awful rusty and slippery balcony floor

[sonnenschein]

We just returned from a 15 day Hawaii cruise on the Grand. This was princess cruise #26 for us and we have always enjoyed our mini suites and there larger balconies on D and E decks. This time I hardly stepped out out on the balcony since it looked so very awful and unapealing. The blue painted metal floor can become very slippery and I almost fell twice if my DH hadn't held on to me. I am just waiting for some cruiser to sue Princess for incuring a unsafe floor falling injury! The corners had large areas of rust,dirt and mold,just looking down took my desire to use the balcony away from me. To make the enjoyment even less, the new uncomfy furniture are hard as a board and to narrow, who bought those chairs,are there trying to punish us for spending our money to be misserable using the balcony?

Please Princess reinstall the old rubber floor matts, so all of us can enjoy the balconies we spend our hard earned money on, and while you are doing that give us some nice chairs to enjoy sitting on. I am trying very hard to be loyal to Princess (we are already booked for a March cruise) but the line should also try to accomodate us. Beeing save stepping out on the balcony without slipping is not to much to ask.:confused:

[caribill]

I hope you noted this in your post-cruise survey. Also would not hurt to write a nice letter to Princess on the subject.

[RickEk]

The Grand is going into drydock shortly...hopefully they'll be fixing all this...

[MauiLvrs]

Dolphin, port, midships, October...

 

 

Edited December 2, 2013 by MauiLvrs

[SwissDave]

Blue matting was removed from all Grand balconies during last major drydock (the one where skywalkers was removed).

The removal of the matting was discussed at great length on here at the time.

 

My understanding is that during the next drydock the balcony floors will be repainted with a non slip type surface similar to what is on the Royal. But we will just have to wait and see if that happens.

[Guest arowe6]

We had similar issues on the Royal. Anytime it rained our, balcony floor would flood. The blue mesh flooring at least raised the flooring a bit to give the water some place to go.

 

-Andrew :)

[pris993]

I did a 7 day coastal on the Grand late September, from reading this board I expected the mini suite balcony we had to be a mess. I guess we were lucky, no problems, found the ship in great condition. Would gladly cruise on the Grand again. When we sit out on the balcony we always bring out small pillows from the sofa and sometimes a bed pillow to use with the balcony chairs... very confortable with the pillows. Where there is a will there is a way. Happy cruising.

[IdahoCruises]

We just returned from a 15 day Hawaii cruise on the Grand. This was princess cruise #26 for us and we have always enjoyed our mini suites and there larger balconies on D and E decks. This time I hardly stepped out out on the balcony since it looked so very awful and unapealing. The blue painted metal floor can become very slippery and I almost fell twice if my DH hadn't held on to me. I am just waiting for some cruiser to sue Princess for incuring a unsafe floor falling injury! The corners had large areas of rust,dirt and mold,just looking down took my desire to use the balcony away from me. To make the enjoyment even less, the new uncomfy furniture are hard as a board and to narrow, who bought those chairs,are there trying to punish us for spending our money to be misserable using the balcony?

Please Princess reinstall the old rubber floor matts, so all of us can enjoy the balconies we spend our hard earned money on, and while you are doing that give us some nice chairs to enjoy sitting on. I am trying very hard to be loyal to Princess (we are already booked for a March cruise) but the line should also try to accomodate us. Beeing save stepping out on the balcony without slipping is not to much to ask.:confused:

 

We were on the Grand from SF to HI this October. Did not find the decks slippery at all, furniture was very comfortable, and there was minimal rust -

which they were taking care of during the cruise.

 

I Appreciate that not all staterooms have probably gotten the attention ours had, but maintaining any boat or ship in a salt water environment is a constant struggle.

[caber]

I cannot comment on the slipperiness of the floor but a bit of rust is to be expected due to the sea air etc.

[MauiLvrs]

I have yet to see ANYONE post a photo of the awful rust :confused:

 

We did find a quarter size spot and some along the lip on the side (see photo above).

Edited December 2, 2013 by MauiLvrs

[kruisey]

We just returned from a 15 day Hawaii cruise on the Grand. This was princess cruise #26 for us and we have always enjoyed our mini suites and there larger balconies on D and E decks. This time I hardly stepped out out on the balcony since it looked so very awful and unapealing. The blue painted metal floor can become very slippery and I almost fell twice if my DH hadn't held on to me. I am just waiting for some cruiser to sue Princess for incuring a unsafe floor falling injury! The corners had large areas of rust,dirt and mold,just looking down took my desire to use the balcony away from me. To make the enjoyment even less, the new uncomfy furniture are hard as a board and to narrow, who bought those chairs,are there trying to punish us for spending our money to be misserable using the balcony?

Please Princess reinstall the old rubber floor matts, so all of us can enjoy the balconies we spend our hard earned money on, and while you are doing that give us some nice chairs to enjoy sitting on. I am trying very hard to be loyal to Princess (we are already booked for a March cruise) but the line should also try to accomodate us. Beeing save stepping out on the balcony without slipping is not to much to ask.:confused:

 

Did you ask your cabin steward to fix the balcony while on board ?

[FritzG]

Did you ask your cabin steward to fix the balcony while on board ?

