Anyone experience sewage odor in an aft penthouse suite on Escape?

[ice_cream317537]

We sailed on the Encore in Sept. 2023 to Alaska and stayed in stateroom 15276, an aft corner penthouse suite.  We loved our cabin and the Haven and had a wonderful time, except there was a strong sewage odor in our cabin at times, and sometimes it was so strong it made me feel sick.  My partner didn't notice it as much, but it truly made me miserable at times.  It was strongest while in port before departing Seattle, a couple of days at sea when we were in super choppy waters, and when we were docked in Victoria. (but not at any of the other ports of call)  The odor seemed to emanate from the drain in the main bathroom.  I covered it with a couple of towels, but that did little to reduce the smell.  Although we talked to our steward and butler about it, we weren't offered any assistance, except a suggestion to open the balcony doors before we left in Seattle.

 

(I have previously sailed on 2 other cruises, one of which was an aft suite on the Regal Princess, and did not detect unpleasant odors during either of those.)

 

Now we're planning a Caribbean cruise on the NCL Escape and are considering an aft corner suite again.  We've loved our aft suites (and the Haven) so much that we may try it one more time, in hopes that the first malodorous NCL experience was an unfortunate one-off. 

 

Has anyone who has sailed on the Escape in an aft corner suite experienced such an odor?  

 

If we experience this again, do you more experienced NCL passengers have any tips on how to get the NCL staff to help us with it?  Surely there is something that could be done. (I should have been more insistent last time.) We truly don't want to give up staying in aft suites; we love them so...

thank you!

 

[Two Wheels Only]

Chengkp75 knows all about this stuff (and many other things) so I'll just quote him.....

 

"The most common cause of sewer smells in cabins is the bathroom floor drain (not the shower), that typically hides under the toilet, or is a trough drain at the door. These drains see little water into them, so the dry air from the AC tends to dry out the water in the trap, and odors back up. A glass of water down these drains will normally do more than pouring it down the sink or shower."

 

I've had an aft-facing suite twice on Escape (different deck than yours, though) and never had any odor issues. 

[ice_cream317537]

Thanks so much, that is extremely helpful!!

On which decks were your aft-facing suites on the Escape?

thanks again!

 

[Two Wheels Only]

1 minute ago, ice_cream317537 said:

On which decks were your aft-facing suites on the Escape?

 

1/2 of the people on the NCL forum could probably answer that one for me. 😁

 

I always book deck 12 for the Breakaway Plus ships (Escape/Joy/Bliss/Encore) as it is my preferred configuration and has the 2nd deepest/largest balcony for the aft-facing suites. 

 

I wrote the following post years ago when NCL called the aft-facing suites H6 and charged the same price for every deck. Now, NCL usually charges more for the larger/deeper decks. 

 

 

 

For Escape, they are all HA and are all the same price (for now). 

 

I probably should do this over with the HA, HC, & HB codes....😕

 

 

[dexddd]

Welcome to CC.  From experience, sewage smell can vary widely.  Yes, there is the drain in the room pour water trick.  Sometimes it is larger than that.  We were aft on Sun and it was pervasive the whole aft from deck 10 to outside several floors down where we did muster.  It was in the halls.  Went away once we sailed.  Others never experienced on other trips.  Same goes for soot being aft.

 

POA second trip very common to have it mid ship forward of Cagney's no matter if docked or underway.

 

 

[roger001]

Only twice have we noticed a sewer odor.  Both times pouring water into the drains cured it.  

[ice_cream317537]

Thank you so much everyone!! 

[Rick&Jeannie]

On 3/13/2024 at 4:32 PM, ice_cream317537 said:

Thank you so much everyone!! 

Welcome to Cruise Critic!

 

And I say "I would be *seriously* torqued off if I had paid for an aft penthouse suite and experienced this!"

[PartyPlannerLady]

On 3/11/2024 at 10:46 PM, ice_cream317537 said:

We sailed on the Encore in Sept. 2023 to Alaska and stayed in stateroom 15276, an aft corner penthouse suite.  We loved our cabin and the Haven and had a wonderful time, except there was a strong sewage odor in our cabin at times, and sometimes it was so strong it made me feel sick.  My partner didn't notice it as much, but it truly made me miserable at times.  It was strongest while in port before departing Seattle, a couple of days at sea when we were in super choppy waters, and when we were docked in Victoria. (but not at any of the other ports of call)  The odor seemed to emanate from the drain in the main bathroom.  I covered it with a couple of towels, but that did little to reduce the smell.  Although we talked to our steward and butler about it, we weren't offered any assistance, except a suggestion to open the balcony doors before we left in Seattle.

 

(I have previously sailed on 2 other cruises, one of which was an aft suite on the Regal Princess, and did not detect unpleasant odors during either of those.)

 

Now we're planning a Caribbean cruise on the NCL Escape and are considering an aft corner suite again.  We've loved our aft suites (and the Haven) so much that we may try it one more time, in hopes that the first malodorous NCL experience was an unfortunate one-off. 

 

Has anyone who has sailed on the Escape in an aft corner suite experienced such an odor?  

 

If we experience this again, do you more experienced NCL passengers have any tips on how to get the NCL staff to help us with it?  Surely there is something that could be done. (I should have been more insistent last time.) We truly don't want to give up staying in aft suites; we love them so...

thank you!

 

 

Im sorry... I had just eaten three full bowls of chili and was walking past your cabin whne the obviously inevitable happened.  Next time I try to hold it in until I get to an outdoor area! 😉

 

 

[ice_cream317537]

On 3/14/2024 at 8:54 PM, Rick&Jeannie said:

Welcome to Cruise Critic!

 

And I say "I would be *seriously* torqued off if I had paid for an aft penthouse suite and experienced this!"

thank you! 

[spanishguy1970]

interesting. We experienced sewage odor on the NCL Jewel. the Whole deck 9 had problems, back in 2017 it was really unfortunate and almost ruined our trip, they couldn't get us a new stateroom and we were in an inside cabin.