Was I On The Same Cruise? Maasdam 06/30 - 07/07

[Copper10-8]

.......... Since sail7seas is a regular on the ship, I would guess that he has made friends and receives exceptional service, but this was not my experience............

 

Hi Sir, unless S7S made a recent visit to a clinic in Holywood, CA that specializes in certain reversal procedures, SHE is still a lovely lady! Thought you might want to know!;)

[theprofessor]

LOL! Sorry for the "he" reference, S7S!

 

BTW, How do you know I am a "sir"? (plenty of female professors out there...)

[Copper10-8]

LOL! Sorry for the "he" reference, S7S!

 

BTW, How do you know I am a "sir"? (plenty of female professors out there...)

 

27 1/2 years of police work;) But, you are right Madam Professor.......my apologies, I don't and since you mentioned having a question about laundry onboard Maasdam, I'm not so sure know;) Not that there's anything wrong with guys doing laundry!:eek: I have mastered it also but only after having receiving several hours of remedial training about seperating colors from the wife.............at least in the military, you didn't worry about colors. Better go now!

[Cruising-along]

"The reason they ask your cabin number, is to identify your status."

 

I disagree with this, because it implies that lower categories of cabins get less service. I've never experienced this, whether it was open seating in the DR at breakfast or lunch, or assigned seating at dinner. I book inside or outside guarantees, so I'm definitely not in a balcony cabin or suite.

 

Anyone care to disagree with me? Bring it on! ;)

 

Roz

 

Hi Roz, and no, I don't disagree with you at all :D We've had the same experience, and we also book inside or outside guarantees.

BTW, I too am VERY sorry to hear about your upcoming gum surgery :(

[fcorey]

Copper's statement about toilets is completely true. On Oosterdam we lost use of our toilet for a few hours due to someone a few doors down apparently trying to flush a diaper.....maybe with the child still in it, the plumbers were not happy, apparently it was a bad blockage but to their credit they fixed it within a few hours. I asked the HM about this and he said that people flushing some things that should not be flushed does frequently cause problems. So I guess this can happen on all ships. If I had to deal with that, and its flooding for days I'd be a very unhappy passenger

[HeatherInFlorida]

Again ... about fairness. It's difficult to know from screen names whether a person is a man or a woman. Let's not deride someone simply because they may not know one of us. For some it's obvious (like me), but then again maybe not! I could be a guy;) .

 

It does seem to me that it is particularly the Maasdam that keeps rising to the top (so to speak ;)) as regards plumbing overflows. I easily could have missed talk of it on other ships, but it it seems to keep coming up about the Maasdam.

 

Obviously no one is seriously suggesting that HAL differentiates between cabin categories when fixing plumbing problems; I'm quite positive those comments were tongue in cheek. But I'm sure all would agree that anything over several hours is too long to be expected to stay in a cabin with a toilet overflowing. If I were in such a cabin, you'd see me with all my belongings either camped outside on the Promenade Deck or knocking on the Captain's cabin begging for space somewhere to rest my weary head.

 

Sure stuff happens and nobody's perfect, but there are limits. If what everyone is saying is true about the cavalier attitude expressed by the staff about the problem, then that just can't be rationally defended by anyone no matter how much they may love HAL.

[peaches from georgia]

Did not see anyone smoking around the Lido pool...only in the very small section next to the Lido Bar which they permitted on this cruise. I believe this was because of the northern itinerary we were doing...hats off to HAL for this.

 

I thought that ALL smoking was now banned around the Lido Pool, including the area around the Lido Bar on HAL ships? I'm not sure what the northern itinerary would have to do with it, Liz, but I think smokers should know before they book exactly when, where, and if smoking will be allowed on every ship.

 

I consider myself a pretty astute and experienced cruiser, but am getting a little fed up with HAL's 'policies' that are never the same or enforced equally on each ship. I like to know what I am buying before I put my money down and if HAL can't provide that info and mean it then we are going to be looking elsewhere.

[Copper10-8]

Again ... about fairness. It's difficult to know from screen names whether a person is a man or a woman. Let's not deride someone simply because they may not know one of us. For some it's obvious (like me), but then again maybe not! I could be a guy;) .

 

Heather, help me out here! Who is being derided?

[jb_yvr]

The first picture is of our bathroom floor - we had to dismantle our towel animals to prevent a flood this time. :eek:

 

Unfortunately some of the effect is lost in the small picture - but I think you get the drift.

