Plumbing Problems - non-funtioning toilet

[sewingmolly]

On our recent cruise, we spent the last day with a non-functioning, overflowing toilet.  Apparently about 200 cabins on the Caribbean Princess were affected.  This was my 11th cruise, but the first time I had experienced such problems.  It was blamed on people flushing inappropriate items, namely masks.    I'm wondering is this a common occurrence?  Have I just been lucky up til now?  My husband is somewhat reluctant to book another cruise after this, so I thought I would try to find out just how common plumbing problems are.  Also are some ships more prone to plumbing issues?

[chengkp75]

17 minutes ago, sewingmolly said:

On our recent cruise, we spent the last day with a non-functioning, overflowing toilet.  Apparently about 200 cabins on the Caribbean Princess were affected.  This was my 11th cruise, but the first time I had experienced such problems.  It was blamed on people flushing inappropriate items, namely masks.    I'm wondering is this a common occurrence?  Have I just been lucky up til now?  My husband is somewhat reluctant to book another cruise after this, so I thought I would try to find out just how common plumbing problems are.  Also are some ships more prone to plumbing issues?

There are most likely at least a half dozen toilet clogs every voyage, from my experience.  Depending on how far down the pipe the clog travels, it can knock out many cabins with a single clog.  We have roto-rooted out wipes, paper towels, underwear, swim wear, face cloths, hand towels, dinner napkins, bones, toothbrushes, crack pipes, coke spoons, 9mm ammunition, feminine hygiene products and applicators.

 

Typically, your toilet will not overflow unless you keep pushing the flush button.  Your toilet is isolated from the vacuum piping by a valve.  When you press the flush button, this valve opens, and also a water valve opens to add water to the toilet.  If the line is clogged, there won't be any vacuum, so the toilet valve won't open, but what is in the bowl won't go out either.  But, there may be enough vacuum to open the water valve, which will just add more and more water until it overflows.  If the flush button is pushed, and the toilet does not flush, do not keep pressing the button.  When vacuum is restored, the toilet will flush by itself (it "remembers" that you pushed the button).

 

The instances of clogging goes up when there is an outbreak of noro (I'll leave it to you to figure out why there are more underwear clogs), and I could see masks causing massive failures.  Clogs can come from crew toilets that affect passenger cabins as well, but these are rare, as the crew know that if we can trace a clog back to their cabin (and after years of doing this, the plumbers are really good at this detective work), they will be fired immediately.

Edited May 23, 2022 by chengkp75

[Lady Arwen]

On our last Princess cruise on Royal Princess we had no hot water in our shower the entire voyage!  We had to use the showers in the spa.  We had numerous repair people in and out of our cabin, who basically shook their heads and left.  Not one person was able to fix it.  I think it was probably a big job that could not be done with passengers occupying the cabin.  We wondered what happened to the next people who moved in.  Probably the same as us and the folks before us.  However, Princess was kind enough to  bestow upon us OBC in the amount of $200.00.  We gave it all back in the casino lol!

[chengkp75]

27 minutes ago, Lady Arwen said:

We had numerous repair people in and out of our cabin, who basically shook their heads and left.

Wow.  At the easy end, it was a clogged filter in the shower mixing valve, which is a 15 minute repair, or at worst a failed thermostat valve in the mixing valve, and that is a 45-60 minute repair.  It ain't rocket science, its just plumbing.  Princess must be hard up for engineering staff.

[R**T]

3 hours ago, sewingmolly said:

On our recent cruise, we spent the last day with a non-functioning, overflowing toilet.  Apparently about 200 cabins on the Caribbean Princess were affected.  This was my 11th cruise, but the first time I had experienced such problems.  It was blamed on people flushing inappropriate items, namely masks.    I'm wondering is this a common occurrence?  Have I just been lucky up til now?  My husband is somewhat reluctant to book another cruise after this, so I thought I would try to find out just how common plumbing problems are.  Also are some ships more prone to plumbing issues?

 

I have lost track of how many times this has happened to us.  Princess ALWAYS blames it on the passengers.  However, how many times have you had a toilet back up in a land-based hotel?

 

And on the last morning of the cruise, when everyone is waiting to leave, there are always toilet issues.  What a mess!

 

 

[Rebels82]

We just got off the Caribbean Princess. We never put anything other than toilet paper in the toilet. We were in E732….aft suite and our toilet would not flush for 4 hours on Fri….the last full day.

[chengkp75]

2 hours ago, R**T said:

However, how many times have you had a toilet back up in a land-based hotel?

