Royal Princess soot problems

[antsp]

Did Princess ever sort the soot problem for aft cabins, I know she has just dry docked, not heard about it for a while.

[dmwnc1959]

We will most likely have to wait for a consensus of future reports. It appears one of the modifications done during her recent dry-docking was a very large increase in the number of extensions to her smoke stack exhaust tubes. Both of the following pictures were taken in Toulon, France, approximately two months apart:

 

Before dry dock - taken Aug. 2016 (original picture was black and white)

 

 

After dry dock - taken Oct. 10, 2016

(Credit both pictures to Nicolas Navi e Armatori)

[Guest arowe6]

We were on the Royal a few years ago in an aft cabin. Had a ton of issues with soot. After talking with a few different employees on the ship, we were told that the smoke stacks weren't tall enough so it wasn't shooting the soot at the correct angle to not land on the aft. If that makes sense...

 

So what Dave is saying makes sense. Hoping the extensions to the smoke stack help. :)

 

-Andrew

[Crystabel]

I'll be interested to hear a report, as we'll be in an aft cabin next Fall. The soot issue didn't prevent us from booking this cabin, but it would be wonderful if Princess has found a fix.

[Goldenpaw]

Hoping for more information from someone on the repositioning cruise about this issue. We're booked in R734 in December for 20 days and hope to use the balcony!

 

 

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[dmwnc1959]

Hoping for more information from someone on the repositioning cruise about this issue. We're booked in R734 in December for 20 days and hope to use the balcony!

 

The problem is that these extensions are brand new and it may take more than just this next week to break them in and get any real sense of their effectiveness. I'm sure there may be "some" soot (as in a lot of ships with aft facing balconies), just no where near as bad as it was during her first year of service, and then after the first set of tube extensions which were already in place prior to this most recent drydocking. However, if this new, miniature forrest of tube extensions didn't work on Regal Princess would Princess Cruises have bothered to install them on Royal Princess?

 

I know Andrew (arowe6) has booked aft facing cabins on Regal Princess and continues to do so. Maybe he will chime in again here.

 

:cool:

Edited October 16, 2016 by dmwnc1959

[Goldenpaw]

We were in an aft cabin on our one and ONLY Carnival cruise. Only 'soot' was cigar ashes from the balcony above us....

 

 

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[dmwnc1959]

We were in an aft cabin on our one and ONLY Carnival cruise. Only 'soot' was cigar ashes from the balcony above us....

 

 

So, by extension, every aft facing balcony on every Carnival Cruise Lines ship won't have soot on their balcony?

 

Over the years I've read threads on Cruise Critic reporting soot on aft facing balconies on Holland America Line ships, Celebrity Cruises ships, Norwegian Cruise Line ships, Royal Caribbean ships, even other Princess Cruises ships. What I didn't say was that all aft facing balconies on all ships experience soot. There have even been posts over the last year where little-to-no soot was experienced by some on aft facing balconies on Royal Princess and Regal Princess, and they'd happily rebook the same cabins. The degree of soot may sometimes depend on a wide variety of factors that may differ on every cruise. Or maybe they have 'fixed' the issue and the instances are far and few between.

 

However, if you are that concerned about it, change to a side facing cabin.

 

:D

[KreinKrunker]

However, if this new, miniature forrest of tube extensions didn't work on Regal Princess would Princess Cruises have bothered to install them on Royal Princess?

 

Don't know when the extensions were put on Regal, but if they were there in February 2016, they didn't work. Maybe I should say that there still was a problem with soot on the aft balconies on Marina deck.

[dmwnc1959]

Don't know when the extensions were put on Regal, but if they were there in February 2016, they didn't work. Maybe I should say that there still was a problem with soot on the aft balconies on Marina deck.

 

 

Well, there ya go. It was an issue up on Marina Deck. Maybe it depends on how high up you book, the direction of the wind, if they "blew tubes" overnight, etc. But in another thread apparently it was minimal down on Baja Deck. So many variances, so many experiences...Regal, Royal, etc. etc...

 

 

We were in B737 for a full month in June. We loved it. Our cabin steward kept pool towels on the chairs for us and the balcony soot was minimal. We had some, but it wasn't even a little issue. The location was perfect and we wouldn't hesitate to book it again. Actually, we won't sail on the Regal/Royal without an aft balcony.

Edited October 16, 2016 by dmwnc1959