 

The second picture is one of several that I took of the public hallway carpets outside our cabin - at about 5:30am - a couple of hours after our last 'incident'.

 

The carpets are still damp - I touched them - and ran to the nearest Purell dispenser - is that from normal cleaning or is it something else...? :eek:

 

I do not recall it looking like this on other mornings.

 

Again - in the full-size picture you really get the effect.

 

BTW - Can anyone please point me to the proper place on the HAL website where I can complain to them - the contact us page only seems to allow for other issues and no real email address to respond to.

[serendipity1499]

This may be a stupid question but why in God's name would someone flush a diaper or anything other than the usual down a toilet ANYWHERE, let alone on a cruise ship? :confused: Do people just not have any sense at all?

(just for reference, the 2nd question is rhetorical :))

 

I don’t buy the diapers in the toilets either because I do not know of anyone who would flush a diaper down a home toilet.. And, it's not a matter of sense at all…Honestly believe that most cruisers, other than experienced ones & people who own boats, do not understand Marine Toilets..:confused:

Haligonian…I’m not criticizing your post but only using it as an example: And hope others understand, I’m trying not to be crude, but being specific in the use of a Marine Toilet..

Re the above post: “anything other than the usual down a toilet ANYWHERE, let alone on a cruise ship? Do people just not have any sense at all?

The problem is what is the usual to many folks..It is OK & usual for people who have sewers to flush things such as, Soft Toilet Tissue, Kleenex, Tampons & Flushable Toilet Wipes down their toilets at home…Those who have Septic tanks don’t usually do this.. We’ve all heard of folks who have even brought their own soft toilet tissue on cruises, because the Marine Toilet Paper is too coarse for them.;) What they don’t understand is all of the above things will clog any Marine Toilet System…We’ve encountered it on other Cruise Lines as well...

When a ship’s Plumber is working to unclog & repair your lines you might never see them..Have seen plumbers working on decks above or below when clearing a line which we were on... Unfortunately these things cannot be fixed permanently…Most older ships have smaller lines & it could mean having to pull a ship out of service for several months in order to re-plumb the entire ship…Ask anyone who has been on a Navy ship if they’ve ever had plumbing problems & guarantee they would all say yes..

When we had guests on our boat, we would tell every person what could or could not be flushed down our toilet..We especially had to be very vigilant with young women & girls…But we spelled it out for them..

Don’t believe Cruise Lines are being pro-active enough…In addition to the signs each cabin Steward should hand out a sheet of Paper outlying exactly what can & cannot be flushed..This could take two minutes when they introduce themselves..The Lines should also provide larger leak-proof bags for use in each cabin daily…If there are babies they should supply diaper bags..And each Steward should personally advise people that only Marine Toilet Paper can be flushed..Everyone should be told in writing (not on that silly sign which no one really reads) that if the toilet backs up because of negligence on their part, they could be charged for the repair...

We use Flushable wipes at home, so when we travel we take a small box of “Hefty Scrap Bags” with us.. 50 in a ½ inch flat box, with self ties, about $2.75 in our grocery store...We use two a day a.m. & p.m. in the bathroom trash can...Our Steward knows enough to just toss the bag out..

I think if people, especially new Cruisers, were warned about this & given more leak-proof bags for their use, many of these problems would be non-existent...JMO..

OK time to be honest now, how many of you have thrown "Kleenex" or "flushable wipes" in the toilet when you first started to cruise? ;)

Betty

P.S. Read this article about the Continental Airline Toilets that all became stopped up on a recent trans-Atlantic flight..People sitting next to excrement floating down the aisles for 7 hours..EEK

 

http://consumerist.com/consumer/travel/continential-airlines-sewage-flight-eyewitness-account-270756.php

[fcorey]

Ask anyone who has been on a Navy ship if they’ve ever had plumbing problems & guarantee they would all say yes.. Betty

 

Guess I was very lucky, while not on many surface ships I cannot recall any plumbing issues and the attack subs I served on were considerably smaller than the average cruise ship :o

[bepsf]

Brian,

 

This is an interesting statement to me. It is the first time I have read such a statement made about the auto-tips. Are you certain this is the case? When we have had discussions about whether Room Service stewards should or should not be tipped, comments have been made that they are NOT part of the auto-tipping pool, so should, therefore, receive some size of gratuity.

