Hot Water Problem on the Coral

Just off Coral yesterday. Good cruise, but not a great cruise. The ports were wonderful and we had fairly decent weather until the last day.

I wanted to find out what the wise people on Cruise Critic think of the problems we encountered on the Coral, and whether you think the compensation was fair. Sorry it got long, but I wanted to give details.

The problems we had involved the lack of hot water, and some electrical problems on Baja deck aft (the water problems were most of the deck, just the electrical issue was aft only, supposedly).

Sunday morning we had only lukewarm water in the shower. I thought maybe I hadn't turned the knob all the way to hot so I didn't think much of it until Sunday night when the water was even cooler than in the morning. I mentioned the problem to our cabin steward who notified maintenance. When we got back to the cabin after dinner, our steward told us that maintenance had been there and the problem had been fixed.

Monday morning the water was warmer than it had been (although still nowhere close to HOT).

Monday night - cool/lukewarm water. This time I called Passenger Services who said they would send someone up. Both a Passenger Services employee and Maintenance showed up and went in and out of our cabin checking things. We had a very early excursion the next morning so at some point the Passenger Services guy told us that they would continue to work on the problem in the hall and if the problem was still there in the morning, to call down and they'd bring us a key so we could shower in another cabin.

Tuesday morning. Freezing cold water. I called Passenger Services and someone came up with a key to an inside cabin down the hall. I went down there and took a lukewarm shower. Seriously! The problem wasn't just in our cabin even though our steward and Passenger Services had told us that we were the only ones complaining. Hmmmm.

Tuesday night. HOT water. Wow! Had the problem been solved. We were optimistic.

Wednesday morning. Cold water again. However, this time we just tried letting the water run and run to see if the hot water came back. After 8 or 9 minutes of wasting water, the water finally got warm (not hot). This continued Wednesday night and Thursday morning.

I should mention that most of the week we saw water dripping from the ceiling at various locations on the port side of Baja deck, and buckets placed to catch the water.

Wednesday we spoke to a supervisor at Passenger Services who said that he would give us $100 in OBC for the inconvenience. Later on I asked for a plate of chocolate covered strawberries as well. I'd spoken to another passenger who said that he had been moved out of his cabin because of noise, and he got strawberries, so it seemed only fair[emoji14]

Thursday when we were heading out to Ketchikan we found the hallway filled with ladders and garbage cans, and ceiling panels out the entire way down the hall. Interesting scene. When we returned from sightseeing, there were about a half dozen contractors on the ladders replacing a pipe. There were a LOT of leaky areas and they had beach towels wrapped around the pipes to guide the leaking water into the garbage cans - very high tech. lol. The contractor guys were still on the ship the next day - I saw a couple of them in the hallway so it obviously wasn't just a one day job.

Thursday night we had hot water right away. Great! Friday morning we had to run the water for a few minutes but it did get HOT, and it was still OK Friday evening and Saturday morning before we disembarked. So, basically we had two days of hot water, and five days of either cold or lukewarm water.

It was still a good cruise, but having to take cool showers was more than a little inconvenient, especially in Alaska :eek: I'm not sure that $100 (and strawberries) was fair for five days of no hot water, but that's what we got.

Apparently they've been in the process of replacing the original copper pipes with another type (PVC???). By the end of the week, I found out that several more passengers had the same problems we had, although not as early in the cruise. I'll try to attach a few photos I took with my phone.

Anyway, if you're sailing on the Coral soon, just hope they've already replaced the old pipes in your area of the ship.

Oh, and it took over an hour and a half to wash clothes in the laundromat. That's just the time to wash, not dry. The machine started a countdown at 39 minutes but kept stopping for several minutes at a time. All the machines on Baja were having the same problem. I was told there was some sort of electrical problem on Baja that was causing the issue with the machines. The dryers were fine.

Interesting.

On all the Princess ships we've been on I've never ran across "freezing cold water" ever. Makes me wonder what was happening on the ship. :rolleyes:

A few years ago, when we were on the Ocean Princess, we had a water issue, too. However, ours was from water entering through the sliding door and entire frame during a rain storm. This saturate a large section of the carpet and the lower section of the wall to wall drapes, taking 3 days to dry out. When I was moving the luggage to a safer, dry place, I moved the drapes back and noticed they were black with mildew/mold!

