Soot Problem on Royal and Regal

[cibaygirls]

 

thanks for the additonal info....we are leaning towards keeping the aft balcony at this point. was going to say "how bad can it be" but think I'll refrain from that :D

 

 

That's what I did. I am packing a pair of shorts and a T-shirt which i don't mind if they get dirty. I realize it is a big roll of the dice. My DH's biggest concern is if it will affect air quality. I don't mind the possibility of getting a bit dirty, but as he is asthmatic I don't want it to impair his breathing.

 

Dana

[jdslkmj]

I am going to stick with it - and hope for the best!!!:o

[eandj]

We did decide not to do the aft balcony on Regal in Jan. We'll stick to other ships for that location because of soot possibility. We ended up booking D425 which has a larger balcony midship. Should work out. Not a larger room, but we spend lots more time on the balcony on Carib itineraries.

[cibaygirls]

I just got off the royal from an aft balcony on dolphin deck. The floor of the balcony was quite stained from soot, as was the carpet just inside. There were a few days where in the morning we went out and there was soot on the table and floor. Never really saw it actively shooting while we were out sitting.

[cruiseintoheaven]

I just got off the royal from an aft balcony on dolphin deck. The floor of the balcony was quite stained from soot, as was the carpet just inside. There were a few days where in the morning we went out and there was soot on the table and floor. Never really saw it actively shooting while we were out sitting.

 

Thanks for reporting back - Curious what your takeaway is aside from the facts. In other words, would book an aft balcony again? How much did it impact your experience, etc? We are boarding the Regal this Sunday in an aft balcony and not sure what to expect, other than hope for the best :)

[cibaygirls]

I would book an aft again. The soot did not ruin the cruise, but based on what I have read, it seems like we had a best case soot scenario. For us we woke up a couple of days and the soot was there, it wasn't really ever raining soot like I have heard happened to some others. I really wanted the aft for a decent size balcony, I think were I to book the Royal again, I would book a different cabin and save my aft cabins for other ships that dont have such a risk. We do often sit outside on our balcony and there were a couple of times when we were already dressed that we didn't do so cause we didn't want to get dirty. I did find the bottom of my feet dirty any time after walking on the balcony. I did really like being at the aft end for convenience to stairs and buffet.

 

Go in with a positive attitude and see what happens. We did speak to the captain circle hostess at the end of the trip and told her our experience. We were given 2 drink coupons.

[compozer]

Some of you are bringing up some good points. I really think the soot problem depends on the location of the balcony. We had the port owners suite on Royal's R deck and the soot was terrible. We watched many times from the top deck and could see the smoke/soot leave the stacks and then fall at the aft of the ship on the port side. It landed on some of the decks but not all. With saw this while heading both south and north. I think that is why people on the same cruise have different experiences with the soot. People on our cruise in the aft stairboard side suite said they had very little soot. So I believe the location makes a huge difference.

 

We paid $4300 pp for our 7 day Christmas cruise and I was very upset that we could not use our balcony at all that week. We book aft suites because we love the stern balconies and spend most of the daylight hours there rather than going to a crowded pool especially on holiday cruises. Now, if someone has a less expensive aft balcony cabin, but spend their day at other places on the ship, a little soot may not bother them as much. They may only use it for a cup or two of coffee in the morning and for drinks before dinner.

 

It didn't help our situation that the steward just wiped the furniture down with a cloth. I asked why he wasn't using the hose to wash it down. He said the hose was not long enough to reach our cabin.

[Steviewonder1]

Now that the new Regal has been christened we will find out how bad the soot issue is when she sets sail from Ft. Lauderdale with one of the many Live Updates from the ship. The old Regal did not have an issue, just the Royal and possibly the new Regal now in use. Time will tell not too soon from now.

[Carolyn R]

I just got off the Royal and had the last starboard balcony on Baja. I asked the people in the OS next to us how the soot issue was. They said they only noticed a little soot one day out of ten and it was a nonissue for them.

[Textemale]

Thanks for reporting back - Curious what your takeaway is aside from the facts. In other words, would book an aft balcony again? How much did it impact your experience, etc? We are boarding the Regal this Sunday in an aft balcony and not sure what to expect, other than hope for the best :)

 

We are boarding the Regal Sunday also in an aft balcony. Do I want to have soot? No. Will it ruin my cruise? No way! :):):)

[RocketMan275]

We are boarding the Regal Sunday also in an aft balcony. Do I want to have soot? No. Will it ruin my cruise? No way! :):):)

 

We are in an aft owners suite in March 15 on Regal. Will give a report on our return. Not really worried, but concerned.

[Lovetocruiseprincess]

We are boarding the Regal Sunday also in an aft balcony. Do I want to have soot? No. Will it ruin my cruise? No way! :):):)

Providing you don't want to use your balcony. :p

[Georgeny]

We are boarding the Regal Sunday also in an aft balcony. Do I want to have soot? No. Will it ruin my cruise? No way! :):):)

 

Have had many an aft balcony various ships never had a problem like that. Reading Royal soot problems and seeing pictures didn't make me happy. Was in progress of booking 2 aft owner suites on Regal for next year, pulled reservation back. Had a soot problem a lot of 20 or more years ago on the NCL Norway aft pool area. Was horrible that fuel oil just destroyed bathing suits, clothes etc. Never again!!!