 

Bob

 

There may also be secondary reasons as far as the line wanting to know who dines where for food management (but then why would it matter what specific stateroom you're in?), but from my understanding it's largely a tipping and customer-comment issue.

[HeatherInFlorida]

Heather, help me out here! Who is being derided?

 

Copper, it's very possible you were being funny in the following post and I could have missed it. It is hard sometimes on these boards to know when someone is just kidding.

 

Hi Sir, unless S7S made a recent visit to a clinic in Holywood, CA that specializes in certain reversal procedures, SHE is still a lovely lady! Thought you might want to know!;)

 

So if I did misunderstand, I sincerely apologize. It just gets me a little crazy sometimes when I get the feeling that some of the old-timers here (sometimes me among them) are putting down someone's comments by making fun of them in some other fashion. So I could have over-reacted.

 

I did notice that Bostom has disappeared from this thread and I personally feel badly about that because I think he/she put forth a very valid critique of their cruise. Unfortunately the poster's humor got lost a bit and some feelings were hurt. And that, too, is regrettable because I like everyone involved and I honestly don't think any harm was intended.

[RevNeal]

I find it hard to believe passengers tried to flush diapers and other forbidden items down the toliets. The intake opening was so small on the toliet that I was happy it flushed even "legal" stuff. I think it is more likely the waste water system was overloaded due to the 1300+ passengers on board.

 

Believe it.

While I wasn't aboard this sailing of the Maasdam, the report I've recevied from the ship was from who saw the shredded remains of the disposable diaper as they were removed from the branchpoints where they got hung-up.

 

On prior cruises I've both seen what maintenance crews have removed from the lines, and I've seen (on occasion) them actually taking some of it out of the lines. On one occasion I watched as crews outside my cabin pulled out a clump of twisted prophylactics that someone up-line had flushed; on other occasions I've seen matchbox cars, jewelry, candy wrappers, plastic wrap, all sorts of paper scraps, and tangled mats of hair.

 

Yes, I'm nosey. :D On the Ryndam this past March they were actually doing major upgrades to the potable water and vacuum flush system during the cruise. I took pictures of the work -- you can see photos here -- and noticed that much of the old lines were a patchwork collection of duct tape repairs and other similar make-do "fix-it" jobs. I'm surprised the flush system works as well as it does.

[RevNeal]

I don’t buy the diapers in the toilets either because I do not know of anyone who would flush a diaper down a home toilet.. And, it's not a matter of sense at all…Honestly believe that most cruisers, other than experienced ones & people who own boats, do not understand Marine Toilets..:confused:

 

Yes, Betty, diapers ... disposable diapers. Many other things, too, but diapers for sure (the remains of the tapes and ties are not mistakable, same with tampons and adult depends). I, too, am amazed at the abject idiocy of it, but I've seen the shredded and twisted remains of diapers being removed from the system by maintenance crew. I was also standing outside my door, watching as the crews were removing the remains of flushed prophylactics. :eek: Go figure!

[HeatherInFlorida]

Well, then there's only one way to solve this problem:D ... either ban babies (which might not be enough since who knows who else may be wearing diapers;) ) or just ban all stupid people from cruising.

 

The mind really does boggle, doesn't it????

 

Still, looking at Revneal's pictures suggests that maybe a better repair than duct tape may be in order. But it does give another reason for all of us to pack our duct tape along with our bungee cords!:D

[peaches from georgia]

It does seem, however, that some ships have many more reports of plumbing and a/c problems than other ships, whatevre the cause. They may get a temporary fix, but the problems return to those particular ships.

 

It seems there have been a variety complaints about various non-subjective things on this cruise by a number of posters, so some of this is not just a matter of a cabin or 2.

[serendipity1499]

Guess I was very lucky, while not on many surface ships I cannot recall any plumbing issues and the attack subs I served on were considerably smaller than the average cruise ship :o

 

Yes, I guess that would be true of subs which have a much smaller crew than say an aircraft carrier.. And know that in the Navy or any branch of the military if you caused a toilet to be stopped up because of what you threw into it even inadvertently, you would be on report!;) Isn't that true?

 

Wouldn't you say Aircraft Carriers are more like cruise ships which have both Men & Women living on-board..I would bet my last dollar that they have had toilet problems with new recruits..But guarantee there was never a second time with a new recruit!

 

Heather, the original poster was on yesterday, perhaps he is spending a day with family & friends..I hope we haven't lost him as I feel that he gave an honest account of his cruise although I don't entirely agree with him about the food...