I immediately spoke to our room steward who said we were not the only ones having water entering, about a dozen cabins on our side had this issue. He got a pile of beach towels to soak up the water and during the day, put a fan in the room to attempt to dry the area. Mold/mildew/ No wonder I was coughing and sniffling from the moment I got into the cabin.

Like you, I took pictures, documented the time and date of the problem and then went to passenger service - they blew me off. By the time we reached Tahiti, and another heavy rain storm, DH and I got the cabin numbers of other passengers who were also having problems. We got off the ship and spend a few days at the IC - very easy to identify passengers from our ship by the coughing in the dining are of the hotel.

We got NOTHING as compensation during the cruise, not that I expected anything based on my experience with guest relations [3 contacts], all documented by me with name and time.

When we got back home, I waited a week, then uploaded the pictures of the wet carpet and moldy drapes [gross] and emailed those along with a well documented letter to Princess, never asked for anything, but pointed out the issue as one that should be addressed for passenger [health] safety and unacceptable response from passenger services. Also PC'd the letter to our TA. Within a week, I received a phone call from Princess HQ and had a pleasant and lengthy discussion. In the end, I agreed to a very, very nice future cruise credit.

Darcy

A few years ago, when we were on the Ocean Princess, we had a water issue, too. However, ours was from water entering through the sliding door and entire frame during a rain storm. This saturate a large section of the carpet and the lower section of the wall to wall drapes, taking 3 days to dry out. When I was moving the luggage to a safer, dry place, I moved the drapes back and noticed they were black with mildew/mold!

 

I immediately spoke to our room steward who said we were not the only ones having water entering, about a dozen cabins on our side had this issue. He got a pile of beach towels to soak up the water and during the day, put a fan in the room to attempt to dry the area. Mold/mildew/ No wonder I was coughing and sniffling from the moment I got into the cabin.

 

Like you, I took pictures, documented the time and date of the problem and then went to passenger service - they blew me off. By the time we reached Tahiti, and another heavy rain storm, DH and I got the cabin numbers of other passengers who were also having problems. We got off the ship and spend a few days at the IC - very easy to identify passengers from our ship by the coughing in the dining are of the hotel.

 

We got NOTHING as compensation during the cruise, not that I expected anything based on my experience with guest relations [3 contacts], all documented by me with name and time.

 

When we got back home, I waited a week, then uploaded the pictures of the wet carpet and moldy drapes [gross] and emailed those along with a well documented letter to Princess, never asked for anything, but pointed out the issue as one that should be addressed for passenger [health] safety and unacceptable response from passenger services. Also PC'd the letter to our TA. Within a week, I received a phone call from Princess HQ and had a pleasant and lengthy discussion. In the end, I agreed to a very, very nice future cruise credit.

 

Darcy

Wow, that's terrible. I'm glad you were able to work something out with Princess.

When I sailed on the Carnival Destiny back in 2008, a pipe burst in the cabin next to me. That cabin was uninhabitable after that - water came down on pretty much everything including the mattress so the people were moved to a different cabin. My cabin, being next door, ended up with a leak coming through the ceiling onto the desk area. Thankfully, my laptop that was sitting on the desk was closed and didn't get damaged. However, the water that came down onto the desk then dripped over the edge of the desk onto the floor soaking the carpet. several feet in each direction from the leaky area. This happened about halfway through the cruise. The crew sucked most of the water out of the carpet and then set a huge fan in my cabin to dry it out, but it never got completely dry the rest of the cruise. It was an outside cabin, no balcony. For the inconvenience of having to walk on damp carpet, Carnival gave me $100 OBC, chocolate covered strawberries and a bottle of wine, none of which I ever asked for. Future cruise credit wouldn't have done me any good because I haven't sailed on Carnival since then :p

I still haven't filled out my post-cruise survey having just got home last night. I'm going to work on that today. I will be letting them know exactly what happened. We'll see if they ever get back to me about it.

Sorry you had problems with the water on the Coral. On our Coral cruise earlier this month, we thought we had only cold water in the shower but then discovered that the knob that sets the temperature was misaligned and you had to go way past the 50 mark to get hot water. Clearly your issue went beyond this simple fix.

In addition to honestly answering the survey, I would suggest that you write to: customerrelations@princesscruises.com . I had an immediate response when I wrote to them regarding our "soggy suite" on the Caribbean Princess a few years ago and they were extremely apologetic and also offered a generous amount of OBC for our next cruise. Haven't had a significant issue since then but it helped to know that the Customer Relations folks were truly interested in what their guests experience.

