Can we discuss how good the showers are on Princess ships

[Brisbane41]

55 minutes ago, chengkp75 said:

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.

 

In order from the 1st video of Sun Princess shower the water on the narrow jet stream came through strongly on the centre ring however when I shifted the lever on the head to spray a number of holes did not allow water through at all and the rest of the holes were extremely weak and the water just gravitated on the head and dribbled down the pipe and some water just dropped to the floor.

 

The next video on the Diamond Princess was exactly the same. That is the video I labelled as cabin L248.

 

I did not have an issue with the showers on Sea Princess or Golden Princess. I posted them as I want to show that I am being fair to Princess and that they do have some good showers that work.

 

The final video on the Diamond Princess from the B deck cabin the water came through all the holes when it was on spray but it was just weak, you can see it is certainly stronger than previously compared to the L248 cabin but it definitely did not have the power as seen on the Golden Princess and Sea Princess.

 

I am honestly at a loss as to know why. I like Princess a lot and do not recall having a problem on the Emerald Princess cruise I did in 2017 or the Golden Princess before that or even on Diamond Princess in the years 2014 to 2016. In fact all years prior on Princess have been great. It is just very recently from late 2017 on Diamond Princess and just last week on the Sun Princess I got stuck with dodgy showers.

[OzKiwiJJ]

13 hours ago, chengkp75 said:

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.

Thanks, chengkp. I figured it was something like that, especially as those cruises were in hot climates - which, unfortunately, is where you sometimes want a cold shower.

 

We didn't have that problem on Crystal Symphony last August on a Panama Canal cruise though, and it was stinking hot on that cruise.