Soot Problem on Royal and Regal

[DShock]

Much discussion (and photos) about soot on aft balconies on Royal Princess. Has Princess addressed that issues or is it just going to be the way it is?

[waltd]

All ready being discussed. Or should I say still being discussed.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2101373

[DShock]

Didn't think they could fix it.

[RickEk]

Didn't think they could fix it.

 

I don't believe that I've read of any soot problems on Regal Princess. As was shown in Dave's thread, they elongated the stacks which, apparently, has fixed the problem. I'm sure that will be retrofitted onto Royal Princess when she has her first drydock.

[Coral]

I don't believe that I've read of any soot problems on Regal Princess. As was shown in Dave's thread, they elongated the stacks which, apparently, has fixed the problem. I'm sure that will be retrofitted onto Royal Princess when she has her first drydock.

 

Though - didn't the problem on the Royal come to light during the transatlantic?

Edited September 18, 2014 by Coral

[Frflatt]

We got off the Regal a week ago after sailing the Grand Med in R735 (aft deluxe balcony) and soot was definitely an issue! Every day the balcony was covered in big globs of oily soot and was unusable until it had been cleaned - even then we had to have towels by the balcony door to protect the carpet.

 

It is possible that the elongated funnel stacks may have reduced the problem, but I haven't been on the Royal so don't know how bad it was on there - however, they certainly haven't eliminated it.

[RickEk]

Though - didn't the problem on the Royal come to light during the transatlantic?

 

A quick google search found this review from 7/17/13 in the Med....

 

http://www.gocruise.co.uk/blogs/royal-princess-august-2013.phtml

[Grego]

This is the first I've heard of extending the stacks on the Royal to solve the soot problem, although I haven't really been monitoring this topic of late.

 

I would be interested in hearing how extending the stacks would fix this unless they were adding scrubbers or other techniques to filter out the soot. Even then, I would think that the problem somewhat is the result of incomplete burning of the fuel or the type of fuel itself.

 

There has been some discussion that the airflow of the vessel was checked out and found to be perfectly fine to allow the escaped "soot" to pass over the ship and not find it's way to the aft cabin balconies and open areas - that is before they added a larger MUTS that changed the dynamics. If taller stacks gets the escaping soot above the MUTS changing airflow then maybe the problem goes away.

 

We will be on the Regal next month and certainly will check out the situation there. While on the Royal earlier this year we didn't notice a problem in the open areas aft, however we didn't have an aft balcony on this voyage.

[majortom10]

I recently asked Christopher Edgington Marketing Manager about P&Os Britannia, same design as Royal/ Regal, about the soot problem and he said that they were aware of the problem but they dont think it will be a problem with Britannia so whether they have changed anything while the ship is being built and can be retrospectively done to Royal/Regal to solve the problem I dont know. But I hope it isnt a problem because we have booked an aft balcony cabin on Britannia for her maiden cruise.

[Coral]

A quick google search found this review from 7/17/13 in the Med....

 

http://www.gocruise.co.uk/blogs/royal-princess-august-2013.phtml

 

The extent of how bad it really was wasn't reported here until Oct on this board: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1927914

 

There were some reports but others often commented that it is "common on many ships with aft balconies". It wasn't until October or so that people realized how bad it was. I remember there being comments of those who had Christmas cruises as this October cruise where it was highly discussed was past final payment for Christmas cruises.

Edited September 18, 2014 by Coral

[Coral]

I recently asked Christopher Edgington Marketing Manager about P&Os Britannia, same design as Royal/ Regal, about the soot problem and he said that they were aware of the problem but they dont think it will be a problem with Britannia so whether they have changed anything while the ship is being built and can be retrospectively done to Royal/Regal to solve the problem I dont know. But I hope it isnt a problem because we have booked an aft balcony cabin on Britannia for her maiden cruise.

 

He is in Marketing - what do you think he would say :)

[Loonbeam]

As I understand it, ships have always produced a little (or maybe not so little) soot, that was picked up with the exhaust and fell behind the ship (depending on water systems, that could be the area of largest environmental impact).

 

Apparently the airflow on the new ships is such that not only is the soot not making it away from the ship, it's actually being concentrated to a ridiculous degree. Whether this ship produces more overall (that would surprise me) is an unknown.

 

To be fair to Princess, this is something that cannot be modeled at scale effectively, so there was no way for them to predict this on the Royal. The fact that construction continued on the Regal with apparently no effect means to me that this is a MAJOR design error that will not be easily fixed by something like extended stacks.

 

At least from my point of view, Princess has handled this horribly. Until the issue is resolved, aft cabins should be discounted, there should be advice on the booking forms (just like obstructed view) that balconies may be unusable.

 

It's entirely possible this won't be fixable without a major drydock overhaul.

[majortom10]

He is in Marketing - what do you think he would say :)

 

He is the new head of P&O Cruises UK so expect him to be honest with cruisers.

[Coral]

He is the new head of P&O Cruises UK so expect him to be honest with cruisers.

 

I don't expect that, honestly. I expect him to be a PR person.

[cruiseintoheaven]

We got off the Regal a week ago after sailing the Grand Med in R735 (aft deluxe balcony) and soot was definitely an issue! Every day the balcony was covered in big globs of oily soot and was unusable until it had been cleaned - even then we had to have towels by the balcony door to protect the carpet.

 

It is possible that the elongated funnel stacks may have reduced the problem, but I haven't been on the Royal so don't know how bad it was on there - however, they certainly haven't eliminated it.