 

What could the cabin steward do? They don't have a pile of mats onboard for the steward to install, and he couldn't sand and paint the rust spots.

[caribill]

What could the cabin steward do? They don't have a pile of mats onboard for the steward to install, and he couldn't sand and paint the rust spots.

 

He/she could call maintenance to sand and paint the rust spots.

[peety3]

The Grand is going into drydock shortly...hopefully they'll be fixing all this...

 

I've seen Princess redo an entire room while underway. They can certainly do the same with nonslip mats, paint, and furniture. There's no reason they'd need to wait until drydock to do any of these repairs.

 

I've seen TV shows that chronicle the organized chaos of disembarkation/embarkation, and whichever ship I saw was able to exchange 150 mattresses that day. Several pallets of nonslip mats would probably load on easier than mattresses.

[whataboutport]

We had similar issues on the Royal. Anytime it rained our, balcony floor would flood. The blue mesh flooring at least raised the flooring a bit to give the water some place to go.

 

-Andrew :)

We had the blue mesh flooring on the CB and appreciated it. When it rained, all the rainwater would fall down and collect of the D and C decks below and those balconies were completely flooded. Even with the blue flooring it was flooded, so I can not imagine how awful it would be without the mesh flooring.

[kruisey]

He/she could call maintenance to sand and paint the rust spots.

Princess has a special crew on board that just work at these kinds of jobs.I have seen them in the mornings around the promenade deck.I know they would have fixed the balcony for them.

I know because I see them on my morning walks around the promenade deck and curse under my breath;)when I have to walk around them,or make a section out of bounds while they scrape and paint.

[bdjam]

I've seen Princess redo an entire room while underway. They can certainly do the same with nonslip mats, paint, and furniture. There's no reason they'd need to wait until drydock to do any of these repairs.

 

While on Grand Princess in early October I was quite impressed that our entire cabin was recarpeted within two hours. But that's one cabin - the logistics of re-doing one balcony - let alone many - may be different when the ship is underway. There's the matter of interrupting passengers who might be in their stateroom, dealing with the supplies and the people who do the work (who would normally be working somewhere else on the ship). Suffice to say, the whole operation could be difficult.

With all that, I was told that balcony mats on Grand Princess would be replaced with the December dry dock. I don't find the furniture to be as bad as some would like to report, but it seems that brand new Royal Princess has the same kind of furniture, so it's apparently a standard for the line.

[Times Prince]

What could the cabin steward do? They don't have a pile of mats onboard for the steward to install, and he couldn't sand and paint the rust spots.

Plus one has to be careful about what you ask for - one cruise the previous passenger in the cabin complained about the balcony and we lost use of the balcony for a day while the paint and varnish dried. After that experience I can live with a little rust spot.

 

If it is a safety issue, however, that's a different issue - it should be addressed ASAP.

[Stevesan]

I've seen Princess redo an entire room while underway. They can certainly do the same with nonslip mats, paint, and furniture. There's no reason they'd need to wait until drydock to do any of these repairs.

 

I've seen TV shows that chronicle the organized chaos of disembarkation/embarkation, and whichever ship I saw was able to exchange 150 mattresses that day. Several pallets of nonslip mats would probably load on easier than mattresses.

 

Balcony mats were removed following the fire on Star Princess. As mentioned in this thread, they should be painted with a nonskid paint.

[seamanfs]

Just off the Star a few weeks ago and our balcony on Baja (623) had nice blue matting with the rather uncomfortable blue chairs. Very nice with no rust issues. We spent lots of time there: used towels for some chair padding!!

[5326jan]

The chairs are really awful! So hard that you have to cushion with something. I hope they don't hold up well and need to be replaced soon. Whoever bought them, must have done so from a picture online. :rolleyes:

[caribill]

Balcony mats were removed following the fire on Star Princess. As mentioned in this thread, they should be painted with a nonskid paint.

 

Just off the Star a few weeks ago and our balcony on Baja (623) had nice blue matting with the rather uncomfortable blue chairs. Very nice with no rust issues. We spent lots of time there: used towels for some chair padding!!

 

Obviously the mats still exist on the Star.

 

They were removed from the Grand during its last retrofit. Probably some bean counter saw a chance to reduce costs by not having to maintain them and a slightly lower cost in fuel without their weight.

 

So far I have yet to see one post that says the painted surface is better than the mat. In fact, the balcony often becomes unusable without the mats due to water being there.

Edited December 3, 2013 by caribill

[bdjam]

Balcony mats were removed following the fire on Star Princess. As mentioned in this thread, they should be painted with a nonskid paint.

 

Balcony mats were not removed from Star Princess after her fire. The mats have been removed only from Grand Princess. The paint on the balcony seems pretty non-skid to me. Even when it's wet I have been able to walk on it in flip-flops without slipping.

[whataboutport]

I personally didn't find the chairs that uncomfortable. Granted we only sat out there for less than 30 mins each time, but I didn't sit down and immediately thought, Oh so uncomfortable! And I've got a bony butt too. I mean I wouldn't try to sleep on them, but I thought they were decent.

Edited December 3, 2013 by whataboutport