Soot on Aft Balconies - Britannia

[emam]

I believe on her recent refit she had canopies fitted above the balconies. Someone posted a photo on here somewhere. Try looking for a Britannia refit thread.

[chrisg1uk]

They have installed glass canopies over the aft balconies on Decks A&B.   P&O say this is to help with "privacy" issues highlighted by guests as apparently some passengers felt uneasy about being overlooked from the bar above.  Some cynics (me included) suspect it has more to do with avoiding the occasional soot issue on these balconies.  These balconies  were brilliant for sun worshippers but now they look awful (in my view).  The soot will still collect on the glass and need cleaning and despite me asking P&O many times they were unable to say whether the glass was reflective and therefore created shade or not and created a greenhouse.   Since we were going to the Caribbean and the balcony was important to us, we transferred the cruise to elsewhere. There are pictures on previous threads somewhere and on other social media.            

[Selbourne]

9 hours ago, joeecco said:

What is the reason for this being such a big problem on this ship? Or is it the case on every ship? We’re yet to have an Aft balcony and are intrigued by this thread.

I don’t know for sure why it’s such a big issue on Britannia, but suspect that it’s a combination of the exhaust system / design and the tiered / protruding / uncovered aft balconies. Rest assured that it isn’t an issue on any other P&O ship. We have had aft suites on Britannia, Ventura and Arcadia and the only one we had a problem with was Britannia. 

[CCFC]

I remember sitting at the bar at the back of Oceana when a lump of soot landed right next to me, happened a couple of times.

[majortom10]

Soot is a problem of the design of the ship with regards to Britannia. Royal/Regal Princess are the same design and they have had just as many complaints about soot on aft balconies.