My family and family friends took a 10-day cruise for the second time on the explorer of the seas. We took the same ship twice because the first trip was a great experience on a very family oriented ship, which meet what we where looking for on the first cruise. Both families had balcony rooms on the rear of the ship on the 10Th floor on both cruises.

On the second cruise we experienced a horrific sewage smell that started on the third day of the 10-day cruise and continued right up to the day we walked of the ship on the 10th day. The smell was so unbearable that it woke me out of a sleep at 3am in the morning. My 11 year old son, was up and down all night. My wife got sick a couple of nights, was very tired most of the cruise, had leg cramps and headaches most of the cruise. When we returned to shore we learned that these symptoms are a result of breathing methane gas which is produced by sewage.

We meet several other people that where sick from the smell, some moved from there original cabins only to be moved to a cabin that smelled worse. One night there where 10 people at 1am in the morning at the customer service counter complaining the smell was unbearable and unhealthy to be breathing in. RCCL did not have open rooms to move any of us to at the time. There where at least two cabins to my knowledge near our rooms that where moved because of toilet failures. Read more