Is sewer smell a common problem?

[smtcan]

Sorry to say but we experienced sewer smells on deck 6 Fwd on the Millenium in January. We've done loads of cruises on almost every ship and not had this before. Fortunately we couldn't smell it in the cabin. This has been mentioned before and Celebrity must be aware so we can only assume there is nothing they can do about it ?

 

We were on Millennium in September in one of the 'sweet sixteen' cabins on deck six forward and didn't have any problem with sewer smells inside or out. We are frequent cruisers and have experienced smells in different areas on M class ships, but fortunately never in our cabin. I remember a corridor on Constellation that we would go up a level to avoid and were thankful that our cabin was not in that area.

 

Sheila

[cruisingberger]

Great idea Kartgv! We are sailing next week on Infinity and I will pick up a drain cover today. We haven't had any issues on Celebrity, but on Disney it was bad. We had maintenance in twice to "clean" the drain the odor was so foul. They put something in it that made it smell ok but it only lasted a few days.

[Muushka]

...snip

 

Sewage odors outside are a different problem. The tanks that hold the hundreds of tons of waste water a ship generates has to be vented somewhere, and this is typically up in the funnel area. However, on any given day, wind eddies and downdrafts caused by the ship's motion can cause the odors from these vents to be noticed in certain areas of the ship. There isn't anything that can be done in these situations.

 

I think that this was our problem. Tell me, after a ship sits for 3 days (in Bermuda) and then heads back out to sea, can these odors be stronger than normal? Like almost make your eyes sting strong! Celebrity agreed that it was pretty bad and did offer compensation. But given the choice of the compensation and being able to use the balcony at night, my husband would have preferred the balcony.

PS we didn't ask for anything. We wanted to let them know how bad it was so we called maintenance.

[chengkp75]

I think that this was our problem. Tell me, after a ship sits for 3 days (in Bermuda) and then heads back out to sea, can these odors be stronger than normal? Like almost make your eyes sting strong! Celebrity agreed that it was pretty bad and did offer compensation. But given the choice of the compensation and being able to use the balcony at night, my husband would have preferred the balcony.

PS we didn't ask for anything. We wanted to let them know how bad it was so we called maintenance.

 

Very likely. The advanced waste water treatment plants on today's cruise ships will process the water to near drinking water quality, so most ports allow this to be discharged overboard while in port. However, there is a certain amount of solid waste that remains (nearly all paper fibers, since the system processes waste so quickly the bacteria do not have time to digest paper fibers like a septic system ashore does), and this must be held while in port, and then discharged or incinerated while at sea. The Norwegian Sun's much publicized odor problems comes from a retrofit of a system to incinerate this solid waste, with equipment not originally designed for it, leading to intense odor problems when the incinerator was in operation. (I know because I worked on the Sky, the Sun's sister, and we abandoned this equipment shortly after it was installed). The Sun was mainly using this in Alaska, due to them being too close to shore all the time to pump out the solid waste, so now they have changed the itinerary to give some time outside the Inland Passage to allow pumping out instead of incinerating.

[seasick sid]

We had the most hideous smell in our stateroom (deck 7) as soon as we first entered on board. We refused to unpack our cases and were eventually given another stateroom minus smell. It did spoil our holiday as we got very upset on that first day! I am shocked to hear that other guests have experienced this problem too.

 

Although we have another cruise booked next August, I have to say I can envisage our cruising days are coming to an end.

[ivaninch]

Oh heck outside cabins have sold out, so its gone up another £800 :mad:

[Muushka]

Very likely. The advanced waste water treatment plants on today's cruise ships will process the water to near drinking water quality, so most ports allow this to be discharged overboard while in port. However, there is a certain amount of solid waste that remains (nearly all paper fibers, since the system processes waste so quickly the bacteria do not have time to digest paper fibers like a septic system ashore does), and this must be held while in port, and then discharged or incinerated while at sea. The Norwegian Sun's much publicized odor problems comes from a retrofit of a system to incinerate this solid waste, with equipment not originally designed for it, leading to intense odor problems when the incinerator was in operation. (I know because I worked on the Sky, the Sun's sister, and we abandoned this equipment shortly after it was installed). The Sun was mainly using this in Alaska, due to them being too close to shore all the time to pump out the solid waste, so now they have changed the itinerary to give some time outside the Inland Passage to allow pumping out instead of incinerating.

 

Makes perfect sense. Thank you for the explanation. Now, to avoid this problem in the future!