin for the duration of the cruise. And if he'd been fired, then someone else would have had to do his work, and that wouldn't have endeared us to the remaining housekeeping staff either.

Edited December 7, 2015 by lisiamc

[celle]

 

I know we could have/should have reported it to Housekeeping, but we didn't like the fear of our toothbrushes being used to used to scrub the loo. :eek: It was easier to put the rubbish in the other bin than to keep our toothbrushes in the safe.

 

I think the assistant steward probably knew that we were on to him when there was never another thing in the bathroom bin for the duration of the cruise. And if he'd been fired, then someone else would have had to do his work, and that wouldn't have endeared us to the remaining housekeeping staff either.

 

Easy solution to the toothbrush dilemma: Remove your toothbrushes from the bathroom when you're not using them.

[SuiteTraveler]

Couple of minor points. There is no "special" toilet paper that the ship uses, it is the cheapest stuff out there. A vacuum system is different from a small boat head, which does require quick dissolving toilet paper, but that is a disadvantage in a vacuum system.

 

If the toilets overflowed, they were not working correctly in the first place. There is a rubber valve that separates the toilet bowl from the vacuum piping (which is why the toilet isn't always sucking stuff down), and this valve will not open unless there is vacuum present to operate it. If the pressure from a backed up line backflowed into a toilet, this valve was leaking all the time, and there would have been a sucking sound in the toilet, or there would have been a chronic loss of water in the bowl.

 

Having said that, and if you look for my many posts on vacuum toilet systems here on CC you will find things that have been flushed down and caused clogs, there are an unbelievable amount of items that make their way all the way through the pipes to the engine room without clogging the system. We find Kotex applicators, crack pipes, coke spoons, ammunition, syringes, and a host of other things in the "parts catcher" just before the vacuum pumps.

 

Our Cabin Stewardess told me that something like 250 toilets on 5 decks were affected and all the inside cabins back flowed into the toilet and out onto the floor of the cabins. It stunk to high heaven of raw sewage on our floor and crew were already out with wet vacs and carpet cleaners at 7:30am when we left our cabin, a bunch of - what I believe were plumbers were out in the hallway as well as in inside cabins working hard to find the cause. I've never actually seen so many people working to repair something on a ship at one time before. But then it was one heck of a mess involving every toilet in the entire midship sector port side both inside and outside on multiple floors. Now wanting to be in the way, we just took our stuff with us to breakfast and then got off the ship for the day ASAP as it was in Labadee and we stayed there in the over water cabana I had rented all day. From our standpoint it was a great solution as we had a really nice day. Meanwhile back on the ship, the crew apparently worked for most of the day to solve this unfortunate messy and smelly problem. By the time we got back, things were back to normal, but it was obvious the cabin attendants were exhausted and had had a rough day.

 

We had a toilet on the Carnival Breeze recently that had a chronic loss of water from the bowl at all times. Interesting about your explanation of this. There was no sucking sound coming from the toilet and although I alerted the steward and he had the plumber out 3 different times, they never did get the toilet to hold water through an entire 7 day cruise. This was the first time I had ever seen this except on the Celebrity Galaxy - where if the ship was rocking a lot (on the way up to Alaska), the toilets would lose water and then when in port go back to normal. But Breeze cruise was not rocking a lot. Based on your explanation it seems the toilet had some kind of problem that the plumber repeatedly failed to fix.

[OCruisers]

Easy solution to the toothbrush dilemma: Remove your toothbrushes from the bathroom when you're not using them.

 

Per above ....

We NEVER leave our toothbrushes in the bathroom on a ship!

It's easy enough to keep them inside of a drawer in the cabin.

Edited December 7, 2015 by OCruisers

[chengkp75]

Our Cabin Stewardess told me that something like 250 toilets on 5 decks were affected and all the inside cabins back flowed into the toilet and out onto the floor of the cabins. It stunk to high heaven of raw sewage on our floor and crew were already out with wet vacs and carpet cleaners at 7:30am when we left our cabin, a bunch of - what I believe were plumbers were out in the hallway as well as in inside cabins working hard to find the cause. I've never actually seen so many people working to repair something on a ship at one time before. But then it was one heck of a mess involving every toilet in the entire midship sector port side both inside and outside on multiple floors. Now wanting to be in the way, we just took our stuff with us to breakfast and then got off the ship for the day ASAP as it was in Labadee and we stayed there in the over water cabana I had rented all day. From our standpoint it was a great solution as we had a really nice day. Meanwhile back on the ship, the crew apparently worked for most of the day to solve this unfortunate messy and smelly problem. By the time we got back, things were back to normal, but it was obvious the cabin attendants were exhausted and had had a rough day.

 

We had a toilet on the Carnival Breeze recently that had a chronic loss of water from the bowl at all times. Interesting about your explanation of this. There was no sucking sound coming from the toilet and although I alerted the steward and he had the plumber out 3 different times, they never did get the toilet to hold water through an entire 7 day cruise. This was the first time I had ever seen this except on the Celebrity Galaxy - where if the ship was rocking a lot (on the way up to Alaska), the toilets would lose water and then when in port go back to normal. But Breeze cruise was not rocking a lot. Based on your explanation it seems the toilet had some kind of problem that the plumber repeatedly failed to fix.

