Can we discuss how good the showers are on Princess ships

[Brisbane41]

At the moment Princess is my favourite cruise line. Don't get me wrong I really like the line and have a good time on the ships.

 

However at the moment it has been hit and miss regarding wether I get a fully operational shower on their ships and am wondering if other people have had the same problem. I have several videos to share from the Diamond, Golden, Sun and Sea Princess showers from standard balcony cabins to mini suites to full suites and they all have different showers with some that work and others that don't.

Sun shower

As you can see above this ship has a shower head that can move and be picked up however the issue I have is that on spray it has no pressure and is unable to give a decent shower. On the other hand the jet nozzle works but as you can see it is quite narrow and means you are under the shower for longer trying to wash all the soap off that the water does not reach. Please note the large nozzle head. This was taken in a standard balcony cabin.

 

Here below is the shower on the Diamond Princess

Diamond shower

This was taken in L248 of the Diamond Princess. I have been in several cabins on the Diamond Princess that are exactly the same as this one and again it is a standard balcony cabin.

 

The next one is on the Golden Princess

Golden shower

This was taken in C749 an aft full suite on the Golden Princess and as you can see it is an entirely different shower head, however the pressure is much stronger and clearly more powerful than the above shower heads on the Sun Princess and the Diamond Princess (incidentally both of which ships have been changed to service the Japanese market) I am not sure if the above has anything to do with it as in a request for hand held nozzles (which clearly don't work).

 

The next video is of the shower on the Sea Princess

Sea shower

This again is much the same as the Golden Princess however it was recorded in an aft mini suite and you can see the number in the video. Again it is a recent video (this year as well as the Sun Princess this year with all others last year).

 

The final video here is of cabin B212 on the Diamond Princess (again) note this has slightly better pressure than the cabin L248, however it is still weak.

 

I am just wondering what is the most common shower head people are encountering on a Princess ship, has anyone had severe water problems in showers like the miserable dribble from the showers above?

 

I would like to get to the bottom of the cause or problem about why I am encountering multiple shower issues that it has caused me to actually video the showers to prove that I am not lying when I raise it with the reception desk.

[nukesubsailor]

We always book the same type of cabin so the type of shower head we find stays the same.  We have noticed different water pressures from time to time.  Never have we encountered what I would call a miserable dribble.  Water pressure will vary depending on the number of showers on the same piping system and in use at the same time.  I have noticed this even at home on the city water system.  There are times of day when more people use water for showers, lawn watering, etc.

I certainly would complain to the cabin steward or passenger services desk if we had a miserable dribble but I would not take time the time out of my vacation to make videos of the shower's water flow.

[eclue]

We have been on 30 Princess cruises in a balcony, mini suite or a suite and have never had any issue with the showers......

[joeyancho]

Wow dude, you put a lot of time and effort into this.  

[c-boy]

man.... I shouldn't have watched the videos after drinking four cups of coffee  

[Colo Cruiser]

70 Princess cruises and a broad range of every ship in the fleet including the "Sun Class" ships. 

I think I had a shower water pressure issues once.

They always seem to work very well.

[RDC1]

29 minutes ago, joeyancho said:

Wow dude, you put a lot of time and effort into this.  

the OP posted some of the same videos a few months ago in a similar topic.

[c-boy]

hansgrohe shower heads might have flow  restrictors in them

[Anubi]

No shower is as good as my shower at home and I go on a cruise, or any trip, knowing that so I don't judge.  I get clean and I'm happy.  It just takes a bit longer.  

[Diver2014]

I commented to DH on our cruise on Crown Princess last November about how strong the water came blasting out of our shower head.  Never had a problem with water pressure on any ship, Princess or otherwise.  If the shower is only a 'dribble', you need to contact your room steward or Customer Relations, not post photos on CC.

[DrivesLikeMario]

IME, the showers are not consistent from cabin to cabin, much less ship to ship.  I've had some where no matter how many times they "fixed" the shower, the water was still scalding hot.  Other times, the pressure has been so hard, I was practically shot out of the shower and still other times, the pressure has been so weak, I can hardly get the shampoo out of my hair.  The majority of the time, they're decent and do the job. 
I would still really prefer the clamshell, hard plastic shower door over the clinging shower curtain.

[Mike45LC]

I have never had a problem on Princess with shower pressure or with water temperature in the shower.  Guess I've just been lucky!!

[Loreni]

We had very good water pressure a few years back.  It is still OK, but not as good. 