There is a vast difference between a land based sanitary system and a ship's vacuum toilet system

4 minutes ago, Rebels82 said:

We just got off the Caribbean Princess. We never put anything other than toilet paper in the toilet. We were in E732….aft suite and our toilet would not flush for 4 hours on Fri….the last full day.

And, if someone else on the same vacuum line as your cabin, maybe 50 cabins away, caused the clog, your toilet won't work.  Wherever the clog forms, nothing upstream will work.

[GonzoWCS]

Yes first day 14 May 2022 on the Caribbean Princess during embarkation, used crew chat and it was sorted out while we were having lunch in the MDR.  They also gave us $50 OBC for our inconvenience.

 

Cheers

[Firepath]

It 

[Firepath]

It was probably a wipe. The packaging says they’re flushable; but they’re not.

[JeffT237]

@chengkp75 You have been a great resource for us cruisers, I hope you continue to post especially when it comes to the technical side and inner workings of cruise ships.  Thank you. I know of the recent plumbing issues on the Crown, thankfully our zone was not impacted, but the Crown also had issues with her diesel generators.  I'm assuming this would have impacted the electrical system in general?  I heard some passengers saying they lost power in their cabins, water heating for showering, etc.  I definitely saw firsthand most of the hot tubs were out of service and the few that were open were warm, not hot. Half of the laundry machines did not work, the digital token machine had no power and half of the treadmills in the gym were unplugged and out of service.  In your opinion would these issues be due to the status of the diesel generators and an effort to conserve power? I'm assuming everything on a ship is heated by electricity as opposed to natural gas or propane.  

[pris993]

6 hours ago, Lady Arwen said:

On our last Princess cruise on Royal Princess we had no hot water in our shower the entire voyage!  We had to use the showers in the spa.  We had numerous repair people in and out of our cabin, who basically shook their heads and left.  Not one person was able to fix it.  I think it was probably a big job that could not be done with passengers occupying the cabin.  We wondered what happened to the next people who moved in.  Probably the same as us and the folks before us.  However, Princess was kind enough to  bestow upon us OBC in the amount of $200.00.  We gave it all back in the casino lol!

what cabin did you have, we are going to be on the Royal in December?

 

[dog]

And to top it off there have been cc members on here sharing how they bring their own toilet paper and use Kleenex type tissue since Princess provides inferior products in their cabins.

On my recent cruise on Discovery the toilet lid has it printed on it to not put anything in the toilet except toilet paper.

our toilet was difficult to flush everyday. It was an aft corner PH suite.

[Happiest when cruising]

18 minutes ago, dog said:

And to top it off there have been cc members on here sharing how they bring their own toilet paper and use Kleenex type tissue since Princess provides inferior products in their cabins.

On my recent cruise on Discovery the toilet lid has it printed on it to not put anything in the toilet except toilet paper.

our toilet was difficult to flush everyday. It was an aft corner PH suite.

I don’t think people realize the products that Princess provides are what needs to be used in the washrooms. We all should be able to manage with them for the length of of cruise. 

[donaldsc]

7 hours ago, Lady Arwen said:

On our last Princess cruise on Royal Princess we had no hot water in our shower the entire voyage!  We had to use the showers in the spa.  We had numerous repair people in and out of our cabin, who basically shook their heads and left.  Not one person was able to fix it.  I think it was probably a big job that could not be done with passengers occupying the cabin.  We wondered what happened to the next people who moved in.  Probably the same as us and the folks before us.  However, Princess was kind enough to  bestow upon us OBC in the amount of $200.00.  We gave it all back in the casino lol!

 

We had a hot water problem on a cruise a while back.  I can't remember the line.  They moved us to another cabin that was an upgrade.  If the best that Princess could do was a measly $200, I would make my annoyances known and promptly cancel all currently booked cruises and never sail w them again.  A big $200 OBC which you have to spend on board so you are giving them back the $200 is totally inadequate.

 

DON

[sewingmolly]

2 hours ago, GonzoWCS said:

Yes first day 14 May 2022 on the Caribbean Princess during embarkation, used crew chat and it was sorted out while we were having lunch in the MDR.  They also gave us $50 OBC for our inconvenience.

 

Cheers

We had exactly the same problem on the first day mid-afternoon and it was sorted out by dinner.  However we didn't receive an OBC for that problem or when it re-occurred on the last day and lasted until we were off the ship.   Clearly I need to improve how I register my complaints. 