 

 

Depending on how far down the pipe the problem got before it decided to stop moving, it can take out whole sections of the ship, or just a few, or even just one or two toilets. Generally, the only time a toilet will back up and overflow (and this will only happen to individual toilets) is when there is a problem with the timing control of the flush mechanism, and when you press the button the water valve sticks open after the flush has happened, or there is a blockage right at your toilet, and the vacuum works, but nothing gets taken out of the bowl, but the water valve opens and fills the bowl, and then you press the button again, and more water comes, but nothing goes away.

 

Gray water lines, from the sinks, showers, and galleys, can have drain water that smells pretty bad, and these don't have a valve at each drain, so if the line is blocked below your cabin, it can back up from above, and out your shower or bathroom floor drain. This happens a lot, but I don't think I've ever seen a "mass" toilet overflow problem.

 

Sometimes the rubber flush valve will leak just enough to take the water away, and the "sucking" sound is very faint. Not sure why the ship's rolling would affect water level in the toilet, again, unlike toilets on shore, there is a valve to stop water from flowing from the toilet until the button is pushed.

[wwcruisers]

Chengkp75 -- I love reading your posts -- I ALWAYS learn something from them! :) In my decade and a half of cruising, I had always wondered why sometimes the toilet just won't flush -- no matter how hard you lean on that wall button! The first few times that happened to me, I panicked and told the room steward to call for a plumber :eek:. But, I quickly realized that, if I just waited a few minutes, the toilet would flush, just fine. Now, I know why.

 

And, for the life of me, I don't know why you would get bashed (as you mentioned, on anther thread) on any of these boards. You always present your information reasonably, in a straight-forward factual manner -- no ego, no hyperbole -- "Just the facts, Ma'am!" ;)

Edited December 7, 2015 by wwcruisers

[cruzincurt]

Were we on the same ship? We had exactly the same thing happen on our recent Celebrity cruise. Maybe it's some horrible new trend! We handled it exactly the same way too.

 

I know we could have/should have reported it to Housekeeping, but we didn't like the fear of our toothbrushes being used to used to scrub the loo. :eek: It was easier to put the rubbish in the other bin than to keep our toothbrushes in the safe.

 

I think the assistant steward probably knew that we were on to him when there was never another thing in the bathroom bin for the duration of the cruise. And if he'd been fired, then someone else would have had to do his work, and that wouldn't have endeared us to the remaining housekeeping staff either.

 

It was the Carnival Valor. And just like you, I don't want my stuff visiting the toilet in revenge. Since it was the next to last day, I lifted the plastic stuff off the dry pile of "kleenex discards" and wrapped them in one of the many, useless sheets of advertising fliers and dropped it in the cabin trash can.

 

They will hear about it on the comment survey.

[cruzincurt]

So, I wasn't harmed or really inconvenienced by my findings in the toilet. So I don't want a bottle of wine or a cruise refund.

 

I just wanted to identify a possible cause of toilet problems I happened to stumble on. I will remove the temptation to discard the incorrect stuff from my future bathroom waste can.

[JVilleGal]

What if this cabin attendant was doing this in every cabin? It needed to be reported ASAP

[chengkp75]

So, I wasn't harmed or really inconvenienced by my findings in the toilet. So I don't want a bottle of wine or a cruise refund.

 

I just wanted to identify a possible cause of toilet problems I happened to stumble on. I will remove the temptation to discard the incorrect stuff from my future bathroom waste can.

 

But the fact remains that you shouldn't have to amend your habits because a crew member is not following the procedures. Even just telling a supervisor, would at least have brought that to the Staff Chief's attention, and the plumbers can make life very unpleasant for crew who make the plumbers' work more difficult. ;)

[JVilleGal]

And once again what if this idiot was doing this in every cabin he cleans ! That could be unpleasant for the entire ship...

[4x4bob]

Sept this year I found out some thing while on the Caribbean Princess about calling for a plumber for a problem in our cabin.

 

The first call to the service desk was about our shower pan filling up with water and not draining.

 

At 1055 PM while asleep I get phone call in the cabin. Hello. Sir you have your do not disturb card in your door. Umm, yes I do, thanks for calling and telling me this after I went to sleep. No, no, you don't understand, the plumber is outside your door and can not come in. O.K. I will get dressed and let him in.

 

The Plumber, I will call him Joe who did not have a name tag, was very friendly and talked to me while he cleared out the hair and stuff clogging the drain in the shower.

 

The next day the toilet stopped flushing. So, another call to the service desk. Again at 1015 PM a knock on the cabin door and its Joe the Plumber again. This time I ask why does he come so late instead during the day.

 

He stated that his assigned time for this hallway was between 1000 PM and 1100 PM. Then Joe told me that someone had flushed prohibitied stuff down thier toilet which had clogged up the system and several ship staff had been working on it and now it should be cleared. He had to check our cabin since I had made a report. Everything worked and he was on his way.

 

Bob