 

I think other mainstream cruise lines have better showers.  For example they offer handheld showers and glass doors, not curtains.

[Cyn874]

This reminds me of the 'rainfall' or low pressure shower heads that they use in drought states like Nevada and California, to conserve water.

 

Editing to add- after googling, I see Rainfall shower head is not the proper term. it's just what I call them because it reminds me of trying to stand outside in the rain and wash your hair.

Edited March 13, 2019 by Cyn874

[hobbyfarmer2]

We avoid shower issues by never washing except for the tiny area behind our ears.

[FritzG]

In 25 Princess cruises the only "bad" shower we had was on Baja deck on the CB.  We were on a 28 day cruise, and I didn't have one comfortable shower for the entire time despite repeated tries to fix it.  The water would fluctuate from very hot to very cold for the whole shower.  On all of the other ships--Diamond, Emerald, Grand, Ruby, Regal, Star, and Royal--we had good showers with regulated temps and good pressure.  

[Brisbane41]

8 hours ago, voljeep said:

just another way for a passenger to complain hoping for an upgrade or OBC ... meh

Not interested in compensation in any way form or benefit. I only want the issues fixed on a certain ship or ships that I cruise on which it has been a regular problem.

 

Out of 37 cruises now the last year I have had 5 cabins where water pressure and inadequate shower water was a problem on the Diamond Princess and Sun Princess. However the problem is never encountered in a suite or mini suite!!!!

 

Now on another thread people are complaining about trivial things like chairs.

 

What I want to know is which ships have the fixed shower heads in standard cabins and which ships have the hand held ones or if anyone has seen any new or different designs being rolled out.

 

It appears to me the large hand held shower heads are a major problem with water flow and pressure.

[Brisbane41]

7 minutes ago, cr8tiv1 said:

 

I so agree with this post.  Thank you.  I cringe each time I am in the shower with those wall mounted cleansers.  Maybe my mind is overly active, but I can think of many ways that can contaminate those bottles.  Shiver just at the thought.  I'll take the tiny bars of soap over what comes out of those pumps.  

 

I do not use those wall mounted dispensers either. I read an article once about a health agency that tested what was in dispensers found in hotels like that and the report came back as urine, semen, saliva, traces faecal matter and things that should not be in them. It is a big hygiene risk having communal dispensers.

 

But as for my original post I am just hoping to compile a list of what is the best cabins and ships to pick that do not have the hand held shower heads.

 

There is only 1 video in the 5 that was shown last year. Since it was never fixed I have made a fair collection of videos since which are fair and balanced and show some with good pressure and some with bad. It appears the bad pressure showers are only if you have a movable shower head.

[crawford]

Not to change the subject of water pressure/shower heads, but on our December Sapphire cruise, we couldn't get the water hot enough. With it maxed (and being in Southeast Asia) the water was only warm. Never happened before and Princess was never able to fix it.

[OzKiwiJJ]

We had exactly the same problem with the shower in C511 on Diamond Princess last year, as shown in Brisbane21's video. Very poor water pressure in that cabin, including at the handbasin. 

 

We've cruised on Sun Princess twice, once in a balcony cabin, and once in an inside cabin but had no water pressure problems on those cruises.

 

On at least two ships, Golden and Royal I think, the cold water was so warm I didn't need to use any hot water in the shower. In fact the coldest shower I could manage to get was almost too warm at times. 

 

Princess showers are by far the worst of all the cruise lines we been on so far.

[chengkp75]

OP, since your research shows that shower pressure appears to vary from ship to ship, does this refute your claim in your earlier thread that Princess was reducing pressure to the showers to save money fleetwide?  As I noted in that thread, there are several things that can add up to low pressure/poor flow in a ship's shower, mostly caused by chlorine scale buildup.  It could be scale in the inlet filters to the temperature mixing valve (in general the cold side causes the worst problems, since a reduction in cold water flow will also cause a reduction in hot water flow due to the anti-scalding safety feature), it could be in the backflow preventer (little chrome device where the shower hose attaches to the wall), or it could be in the shower head itself.  Have complaints to maintenance gotten any improved results?