[donaldsc]

1 hour ago, donaldsc said:

 

We had a hot water problem on a cruise a while back.  I can't remember the line.  They moved us to another cabin that was an upgrade.  If the best that Princess could do was a measly $200, I would make my annoyances known and promptly cancel all currently booked cruises and never sail w them again.  A big $200 OBC which you have to spend on board so you are giving them back the $200 is totally inadequate.

 

DON

 

I should have added that the cabin next to us was vacant so they allowed us to shower in the cabin next door.  When our cabin could not be fixed with 24 hours they moved us.

 

DON

[chengkp75]

8 hours ago, dog said:

And to top it off there have been cc members on here sharing how they bring their own toilet paper and use Kleenex type tissue since Princess provides inferior products in their cabins.

On my recent cruise on Discovery the toilet lid has it printed on it to not put anything in the toilet except toilet paper.

our toilet was difficult to flush everyday. It was an aft corner PH suite.

 

7 hours ago, Happiest when cruising said:

I don’t think people realize the products that Princess provides are what needs to be used in the washrooms. We all should be able to manage with them for the length of of cruise. 

This is an urban myth.  ANY toilet paper is acceptable for use in a ship's vacuum toilet system.  What the cruise lines supply is merely the cheapest they can buy.

[dog]

3 minutes ago, chengkp75 said:

 

This is an urban myth.  ANY toilet paper is acceptable for use in a ship's vacuum toilet system.  What the cruise lines supply is merely the cheapest they can buy.

Educate the cabin stewards then, since we have been told by them the neighbours used other toilet paper & Kleenex they brought and that was why the toilets were clogged up.

 

[chengkp75]

9 hours ago, JeffT237 said:

@chengkp75 You have been a great resource for us cruisers, I hope you continue to post especially when it comes to the technical side and inner workings of cruise ships.  Thank you. I know of the recent plumbing issues on the Crown, thankfully our zone was not impacted, but the Crown also had issues with her diesel generators.  I'm assuming this would have impacted the electrical system in general?  I heard some passengers saying they lost power in their cabins, water heating for showering, etc.  I definitely saw firsthand most of the hot tubs were out of service and the few that were open were warm, not hot. Half of the laundry machines did not work, the digital token machine had no power and half of the treadmills in the gym were unplugged and out of service.  In your opinion would these issues be due to the status of the diesel generators and an effort to conserve power? I'm assuming everything on a ship is heated by electricity as opposed to natural gas or propane.  

A problem with a diesel generator would affect the total capacity of electricity that could be generated, not any specific areas or equipment.  Further, the amount of power for the services you mention would hardly be noticeable in the total capacity, about 1% of the capacity of one generator.  Not sure why all these things were out of service.

 

Hot tubs are heated electrically, but most people consider them only "warm" compared to home hot tubs.  That is to preclude growth of legionella in the tubs.  Hot water for sinks, showers, galleys, laundries, etc, is heated by a boiler, that is diesel fueled.

[chengkp75]

4 minutes ago, dog said:

Educate the cabin stewards then, since we have been told by them the neighbours used other toilet paper & Kleenex they brought and that was why the toilets were clogged up.

 

You would be surprised at how little the hotel staff understand about the technical aspects of the ships they live on.  Now, any toilet paper used with the "use half a roll at a time" philosophy will cause clogs.  Also, wipes (facial, sanitary, diaper) are produced differently than toilet or facial tissue (wipes are designed for strength, toilet paper is not) and will cause clogs almost invariably.

[RD64]

A few years back on Holland America the Captain and Engineers were doing a presentation on the various technical aspects of the ship - the worst thing they ever saw flushed was a pair of jeans - which obviously caused havoc to the toilet system.

[Lady Arwen]

12 hours ago, pris993 said:

what cabin did you have, we are going to be on the Royal in December?

 

L101 Forward cabin with huge balcony.  This was 2019, so I hope it’s fixed now! lol

[JF - retired RRT]

16 hours ago, R**T said:

 

I have lost track of how many times this has happened to us.  Princess ALWAYS blames it on the passengers.  However, how many times have you had a toilet back up in a land-based hotel?

 

And on the last morning of the cruise, when everyone is waiting to leave, there are always toilet issues.  What a mess!

 

 

Ship toilets and hotel toilets are entirely different animals.

Better to compare hotel toilets to the one you have at home.

Ship toilets might (maybe, possibly) compare to the toilets on the space station.

[GonzoWCS]

4 hours ago, chengkp75 said:

 

This is an urban myth.  ANY toilet paper is acceptable for use in a ship's vacuum toilet system.  What the cruise lines supply is merely the cheapest they can buy.

What!! Say it isn't so...  🙂

 

Cheers