 

We will watch reviews on Regal over time and reconsider. May go Penthouse suite but turned off by narrow balconies. For price of suites non of this should be honestly. Princess is our favorite line currently but a bad ship design can make for many problems. Princess should address this issue.

 

Please post your observations when you return. Thanks...

 

George in NY

[stpointer]

I just returned from the Royal Repo cruise November 4th. We had a terrific time. Our cabin was aft E731. The only issue with soot was the morning after an night of rain. There was soot floating in gathered water on the small table provided on our balcony. Otherwise, nothing. In fact, I was so concerned about having a soot issue that I would place our pool towels over the chairs before sitting. However, the towels came away clean.

[RocketMan275]

I just returned from the Royal Repo cruise November 4th. We had a terrific time. Our cabin was aft E731. The only issue with soot was the morning after an night of rain. There was soot floating in gathered water on the small table provided on our balcony. Otherwise, nothing. In fact, I was so concerned about having a soot issue that I would place our pool towels over the chairs before sitting. However, the towels came away clean.

 

Did anyone on your cruise have a soot issue that you know of? I've booked an aft for March on Regal.

[stpointer]

From what I can gather, the higher up you go, the more soot you experience!

I loved being on deck 8. Just one flight down to the Promenade deck. This allowed you to walk across 7 to meet the staircase down to the restaurants. Or...elevator up directly to the buffet.

[Georgeny]

From what I can gather, the higher up you go, the more soot you experience!

I loved being on deck 8. Just one flight down to the Promenade deck. This allowed you to walk across 7 to meet the staircase down to the restaurants. Or...elevator up directly to the buffet.

 

Glad you didn't have a problem! Appreciate the report back. The fact that there is any soot problem possible is enough for me to not consider sailing theses aft suites. Too many ships, too little time :)

 

Thanks again

George in NY

[cruiseintoheaven]

Did anyone on your cruise have a soot issue that you know of? I've booked an aft for March on Regal.

 

We were in R734 on the Regal 11/9 - this morning. Will post a review but in terms of soot, for us on this particular sailing, it was a non-issue. We had a small amount one morning out of seven. It was taken care of and that was the end of that. The Riviera deck center balconies are huge (I believe about 100 sq. ft.) - but uncovered and it got very, very hot during the day. We had had two loungers with ottomans and a good size table. We enjoyed sitting out watching the wake at night very much. However, considering how little time we actually spent in the cabin in general, not sure we'd spend more for the aft balcony in the future. :confused:

[Textemale]

We are boarding the Regal Sunday also in an aft balcony. Do I want to have soot? No. Will it ruin my cruise? No way! :):):)

 

Just got off the Regal today. Our cabin was E726, the last aft cabin next to the suites and we didn't notice any soot whatsoever. :)

[CallistaSkye]

We were on Dolphin, but it was on the Golden, and didn't have any soot in our balcony at all. Oddly though, there was soot in the toilet water. Is this normal? I actually thought maybe somehow someone had put a cigarette out in our toilet or something because there was so much of it that it looked like ash. But then I flushed and it came back. There was a layer of black soot floating in there pretty much the whole entire trip once the ship had started moving in San Pedro.

Edited November 16, 2014 by CallistaSkye

[tango223]

I decided not to risk it, and changed my booking from an owners suite to a penthouse suite on my b2b on Regal next year. The answer to the question "is it resolved" seemed too vague to me at this stage.

 

Lanwood. We decided like you did and changed our booking from an owner's suite to a penthouse suite on the Royal next year. I didn't want to risk that extra money for a problem that may or may not be fixed.

[WinksCruises]

We just returned from Regal where we had an aft-facing balcony.

 

Is there soot? Yes. Was it a big deal? - Well everyone's different.

 

See our pictures and read our impressions of our sooty balcony over on this post.

Edited December 6, 2014 by WinksCruises

[Fore on the Floor]

We just got off Regal a couple of weeks ago 11/16-11/24. Here are a couple of pictures from our balcony. We where not aft but in D420 right in the middle of the ship. The pictures where taken the last morning after we docked in FLL so I am guessing the wind just blew the soot around in an odd way. We usually get a mid-low cabin and have never seen this before.

[islandatsea]

Thanks for your pictures............really shows how the soot issue can be.

[Hawaiidan]

Didn't think they could fix it.

 

Ship runs on oil... you can not fully burn the exhaust of carbon particles. ( matter can not be created or destroyed it only changes form. Whether turbines or Diesel/electric

 

The ship also creates even in calm air a wake of air the tumbles down the ships sides to the stern that is a low pressure or small vacuum that sucks everything in

Look at the rear window of a van or back of a semi-truck.... Race cars draft on each others aft....

 

 

The only option is switch to using nuclear reactors which run clean...