[Brisbane41]

41 minutes ago, chengkp75 said:

OP, since your research shows that shower pressure appears to vary from ship to ship, does this refute your claim in your earlier thread that Princess was reducing pressure to the showers to save money fleetwide?  As I noted in that thread, there are several things that can add up to low pressure/poor flow in a ship's shower, mostly caused by chlorine scale buildup.  It could be scale in the inlet filters to the temperature mixing valve (in general the cold side causes the worst problems, since a reduction in cold water flow will also cause a reduction in hot water flow due to the anti-scalding safety feature), it could be in the backflow preventer (little chrome device where the shower hose attaches to the wall), or it could be in the shower head itself.  Have complaints to maintenance gotten any improved results?

Yes well all of that was good information thanks.

 

One thing I want to expand on is where you said it could be the shower head itself. If you look at the hand held heads you will all see they have something in problem. The first video of the Sun Princess is much the same as the video last year of the Diamond Princess, then the second video I made on the Diamond Princess was slightly better.

 

Then when I was in cabins that had a fixed shower head of a more narrow circumference the spray was a lot stronger than the movable head with the much wider circumference.

 

Maintenance has never fixed the issue for me. It is only when I am in a mini suite or a suite that I have a really good shower head with great spray. I really do not know what is causing the issue or if different cabins have different types of heads as the Princess customer relations team said was happening (but they did not say which were the new or old ones).

 

The only other thing I am noting is that Sun Princess and Diamond Princess (the only ships I had the problem showers) have been fitted out for the Japanese market and I am at a loss to know why the shower heads may be different on those ships to the other ships. You can see on the video some heads are hand held and some are fixed.

 

My parents were in a inside cabin on the Sea Princess just recently and they reported their shower was much like the mini suite shower I had on the Sea Princess in the video on page 1.

 

Perhaps there is something you can see from the video that might help?

 

I would really just like to pick a cabin that has a good shower and not keep getting showers like the ones I repeatedly got o the Diamond Princess and now more recently on the Sun Princess.

[chengkp75]

With regards to shower head problems, there can be scale build up in the shower head that blocks some of the holes.  Was water flowing from all of the holes on the weak heads, or were some of the holes not flowing at all?  This would be remedied by a quick soak in scale remover (a weak acid marketed in the US under names like "CLR").  In many shower heads of this type today, the holes are actually little rubber nozzles, and by running your hand over the nozzles, you bend them and break up the scale inside.  The shower heads should be removed and sanitized in bleach every 3 months (not sure if Australian ship sanitation guidelines follow this, but most likely), but scale removal is not routine.  A lot of this can also be from how much shore water the ship takes on, and how hard this water is.

 

My guess, from your videos, is still that there is a problem either with the mixing valve strainers or the backflow preventer strainer or valve itself.  All showers onboard will have both features and why only the hand held showers apparently show weak pressure may lead to another uncommon cause, and this is a partial collapse of the hose.  The coiled stainless hose has a plastic/rubber lining inside, and sometimes this comes partially loose at the end fittings, and water then flows between the liner and the outside of the hose, and can pinch off the water flow.  Sometimes the rubber/plastic reacts with the chlorine in the water and swells up to produce the same result.

 

While not the best way to spend a vacation, I would stick around while maintenance attempted repairs if you get another shower with low pressure, and make them take things apart one piece at a time to see where the flow is restricted:  shower head, then shower hose, then backflow preventer, and so on up the stream.

[chengkp75]

10 hours ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

We had exactly the same problem with the shower in C511 on Diamond Princess last year, as shown in Brisbane21's video. Very poor water pressure in that cabin, including at the handbasin. 

 

We've cruised on Sun Princess twice, once in a balcony cabin, and once in an inside cabin but had no water pressure problems on those cruises.

 

On at least two ships, Golden and Royal I think, the cold water was so warm I didn't need to use any hot water in the shower. In fact the coldest shower I could manage to get was almost too warm at times. 

 

Princess showers are by far the worst of all the cruise lines we been on so far.

Low pressure at the sink faucet would most likely be scale buildup in the faucet aerator.

 

Ship water will never be cold, for a couple of reasons.  One, the water pipes are not buried underground where the temperature is a nice cool 50*F (10*C), they run through spaces that are at the coolest about 70-75*F (21-24*C).  Second, unlike on land where the water sits still in the underground pipes until a tap is opened, so it can cool to the surrounding temperature, ship's water is in constant circulation, so it is always gaining a little heat from friction in the pipes and from the pumps.  While potable water tanks must have air space all around them (i.e. not be part of the hull), ambient sea temperature will affect engine room temperature, and hence the temperature of the water in the tanks.

[pablo222]

You might find some helpful information in this thread:

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2565972-princess-cruises-and-shower-water-rationing/