Soot and the aft balconies

[mysparky]

We're just off the Liberty of Seas and we stayed in the Royal Family Suite (8714) and the adjoining balcony (8712). Due to soot issues, we found our balcony to be essentially unusable. The soot was unreal. We didn't realize this was a problem on the first evening and we were sitting out on the balcony, but when we came back in doors, everyone realized that they had soot all over their pants, shirts, hands and feet! Housekeeping was kind enough to wash our clothes at no charge, but the soot didn't come completely out of my white pants:(

 

The soot remained bad throughout the cruise. The crew members were exceptionally helpful and really tried to keep the deck clean, but the build-up between their cleanings was crazy. We loved everything about these 2 rooms except for the soot issue.

 

My question is this....is this typical? We'd love to book these rooms again, but not if this is the norm. I've heard mention of soot and having to shake things off, but this seemed more extensive.

 

This was from wiping just one cushion off and was taken at 8am. The deck had been cleaned/wiped down on the previous night around 9pm.

[cb at sea]

Ick! That would render the balcony almost unusable....without major "housecleaning" prior to every use!

I've heard of soot issues on older ships, but not on the newer ones. So sorry you had that issue!

[dixieva]

We've had the aft RFS on the Grandeur and had no soot during our 9 day cruise. We had that same room twice and no soot at all either time.

 

So maybe it's the newer ships with the problem and not the older ships.

 

Sorry you had to deal with that. Those RFS rooms are great and the balcony is wonderful-without the soot.

[lady_cruiser]

We have our first AFT balcony on the Voyager. I hope we don't have the same issue as you had :eek:.

 

I don't always believe in people getting free compts but I think in this case the purser could have thrown in a little more free cleaning. Even a small basket of fruit would have been nice on their part.

 

Thanks for posting your photograph.

[Puffinater]

That would really suck. I have not read about many soot issues and I wonder how often this happens.

 

We have had aft balconies on both Voyage and Radiance Class ships and have not experienced any soot.

[LindaAndBillTravel]

We've experienced soot in an aft balcony on Navigator (although not as bad as the OP had), but never had a problem on any of the Radiance class ships.

[mysparky]

We have our first AFT balcony on the Voyager. I hope we don't have the same issue as you had :eek:.

 

I don't always believe in people getting free compts but I think in this case the purser could have thrown in a little more free cleaning. Even a small basket of fruit would have been nice on their part.

 

Thanks for posting your photograph.

 

 

The staff was actually very accommodating and I have to say that I was definitely impressed with their response to the issue. I really think they did everything they could and short of them putting up an awning to cover the balcony, can't imagine what else they could have done for us.

On the last day of the cruise, the Hotel Director contacted us and offered us a discount off of a future cruise.

 

So, for sure, they kept me as a customer, just not sure if I'd book an aft balcony again, but sounds like perhaps this was a little unusual.

[Murphs]

My wife and I met a couple on Freedom in March who were staying in an aft balcony room and they were extremely dissapointed because they had a soot and exhaust problem. They said that they could smell the exhaust from the stack all the time and had soot on everything. Sad thing is that this was their first balcony and it really turned them off to it.

 

Mike

[joyride21]

We had an aft balcony on Mariner and had soot issues five out of seven days, with varying levels of severity...

[willing292]

we've had afts on the Voyager, the Vision and the Empress and never had a soot problem. I wonder if it has something to do with the weather, high pressure vs low pressure zones?

[39august]

We've sailed aft balcony cabins on all Voyager class and the two Freedom class ships. Sometimes there was soot, sometimes not. But it was never as bad as the OP states. What a bummer for them! Radiance class ships do not have the soot problem.

[xpcdoojk]

We had an aft on the Independence of the Seas for 13 nights in November, zero ash. On the Mariner for 7 nights we had it one day, but nothing bad. I imagine it has to do with the relative wind flowing over the ship, IE there is always ash, but it doesn't always land on the same balconies.