Good luck and I hope you enjoyed your cruise despite the cold showers!

Yikes! We're sailing on Coral in 1.5 weeks. I hope the water issues are resolved by then, altho we are on the Dolphin deck so maybe wouldn't have them (?).

Sorry to hear about you water problem, what cabin were you in that way i know not to shower lol.

While addressing your issues through the post cruise survey may help to collect your thoughts and vent a bit, you need to remember that the survey is "farmed out" by Princess to a third party who primarily collects numbers.

As mentioned by azbirdmom - photos and well written letter to Princess is the best way to handle the water problem.

Darcy

Interesting.

On all the Princess ships we've been on I've never ran across "freezing cold water" ever. Makes me wonder what was happening on the ship. :rolleyes:

I can never get cold water from the bathroom taps. It's always a bit on the tepid side.

I can never get cold water from the bathroom taps. It's always a bit on the tepid side.

It can depend a lot on where the ship is sailing. The water is stored in tanks against the hull so if you are in a warm water area (e.g. Caribbean) the cold water can be quite warm. If in a cold water area (e.g. Alaska, Norway) then the cold water will be colder.

Was explained by one of the officers when doing the ships tour following a question by another pax as to why the cold water was not 'cold'. (we were in the Med)

While the water isn't actually "cold", on bare naked skin, it FEELS cold...certainly not what you want to shower with!

Sorry you had problems with the water on the Coral. On our Coral cruise earlier this month, we thought we had only cold water in the shower but then discovered that the knob that sets the temperature was misaligned and you had to go way past the 50 mark to get hot water. Clearly your issue went beyond this simple fix.

 

In addition to honestly answering the survey, I would suggest that you write to: customerrelations@princesscruises.com . I had an immediate response when I wrote to them regarding our "soggy suite" on the Caribbean Princess a few years ago and they were extremely apologetic and also offered a generous amount of OBC for our next cruise. Haven't had a significant issue since then but it helped to know that the Customer Relations folks were truly interested in what their guests experience.

 

Good luck and I hope you enjoyed your cruise despite the cold showers!

We did enjoy the cruise. It's hard not to enjoy Alaska with all that beautiful scenery, even in cloudy weather.

I spoke with a few people about the problem and the best explanation that I got was from an engineer in the control room when we were doing the Ultimate Ship Tour on the last sea day. He explained that switching out the pipe was causing a delay in the hot water because water was running through BOTH pipes at once. They can't simply take one out before installing the other one because then the cabins would have been without water altogether. This also meant that less hot water was running through each pipe. I guess they finally got the project complete, at least on that portion of Baja deck, on that second to last day so that on our sea day we finally had the hot water we'd been missing the first several days.

Yikes! We're sailing on Coral in 1.5 weeks. I hope the water issues are resolved by then, altho we are on the Dolphin deck so maybe wouldn't have them (?).

I didn't hear about any problems on Dolphin deck, just mainly on Baja and some on Caribe. Of course that doesn't mean there weren't any problems, just that I didn't hear about them :D

I can never get cold water from the bathroom taps. It's always a bit on the tepid side.

That's the way it's always been for me too, in the Caribbean. This time we were in Alaska and it could be quite cold. OK, not "freezing" cold but it sure felt that way in the shower. Certain body parts just don't need to be exposed to water that cold :eek:

It can depend a lot on where the ship is sailing. The water is stored in tanks against the hull so if you are in a warm water area (e.g. Caribbean) the cold water can be quite warm. If in a cold water area (e.g. Alaska, Norway) then the cold water will be colder.

Was explained by one of the officers when doing the ships tour following a question by another pax as to why the cold water was not 'cold'. (we were in the Med)

Interesting explanation. Thanks :)

While addressing your issues through the post cruise survey may help to collect your thoughts and vent a bit, you need to remember that the survey is "farmed out" by Princess to a third party who primarily collects numbers.

 

As mentioned by azbirdmom - photos and well written letter to Princess is the best way to handle the water problem.

 

Darcy

Good point. I wish there had been a good way to photo cold water. lol. All I have are the photos of ladders and buckets. I will send an e-mail, probably in a few days after I've had time to compose something a bit more well written than what I put in the survey.

As far as your request regarding the amount of compensation, I'd call it on the low end of fair...