 

I also agree with you... HAL's crew can be very friendly with frequent cruisers & people they know & have inter-acted with before..I've seen it myself..We had the best service we ever had on the Prinsendam, & believe it was only because several Stewards knew us from previous ships...We were treated "Royally"..We also had excellent service on the Ryndam with friendly dining room Stewards who even hugged us on the last night..They initiated the hugs!;) One of the Wine Stewards knew us from the Prinsendam & he always stopped to chat with us even when we were not having wine..

 

Have also come across some un-friendly Stewards & Food Servers both in the Lido & in the Dining Room..We were so thankful to have our wonderful ones..In our experience most of the Cabin Stewards,were very friendly, but we've seen some who barely say hello even when we smiled & said hello, please & thank you..We loved our little yum yum man on both the Prinsendam & the Ryndam.. We've had terrible Service in the Pinnacle at times & other times it's been wonderful..The Pinnacle has not been consistent at all..

 

On the Prinsendam we had a pipe break in the hall wall & water seeped into our room..Our carpet was squishing..They did bring up fans to dry it out & repaired the pipe...

 

I too would like to hear both the positive & negative comments.. I got my hackles up when a cruiser complained about every little thing, said everyone was old & dying..He then went on & lambasted HAL because the Customs Men, charged him duty on his liquor & were rude to him when they wanted to know where he had purchased his very expensive watch...I then discounted his entire account of his cruise..

 

Cheers..Betty

[WillieF]

That Bostom has disappeared from this thread does not surprise me. I personally feel that he/she expressed opinions wonderfully, some with humor and occasionally in somewhat somewhat sarcastic terms. Like others have said, I understood what he/she was saying.

 

He/She is a new poster with only 60+ posts and has no way of knowing the the accolades accorded to certain long time posters unless much research has been done. Many of said 'accoladed posters' will travel only in suites, frequently on the same ship so it's reasonable that they will become very familiar with the Captain(s) and many of the Officers and crew who all rotate and move around.......they become VIP's.

 

I recall a cruise several years ago now, the Rotterdam V1 (I believe, but am not sure) when about 6 suites were flooded - the entire ship knew about 'those poor people' whose way of life had been disrupted......for a whole day!!!!!!!and there were no spare cabins!

 

Officers, Stewards scurried around fixing things for those 'poor people'. Is it not pretty safe to assume that they were also well looked after during their 'terrible experience'!

 

We can't all be VIP's, travel frequently or afford the 'best' suites/cabins. That such passengers were so badly treated in the circumstances described and photographed is inexcusable!!!! That the upper echelons knew nothing of their 'trials' is to be expected!

 

Bostom deserves apologies from several posters on this thread. Flame me if you choose - I'll not be around to read them!

[serendipity1499]

Yes, Betty, diapers ... disposable diapers. Many other things, too, but diapers for sure (the remains of the tapes and ties are not mistakable, same with tampons and adult depends). I, too, am amazed at the abject idiocy of it, but I've seen the shredded and twisted remains of diapers being removed from the system by maintenance crew. I was also standing outside my door, watching as the crews were removing the remains of flushed prophylactics. :eek: Go figure!

 

OK Greg I stand corrected!

 

Wow! never thought diapers, depends & prophylactics..That's even more of a reason why Cruise Lines should spell it out in black & white on notices to each passenger (maybe even on check in)...Make each passenger sign a form that if they put something in the toilet such as,----&----&----Etc. Etc. they will be held responsible for repairs..

 

Hal & all Cruise Lines are trying to entice the younger group of people, who perhaps have never cruised before to spend their dollars on cruise ships....They should take responsibility to attempt to educate this new group on the use of a Marine Toilet..

 

And all the more reason to provide larger leak-proof bags for this type of trash!

 

Goodnight all & Happy cruising..:) Betty

[haligonian37]

No worries here, serendipity, it was nice to have someone describe what you did in such good detail. I'm sure most people don't realize that kleenex and toilet wipes, let alone soft tp, can clog up marine plumbing systems. Having lived in homes with septic tanks, I know from experience what is normal for that type of set up.

 

I could go into the whole bringing soft toilet tissue for sensitive toushies, but I digress. ;) The one thing that does stand out for me in this thread is waaay back at #8: (and so eloquently put I may add)

 

"Tip For The Day: don't flush ANYTHING except the prescribed toilet paper (and, of course, poo and pee)." - revneal

[bostom]

That Bostom has disappeared from this thread does not surprise me. I personally feel that he/she expressed opinions wonderfully, some with humor and occasionally in somewhat somewhat sarcastic terms. Like others have said, I understood what he/she was saying.