 

jc

[H2Otstr]

Had some soot on the Brilliance. Ruined 2 pair of pants before we realized what it was. Both pair of pants were laundered by RCL, with a special note in the laundry indicating what was on our pants, but the spots never came out. After that we placed towels on the chairs.

[GiannaD]

We were on the Vision of the Seas last October on a Holy Land cruise. We had the aft corner balcony (JS) on deck 8. The balcony was huge but unusable several days. We had to be very careful with the chairs and railings so as not to ruin our clothes. Some days the balcony was fine and others covered with soot. We thought the surrounding ships when we were docked in commercial ports like Alexandria and Ashdod might have been the problem because the balcony seemed fine on sea days and in Istanbul and Kusadasi. Perhaps it was the wind currents as suggested above that brought the soot from the stack above and not soot from the other ships. I cleaned the chairs and railings but still had soot on my shoes so I gave up. Housekeeping couldn't be there 24/7.

 

The soot was a real problem so for our next cruise we chose a JS on the side of the ship. Hopefully there will be no soot.

[PSCruiser]

A bit of soot some days on our Navigator aft corner balcony (deck 9) last fall. However, major soot alert! - while waiting for the aqua show to start on Oasis, the soot came raining down on that area. On our hair and clothing, and people that came in and sat on it were a mess.

[Tony O]

We have our first AFT balcony on the Voyager. I hope we don't have the same issue as you had :eek:.

 

 

We sailed on the Voyager deck 10 aft cabin and had no soot issue. But every morning we woke up the balcony and furniture was a little wet from the automatic window cleaning system above us. But that was really a minor issue. Great views and huge balcony made up for any inconvenience. I have some pictures posted of the room and balcony.

[kernow]

We had one morning with soot on a deck 10 aft Explorer 12 day cruise, and 3 or 4 days on a Splendour deck 8 aft. Neither were that much of a problem and were easily wiped away.

 

We have a deck 10 aft booked for the Liberty transatlantic next year, I hope we don't get the problems you had.

 

Julie

[pabrett46]

Hi I had heard that Oasis had the same problem. .. but they were working on doing something with the stack to fix the problem. Since I haven't seen any further postings about it they must have fixed the problem.

 

D

[RevSmith]

We're just off the Liberty of Seas and we stayed in the Royal Family Suite (8714) and the adjoining balcony (8712). Due to soot issues, we found our balcony to be essentially unusable. The soot was unreal. We didn't realize this was a problem on the first evening and we were sitting out on the balcony, but when we came back in doors, everyone realized that they had soot all over their pants, shirts, hands and feet! Housekeeping was kind enough to wash our clothes at no charge, but the soot didn't come completely out of my white pants:(

 

The soot remained bad throughout the cruise. The crew members were exceptionally helpful and really tried to keep the deck clean, but the build-up between their cleanings was crazy. We loved everything about these 2 rooms except for the soot issue.

 

My question is this....is this typical? We'd love to book these rooms again, but not if this is the norm. I've heard mention of soot and having to shake things off, but this seemed more extensive.

 

[ATTACH]166459[/ATTACH]

This was from wiping just one cushion off and was taken at 8am. The deck had been cleaned/wiped down on the previous night around 9pm.

 

Yes, we just got off the Grandeur, deck seven aft and the soot issue was awful...you even breathed it in if you were outside.

[absolutsixthree]

We were on Serenade 2 weeks ago, aft balcony room # 9660, no soot at all. Love the Aft's ..

[foxesden1]

thanks for the heads up! i will make sure and check out deck before sitting down! ;)

[spadercool]

We had no soot on our aft and were in 7708 on August 8.

[cruizerfromdarock]

We are in 7708 in April 2011. It is great to know you had no soot problems. We were corner aft on the Jewel in March 2008 and had no soot either.

 

Kathy:)

[dutchclogs]

Beware corner aft 9690 on Adventure of the Seas. Our steward was very helpful, gave extra towels and bath robes He said it was a known problem on that (port?) side of the ship

[Happy ks]

We've had aft balconies on Vision and Mariner and never had a soot problem. I believe it can be real and probably depends on which way the wind is blowing. Just luck or unlucky.