From the sound of things, they did everything possible to accommodate and resolve the situation including the alternate cabin, etc. And it seems like everything was responded to promptly. So absent the point below, I'd say it was reasonable..

BUT, they also were obviously aware that the plumbing changes in process were going to have an impact on customers AND they were obviously also planned in advance. With that in mind, they could have been more proactive in informing you of the issues (I am assuming the issue was related to the changes and not the electrical issues, which was my first thought). Because of that, I think compensation was a bit low because they had advance warning.

I'm not sure I would ask for additional compensation, but I would as noted contact customer relations and ask why there (for example) wasn't a letter stating maintenance work would be occurring and what the impact would be in cabin when you boarded, and see what they say.

As far as your request regarding the amount of compensation, I'd call it on the low end of fair...

 

From the sound of things, they did everything possible to accommodate and resolve the situation including the alternate cabin, etc. And it seems like everything was responded to promptly. So absent the point below, I'd say it was reasonable..

 

BUT, they also were obviously aware that the plumbing changes in process were going to have an impact on customers AND they were obviously also planned in advance. With that in mind, they could have been more proactive in informing you of the issues (I am assuming the issue was related to the changes and not the electrical issues, which was my first thought). Because of that, I think compensation was a bit low because they had advance warning.

 

I'm not sure I would ask for additional compensation, but I would as noted contact customer relations and ask why there (for example) wasn't a letter stating maintenance work would be occurring and what the impact would be in cabin when you boarded, and see what they say.

Great points, and I will do just that.

We were in a mini suite on Dolphin deck port side aft, and the shower water was lukewarm at best. We heard grumblings all over the ship that others had that same problem. With the exception of not great showers and bad indoor pool experience with little babies allowed to be bounced around in diapers in that pool and kids running around unsupervised, uncaring staff there and management- yes I complained, politely though- useless., we still managed to have an enjoyable cruise.

We were on the Coral at the end of April/beginning of May, Panama Cruise. We didn't experience any issues with hot water in our Caribe deck, aft cabin. We did hear from one of our CC roll call members that they had issues with no hot water in the sink (Caribe deck, forward). The other thing we noticed was on the day of the Panama Canal crossing there were ceiling panels off near the forward elevator area in the port side hall on the Baja deck. Crew people were working on pipes in those areas. The only reason that we noticed was because we were on our way to the forward viewing area on the Baja deck. Sounds as though there was some maintenance that may not have been completed during the recent dry dock. :confused:

On the Crown last month we had two days of cold showers, and reported it both days (prior to that the water warm - hot enough for a shower if on the hotest setting). I emailed customer relations and I think we got about a 75.00 OBC each. Took about a week.

We had the same problem on another line - I think it was HAL but I am not sure. For 2 nights, they gave us a key to another cabin so that we could shower. When they still could not fix it, the moved us from our restricted visibility outside cabin to a veranda cabin for the rest of the cruise. I think that they also comped us to a free dinner at one of the restaurants but again I am not sure of that.

I thought that what they did was very fair.

DON

We were on the same cruise and met 10 people with no hot water. Our water was hot but the water was turned off in our cabin all day Friday. It was not only Baja deck with problems with leaking water.

It took us 4 hours to wash one load of clothes on Baja deck. Passenger services keep sending people who had no idea what to do. One did bring a sign to put on the washer but every time we left another washer broke and the sign keep moving. There were also problems with dryers. We were advised to go to Deck 12 to dry our dripping wet clothes since dryers were breaking on Baja. 3 hours later they were mostly dry other passengers were not so lucky.

This is distressing to hear. We will be on Baja deck in August. Hopefully before then I'll read the problems have been resolved. I hope everyone affected reported it while happening onboard and not just in their post cruise evaluation. (too little too late) No excuses will work if confronted two months from now.

DH was shocked to hear the minor $100 obc offered to Cruizin K for the inconvenience. NOT acceptable in his view. Definitely not if this continues.

I'm getting a bit concerned since we board the Coral on June 11. Don't have cabin assignment yet since we booked a last minute guarantee.

Where was your cabin located?

Hoping I don't get assigned close by.

Alaska05

My family is on the same cruise as you. 11days to go. Not on Baja deck but hope they solve the hot water problem quickly.

Interesting thread, we were on a B2B on the Coral and just got home on May 28th. We were on Emerald deck and had problems with no hot water several times. We called one day and the maintenance man came and checked and just said there was too much demand at that time.