 

He/She is a new poster with only 60+ posts and has no way of knowing the the accolades accorded to certain long time posters unless much research has been done. Many of said 'accoladed posters' will travel only in suites, frequently on the same ship so it's reasonable that they will become very familiar with the Captain(s) and many of the Officers and crew who all rotate and move around.......they become VIP's.

 

I recall a cruise several years ago now, the Rotterdam V1 (I believe, but am not sure) when about 6 suites were flooded - the entire ship knew about 'those poor people' whose way of life had been disrupted......for a whole day!!!!!!!and there were no spare cabins!

 

Officers, Stewards scurried around fixing things for those 'poor people'. Is it not pretty safe to assume that they were also well looked after during their 'terrible experience'!

 

We can't all be VIP's, travel frequently or afford the 'best' suites/cabins. That such passengers were so badly treated in the circumstances described and photographed is inexcusable!!!! That the upper echelons knew nothing of their 'trials' is to be expected!

 

Bostom deserves apologies from several posters on this thread. Flame me if you choose - I'll not be around to read them!

 

Willie

 

It takes a Canadian, I guess, to "get it." The schools must be better or something...and sarcasm is in the eye of the beholder. Still, all the rest of you: if you saw it in the first post, don't act all hurt when you see it again - you're adults and you were warned.

 

He - "Tom" from "BOS", the airline code for Logan hasn't disappeared but what's the point of arguing with people who've lost the plot? Besides, we spent the day with friends from the cruise, showing them Boston's/Bostom's North Shore; enjoying one more lob-stah (at Woodman's in Essex), finally finding the Elizabeth Montgomery/"Bewitched"/TV Land statue in downtown Salem along with the ice cream at Polonus AND getting them to Logan on time. That was a far more rewarding use of my time today.

 

I'm all too aware of how some posters assume the role of unofficial spokesperson for a line and who - when challenged and as others here have noted, write what look a lot like press releases - take great umbrage that anyone, much less a lowly poster with only 60-something posts and in a mere Main Deck cabin to boot, would dare dispute that their glowing reports were the whole story.

 

Two salient points: until a glitch that erased lots of people's posts some years ago, I had, if memory serves, hundreds. I read then that some folks went to great lengths to see that the proper number of posts were creditted them. The second is that happily I've too much else to do in this life to be concerned enough to worry about how many posts appear next to my screen name. "Pride goeth before a fall", or so the Bible says, and perhaps I thus ought not mention this, but it appears I've taken far more cruises than some people with literally thousands of posts to their name. I know a bit about this cruise stuff too. At least enough to have an open mind.

 

More than anything else, though, I'm troubled that while Sail7Seas may indeed be the lovely person several of you have described, she did not write a very nice response to my original post. In her response, she questioned virtually every point I raised and did so in a condescending manner, implying that her toilet problems are so minor she'd already forgotten them, that her three trips to the Pinnacle were sheer bliss, that she knew nothing of these problems (Like, what? - If she doesn't know they didn't happen? Who is this gal?) and on and on and on while airily offering sympathy that ours was not the sublime experience she enjoyed WHICH SYMPATHY IS NOT HERS TO OFFER UNLESS SHE HAS AN INTEREST IN THE CRUISELINE. Let me make it perfectly clear: A FINANCIAL INTEREST.

 

If so, her response, however inaccurate in its questions and implications, is at least explainable. If - and I know of no reason to dispute those of you (and her) who tell me she does not have a financial interest in the Holland America Line, the Carnival Corporation, or the travel industry - her initial and subsequent responses are way off the wall. I mean, she's offended that I don't like something she bought? I don't like Minute Maid. I do like Tropicana. If you don't, don't go into meltdown...please.

 

She's tried, apparantly successfully for some of you, to act the martyr, saying I "ripped her to shreds." I didn't. I disagreed with her. She took it personally. She has subsequently described those others (presumably I'm out of the line of fire) who dare to question her response - not her original postings, which even I have not: she says they happened, I believe her. I wish - with a passion I didn't know was in me that they'd happened to me - as "firing rockets at her" etc. This is not a dispassionate defense on her part.

