The Gem is a beautiful ship, but the hallways straight up smell like feces

[PortFees45]

I love the Gem. She's my favorite NCL ship of the 4 I've sailed, and part of loving someone/something is being honest with them. 

 

The hallways on the Gem smell like poo. Something is not right with the plumbing/toilet system on the ship. 

 

I had a balcony cabin forward on Deck 8, and the smell in the hall at the start of the cruise was overpowering. They dumped so much chemicals on it to try to cover the smell it was actually worse. It smelled like the blue liquid in a Greyhound bus toilet.

 

I did briefly mention it to guest services, I'm no facial/body language expert but the reaction just seemed like this was a complaint they're used to getting. 

 

It didn't ruin the cruise. It's not like I spend a lot of time in the cabin hallways, and I was lucky to have a balcony. I could detect the smell slightly near the door and in the bathroom, so I would think it's likely worse in inside cabins. 

 

Hopefully this gets rectified (pun intended) at the Gem's upcoming drydock. 

[dexddd]

Been on Gem twice all over and never ran into this.  Must have been a bad day.

 

We've run into it on Sun aft briefly in areas and POA by Cagneys but it was on and off.

[hladygirl]

I was also deck 8 forward on the Gem in April and noticed the smell also. People were walking down this hall commenting on the smell all week.

[MotownVoice]

This happened on Brilliance of the Seas.  It was a sewage management problem which took nearly the whole trip to repair, and they were loathe to give much detail publicly.  I gave them credit for preventing it from becoming a voyage-ending issue but the folks on the deck level where the main issue seemed to be located might not be so kind.

 

We’re on the Gem in 2021 so I’m going to go with the notion that it’s a temporary anomaly, as opposed to freaking out and canceling.

Edited September 22, 2019 by MotownVoice

[spanishguy1970]

I have read that this happens when some people don’t follow instructions of what they can and can’t flush therefore ruining the whole system. 🤢🤢

[Gershep]

I love the Gem but have smelled poo too. I was told it was because someone clogged it up.

[jancl57]

This happened on our cruise on the Dawn in June of 2017.  Port side of deck 5.  Could smell it by the elevators, but it

got stronger in the hallways.  Was "rectified" after 2 days.

[chengkp75]

Flushing items down the toilet, and clogging the system have nothing to do with a prevalent odor. The only time you will get a smell from the toilet system is when the plumbers actually have the piping open, and then the toilets aren't working, so this will be a minimum amount of time. These odors are from the gray water system, (sinks, showers, deck drains) that is separate from the toilet system. These drains have U-traps in them, just like your sinks at home, and if the drains don't see water often enough, they dry out and allow odor back up. Sometimes it takes a while to locate a drain that no one remembers is there.

[AKR2011]

Thanks for the info, Chengkp75! 

 

This happened to me in the halls of the Dawn a few years ago, and my bathroom also flooded a couple times. We were told that someone must have been trying to flush the wrong things. One morning I woke up and had to run to the O'Sheehan's bathroom in my pajamas thanks to a flood! Eventually it got fixed, and the staff was VERY apologetic. They dropped off wine and cheese one day, chocolate covered strawberries another, free bug repellent, those Andes mints that have disappeared....They really felt bad. But the situation was not great. They kept trying to spray the halls with air fresheners that just welled up my eyes. We still had a great cruise, but I will not forget what happened 😕

[Named-Tawny]

21 hours ago, MotownVoice said:

 

 

We’re on the Gem in 2021 so I’m going to go with the notion that it’s a temporary anomaly, as opposed to freaking out and canceling.

AFAIK, the Gem is scheduled for drydock in November 2020, so I imagine that any issues would certainly be fixed by your trip.

[Peachypooh]

This happened when we were on the Gem but it was deck 10. I said to my husband "what is that smell?"

The man in front of me said it was him LOL. No it wasn't him because it was in the hall way past where he went in his cabin. Just have to have a sense of humor and move on.

Edited September 23, 2019 by Peachypooh

[SeaShark]

7 minutes ago, Peachypooh said:

This happened when we were on the Gem but it was deck 10. I said to my husband "what is that smell?"

The man in front of me said it was him LOL. No it wasn't him because it was in the hall way past where he went in his cabin. Just have to have a sense of humor and move on.

 

I think your sense of humor shows in that you have that Screen Name and you are posting on THIS particular thread!

 

 

Perhaps if the poo was "peachy" the OP wouldn't be complaining. 

 

[Cindyscruising]

The Gem is my favorite ship and we never experienced any of this problem

[Peachypooh]

25 minutes ago, SeaShark said:

 

I think your sense of humor shows in that you have that Screen Name and you are posting on THIS particular thread!

 

 

Perhaps if the poo was "peachy" the OP wouldn't be complaining. 

 

Very clever. I will give you points for that. However my screen name is based on

the nickname of a loved one who loved to travel and is now in heaven so please

don't mock.

[SeaShark]

17 minutes ago, Peachypooh said:

Very clever. I will give you points for that. However my screen name is based on

the nickname of a loved one who loved to travel and is now in heaven so please

don't mock.

 

Profound apologies...I had NOT intended any level of mocking toward your screen name. Any mocking was really directed toward the thread topic (we should have better things to talk about...amiright) not towards any individual.  

[Peachypooh]

Apology accepted. Thank you.

[newmexicoNita]

On 9/22/2019 at 11:55 AM, dexddd said:

Been on Gem twice all over and never ran into this.  Must have been a bad day.

 

We've run into it on Sun aft briefly in areas and POA by Cagneys but it was on and off.

We have never had a problem with the Sun, but others have. We must be super lucky. As for the Gem, this is the first time I have heard of any such smell on the Gem.  Well let's say I hadn't heard of a problem until right now.

[IrieBajan54]

OP I hate to hear that my favorite ship has the poo smell. Hopefully, they will get it fixed. I remember a cruise on the old Royal Princess back in 1999. For about 9 of the 13 day Russia/Scandinavia cruise, there was the same sewage smell in the hallway.

 

Lucky you for having a balcony to get some fresh air!

[lenquixote66]

7 hours ago, AKR2011 said:

Thanks for the info, Chengkp75! 

 

This happened to me in the halls of the Dawn a few years ago, and my bathroom also flooded a couple times. We were told that someone must have been trying to flush the wrong things. One morning I woke up and had to run to the O'Sheehan's bathroom in my pajamas thanks to a flood! Eventually it got fixed, and the staff was VERY apologetic. They dropped off wine and cheese one day, chocolate covered strawberries another, free bug repellent, those Andes mints that have disappeared....They really felt bad. But the situation was not great. They kept trying to spray the halls with air fresheners that just welled up my eyes. We still had a great cruise, but I will not forget what happened 😕

I will be on the Dawn in 3 weeks.I guess I should pack a bathrobe.😊