Don't book these cabins on the Oosterdam

[rklrkl]

For those of you who will be sailing on the Oosterdam do not book the veranda cabins on Deck 4 on the back of the ship (cabin # 4176,4178,4174,4129,4181,4183) Every day there is black soot from the smokestacks, mixed with the water from when they wash the Lido pool area, which makes an awful mess on the balcony. Just an FYI. Guest Relations on the ship as well as the Hotel Manager (who oversees Housekeeping) state sorry there is nothing that can be done to stop the soot. The best they can do is come daily and clean it, and they handed me a card to call Seattle. I have voiced my complaints, and will let you know the outcome.

[jtl513]

I guess it's a function of how much the verandahs are exposed, because we never had any soot problems with a deck 4 stern cabin on the Noordam.

 

I would think that the Oosterdam's soot problem would also be present on the Westerdam and Zuiderdam ... unless for some reason the O is producing more soot than the others.

[Krazy Kruizers]

I have heard that the deck of aft cabins does tend to get more soot than the aft cabins above them.

[Copper10-8]

Huh? You've got to be very careful if you don't know where you are going, because you might not get there

[mudscraper]

We were in 4139 on the `O` in January and the stewards kept the balcony spic and span clean.

 

 

Rich

[Two@Sea]

Huh? You've got to be very careful if you don't know where you are going, because you might not get there

 

Thanks, Copper... I thought I was the only one.

[DAllenTCY]

This is the first time I've heard of this problem, and the Vista Class has been in service since December 14, 2002.

David

[LADYLAYLA]

For those of you who will be sailing on the Oosterdam do not book the veranda cabins on Deck 4 on the back of the ship (cabin # 4176,4178,4174,4129,4181,4183) Every day there is black soot from the smokestacks, mixed with the water from when they wash the Lido pool area, which makes an awful mess on the balcony. Just an FYI. Guest Relations on the ship as well as the Hotel Manager (who oversees Housekeeping) state sorry there is nothing that can be done to stop the soot. The best they can do is come daily and clean it, and they handed me a card to call Seattle. I have voiced my complaints, and will let you know the outcome.

 

 

So does the water just bypass the aft cabins on all decks above?

[Bobs cruising]

I have heard that the deck of aft cabins does tend to get more soot than the aft cabins above them.

 

Say What? :confused:

[jtl513]

We were in 4139 on the `O` in January and the stewards kept the balcony spic and span clean.

4139 is not a stern cabin. (Neither is 4129, but I believe that's a typo that should be 4179)

 

So does the water just bypass the aft cabins on all decks above?

The deck 4 verandahs could catch more water than those above because they are much more exposed.

 

Click picture to enlarge

[tamsocal]

Does anyone have 1st hand experience with Oosterdam Upper Verandah deck Aft cabins-- we are booked for 12 nights & still have other options for cabins I think--

assuming this is not an isolated event & if it likewise happens on the higher decks

[Jo-Bob]

Ok, I'll bite:

"AFT" is a direction, 'stern' is the location? So....cabins aft of the atrium may be located on the stern? (or something like that?)

[jtl513]

Ok, I'll bite:

"AFT" is a direction, 'stern' is the location? So....cabins aft of the atrium may be located on the stern? (or something like that?)

The stern is as far aft as you can go ... the very back of the ship only. Most of the people here that talk about aft cabins really mean stern cabins - the ones that face the wake.

[Boytjie]

So does the water just bypass the aft cabins on all decks above?

 

Apparently the soot does too. :rolleyes:

[DizzyDallasDi]

Huh? You've got to be very careful if you don't know where you are going, because you might not get there

 

I was there once but forgot why so I turned around and ended up where I started. :D

[CoolChile]

And the faster I went, the behinder I got.

[Adri204]

And the faster I went, the behinder I got.

 

 

LMAO I just busted up laughing at this so hard that My cat looked at me with a what the heck is wrong with mama look lmao,

 

Adri :)

[traveljule]

Does anyone have 1st hand experience with Oosterdam Upper Verandah deck Aft cabins-- we are booked for 12 nights & still have other options for cabins I think--

assuming this is not an isolated event & if it likewise happens on the higher decks

 

We had our first aft suite a couple weeks ago on the Oosterdam - cabin 6166. We did notice some soot on the table and deck 1 or 2 mornings but our fantastic cabin stewards cleaned it right up! We were very happy with our cabin and had a great cruise!

[mudscraper]

4139 is not a stern cabin. (Neither is 4129, but I believe that's a typo that should be 4179)

 

The deck 4 verandahs could catch more water than those above because they are much more exposed.

 

Click picture to enlarge

Thanks. I wondered why I didn`t see the wake from my verandah.

 

 

Rich

[tamsocal]

We had our first aft suite a couple weeks ago on the Oosterdam - cabin 6166. We did notice some soot on the table and deck 1 or 2 mornings but our fantastic cabin stewards cleaned it right up! We were very happy with our cabin and had a great cruise!

 

Thanks a bunch for the post. We are looking forward to our Oosterdam cruise in september

[Tamaracboy]

I have had Stern (yes overlooking the wake) cabins on both the Zuiderdam and Westerdam.

I did not have any soot problems on either.

And this represents half of the Vistas.

That said, persistent winds from just the wrong direction and speed could conceivably have something to do with the OP's problem.

Just as they could on any verandah location.

But, OP did not mention wind as a factor or as a reason given by the HotMan.

[Stevesan]

Better yet, don't book any cabins on Vista Class ships. Stick with R and S Class (include Zaandam & Volendam).

 

Vista ships were designed by an idiot at Carnival HQ who must have been high on "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds". :p

[FireIce0010]

I always book those aft balcony cabins and have never had an issue with the soot. This is news to me.

[bbwex]

Soot and stack gases can blow in almost any direction depending on the relative wind, air currents around the superstructure, etc. Certainly, it tends to blow aft (go astern as in behind the ship), so it would generally be worse there. I wonder in the OP's case whether the wash down issue from above wasn't aggravating the problem as it was bringing some upper soot with it.

 

For those that like cabins in the aft section, or the actual stern cabins, this is a problem that goes with them. Much as we would like the laws of physics not to apply to our vacation fun, they are hard to avoid.

 

Line from Bugs Bunny: "I know this defies the law of gravity, but I never studied law."

[rklrkl]

This was my 33rd cruise (5th HAL) and 26 of the 33 were in stern cabins. Except for a slight issue on Costa 12 years ago, I have never experienced the amount of soot, water, used coctail napkins, cigarette butts, etc.

I do commend the cabin steward who cleaned the balcony twice daily in addition to my early morning mopping with bath towels.

This cannot be the first time this problem has arisen, especially since my neighbors on both sides had similiar issues. The purpose of my original post was to give some warning specifically about this ship and these cabins.