 

Point-by-point I refuted her expressions of incredulity, amazement, and disbelief by using her own words and quoting her accurately. I notice she's never disputed what I said since but has, amazingly, absolved herself of all responsibility for anyone's misfortune by telling us that she's not to blame. ("Not my fault.") NOTE TO SAIL7SEAS: No one, anywhere, ever, said you were. Just like no one, most of all me, ever said her reports were inaccurate as far as they went. They weren't the whole story, a point she continues to overlook, as if - and as above - it didn't happen (or matter) if it didn't happen to her.

 

We don't need Noam Chomsky to perform a linguistic analysis of Sail's posts: so identified is she with the Holland-America Line's MAASDAM ("My MAASDAM") that to speak ill of it or them is to speak ill of her. That's just plain whacky.

 

The larger points, that there were problems not addressed to the satisfaction of a number of passengers (and whose numbers I presume will continue to grow - one posted pix of the bathroom floor!), and that no one voice can or should be heard to the exclusion of others, have been lost in the white noise about diapers, tipping, smoking, "what we did on NCL", how someone had fruit in the Lido then eggs in the dining room, "what my husband said", and so on. Not to mention the lese-majeste response from S7S and the sideshow around that.

 

To sum up, it was a fun cruise. It wasn't perfect; so much so I can honestly say it was the worst cruise we ever took, but then "worst" is relative and just like a grade in school: a "C" is still passing. It looks lousy when you get all "A"'s, though, and I thought I'd paid for an "A" but hey, them's the breaks. We met some nice people, drank some very good wine (the stuff our friends brought more than the stuff we bought: I agree with those posters who said the prices were high and the quality sub-par) and saw some interesting ports close to home. It was certainly more fun than working.

 

But working starts again in the morning and that's where my head has to be, not here where it seems that even the facts don't get in the way of the preconceptions.

[fcorey]

Yes, I guess that would be true of subs which have a much smaller crew than say an aircraft carrier..

 

Wouldn't you say Aircraft Carriers are more like cruise ships which have both Men & Women living on-board..I would bet my last dollar that they have had toilet problems with new recruits..But guarantee there was never a second time with a new recruit!

 

Betty I think a carrier would be worse, 5000+ sailors and marines on one vessel, plumbing problems would certainly not be a pretty sight :D

 

I don't know about new recruits learning that one in basic. I had 8 years of ROTC (4 high school and 4 college) before OCS. I don't remember proper shipboard procedures for use of the head as a program of instruction :p

 

 

Bostom and others that posted less than stellar feedback, thank you for taking the time to share your viewpoints. I am sorry if you felt personally attacked. Posting your experiences as they happened, sharing that info, is what CC is all about.

One of the hosts here told me that sometimes things get heated because people behave like sports fans, they take criticism or their team, or in this case a ship or cruise line personally. Maybe that explains what has happened on this thread. For me, I'll use this as a reminder to keep the last line of the sailor's creed in my mind when posting...."I am committed to excellence and the fair treatment of all."

 

Revneal and Betty I learned more about ship's plumbing on this thread than I wanted to know ;) .... yuck

[grannynurse]

Frank,

You are a true diplomat!

 

Personally, though some of the comments tempted me to dive into someone's "stuff", I want to say now that I think the sniping was very personal and I don't think this forum is the place for personal attacks.

I want us to have the freedom to describe issues and events but can't we do that without insulting a poster. I'd rather someone write "I'm damn mad about (choose the topic), and use humor and sarcasm if they chose in describing the issue. I'm surprised that this thread wasn't closed.

Heated discussion is one thing, personal affronts are another.

I realize that this is my perception of this thread, but I also see that some people were dissed and feelings were hurt.

This board is full of really nice people, can we please play nice?

GN

[Copper10-8]

Copper, it's very possible you were being funny in the following post and I could have missed it. It is hard sometimes on these boards to know when someone is just kidding.

 

The ;) at the end was a clue!

Obviously no one is seriously suggesting that HAL differentiates between cabin categories when fixing plumbing problems; I'm quite positive those comments were tongue in cheek. But I'm sure all would agree that anything over several hours is too long to be expected to stay in a cabin with a toilet overflowing. If I were in such a cabin, you'd see me with all my belongings either camped outside on the Promenade Deck or knocking on the Captain's cabin begging for space somewhere to rest my weary head.

 

Only Luv to cruise or her husband can answer that one but it sounded to me like he is serious about that theory!