 

Well this is not good news - we have R734 in November for 7 day cruise - husband really looking forward to first aft balcony and a large one as well.....wondering if we should switch.....:confused:

[cibaygirls]

I will be sailing the Royal on 10/25 in cabin D729, so I will certianly be able to report back my experience. I realize I have taken a gamble with booking this cabin, but I had REALLY wanted to try an aft balcony and many other variables made this seem like the cruise to do so on.

 

I have been monitoring the many threads on this issue and there have been a wide array of experiences, some saying it rendered balcony unusable, others reporting no significant problems. So my assumption is that there are many factors at play as to what individual experiences will be. Sooooo.....i am keeping my fingers crossed that we can at least use our balcony, and if not, I guess I will just have to check out the other beautiful, peaceful locations onboard. :(:rolleyes:. I will see what happens, but worse case scenario, I am still on a cruise.

 

Dana

[cruiseintoheaven]

I will be sailing the Royal on 10/25 in cabin D729, so I will certianly be able to report back my experience. I realize I have taken a gamble with booking this cabin, but I had REALLY wanted to try an aft balcony and many other variables made this seem like the cruise to do so on.

 

I have been monitoring the many threads on this issue and there have been a wide array of experiences, some saying it rendered balcony unusable, others reporting no significant problems. So my assumption is that there are many factors at play as to what individual experiences will be. Sooooo.....i am keeping my fingers crossed that we can at least use our balcony, and if not, I guess I will just have to check out the other beautiful, peaceful locations onboard. :(:rolleyes:. I will see what happens, but worse case scenario, I am still on a cruise.

 

Dana

 

Hi Dana, I agree with your observation that the reports vary wildly. You may have no issues as I believe the Dolphin deck is at least partially covered. My understanding is that the Riviera aft balconies are larger, but uncovered....I will keep looking for updates on this issue. Have a great cruise and thanks for the reply!

[Grego]

It will be interesting to see if the problem varies with conditions at sea, cruising speed, in port, etc. Is the design of the stacks projected to throw the soot up and out so the wind current carries it away from the ship. If the ship is in port and generating power, does the soot problem become more of an issue since there isn't any wind current to carry it away from the ship?

[Loonbeam]

That's what I was thinking. Wind direction will be a huge factor as well, if ots coming from the aft for example.

 

It will be interesting to see if the problem varies with conditions at sea, cruising speed, in port, etc. Is the design of the stacks projected to throw the soot up and out so the wind current carries it away from the ship. If the ship is in port and generating power, does the soot problem become more of an issue since there isn't any wind current to carry it away from the ship?

[RocketMan275]

That's what I was thinking. Wind direction will be a huge factor as well, if ots coming from the aft for example.

 

On our cruises where we've had an aft cabin, we have noticed that there is a plume of smoke or soot that can easily be seen from our balcony. Usually, this plume is high in the air above the ship and it can be seen drifting downward towards the sea. The plumes we've observed have been intersecting the sea about a quarter mile aft of the ship. Obviously, various combinations of ship and relative wind speeds could, but not always, cause the plume to intersect the ship.

 

If the plume doesn't rise sufficiently above the air flow close to the ship, it could be pulled downward across the aft balconies. The smoke stack extensions seen on Regal are a 'quick fix', something that could easily be done. It could be effective in certain conditions and not so in others which is consistent with reports of varying amounts of soot. I would expect Princess to be working more effective fixes for the first dry dock for each ship.

 

I've got an aft booked on Regal in March. Wife and I discussed the 'soot' issue last night. The wife noted our cabin on Dolphin is partially covered which should mitigate any issues. We've decided to keep our reservation as is and see what happens.

 

We are balcony people and we know we'll not be happy with the miniscule side balconies. This is a gamble we're willing to take in order to try Regal.

[capriccio]

I really hope that those of you on the Royal on Dolphin deck have a better experience that we did because the partially covered balcony didn't help one bit. We were in owner's suite (D727) and my DB and SIL were next door in D729 (premium deluxe balcony) last December. We really liked the ship but would never ever waste our money on 1) an owners suite (see my thread: http://www.boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1956349) and/or 2) an aft facing cabin on the Royal. In fact we have already booked an MA category mini-suite with extended angled balcony for October 2015 and expect to have a lovely cruise..

[pablo222]

We got off the Regal a week ago after sailing the Grand Med in R735 (aft deluxe balcony) and soot was definitely an issue! Every day the balcony was covered in big globs of oily soot and was unusable until it had been cleaned - even then we had to have towels by the balcony door to protect the carpet.

 

It is amazing to me that after 50+ years of diesel powered ship building,

that the process hasn't been refined to avoid something like this.

 

Besides Royal/Regal, do other recent ships have this problem?

[jdslkmj]

We will be on the Regal the first week of April in D730...Reading this thread, it sounds like some of you guys will be in cabins beside this one later this fall. Will you please post back after your cruise and let us know if there was a soot problem on D aft balconies on the Regal? We had an opportunity to move to a mid ship mini-suite, but this is our first ever aft balcony and I didn't want to give it up! (Though we've never stayed in a mini suite before either...) Hope I don't regret not making the change...:rolleyes:

[RickEk]

It is amazing to me that after 50+ years of diesel powered ship building,

that the process hasn't been refined to avoid something like this.

 

Besides Royal/Regal, do other recent ships have this problem?

 

Celebrity's Solstice-class...

[scott4020]

What you get has a lot to do with ship speed and prevailing winds. On our Royal cruise we had absolutely perfect weather for the majority of the trip with smooth seas and light winds across the bow. You could watch the exhaust go high and off the boat at and angle and we were soot free. The one dayg that the weather was different you could see the exhaust hanging low and directly out the rear of the ship and the balcony was completely unusable because of the soot and the smell.

 

I absolutely loved the Royal and I will sail on her or her sister again but I don't think we will take the chance with an aft balcony on them again.