Royal (and Regal) Staircases

[kendon]

We personally love the Royal. The stairway situation is not an issue for us at all. Miss the stairway? Take the elevator. Simple. When waiting for the elevator, seconds can seem like minutes. What's the hurry anyway...

 

Not all ships are for all people...good thing that there are choices.

 

This topic is exhausting already.

[RDC1]

Was there a central set of elevators on the Celebrity ship?

 

Usually stairways are not missed if there are no elevators nearby.

 

The Pacific Princess and the Ocean Princess also have no mid-ship stairway. But they also do not have any mid-ship elevators, so there is no stairway expected there, and there has never been a post that I have seen complaining about the lack of a mid-ship stairway on those two ships.

 

Kinda, sorta. The layout had stairways going between decks in the atrium between 3,4 and 5 then stopped, kind of like on the Royal (different deck numbers with Celebrity using lower numbers for public areas).

 

The elevators were about halfway in between those central short areas and the rear stairs. With the rear stairs being closer to the center then on a Princess ship. There are only 2 sets of elevators.

 

Actually you might almost consider them to be front elevators and stairs, stairs between 3 decks in the middle of the atrium, and a set of elevators and stairs at the back of the atrium.

 

Compared to a Princess design the stairs at the back of the atrium is about halfway between where the back stairs/elevators and the central stairs/elevators would be located. No true rear stairs/elevator.

Edited August 29, 2014 by RDC1

[terrierjohn]

Kinda, sorta. The layout had stairways going between decks in the atrium between 3,4 and 5 then stopped, kind of like on the Royal (different deck numbers with Celebrity using lower numbers for public areas).

 

The elevators were about halfway in between those central short areas and the rear stairs. With the rear stairs being closer to the center then on a Princess ship. There are only 2 sets of elevators.

 

Actually you might almost consider them to be front elevators and stairs, stairs between 3 decks in the middle of the atrium, and a set of elevators and stairs at the back of the atrium.

 

Compared to a Princess design the stairs at the back of the atrium is about halfway between where the back stairs/elevators and the central stairs/elevators would be located. No true rear stairs/elevator.

Yes Celebrity only has 2 sets of stairs and it only has 12 elevators compared to Royal's 14, but the Solstice class only has 2850 passengers compared to Royal's 3600, and therein lies the difference.

[RDC1]

Yes Celebrity only has 2 sets of stairs and it only has 12 elevators compared to Royal's 14, but the Solstice class only has 2850 passengers compared to Royal's 3600, and therein lies the difference.

 

The point was the distance to the stairs, which is where this conversation started. That the lack of a center staircase was inconvenient for those that only wanted to go up or down a couple of flights in the passenger area. After all no one indicated that the two stairways were over crowded. Or that the front and back elevators were too busy (only the center ones).

 

Clearly the Solstice Class was built with the concept that only two staircases were needed. Also the Solstice class only has two elevator banks, not three. So you don't even have the middle bank of elevators, yet everyone seems to do just fine with that configuration.

 

Imagine if Royal was built with that design in mind, how people here would be upset. Yet it seems to work just fine.

 

Now the Solstice has 8% more total elevator capacity per passenger (1 elevator per 237.5 vs 1 elevator per 257 on Royal. But if you look at it by bank.

 

Front

 

Solstice 4 Royal 4

 

Center

 

Solstice 0 Royal 6

 

Back

 

Solstice 8 (2 banks of 4 facing opposite sides) Royal 4

 

Now looking at that distribution which would you consider to be more convenient.

Edited August 29, 2014 by RDC1

[Mom33]

The point was the distance to the stairs, which is where this conversation started. That the lack of a center staircase was inconvenient for those that only wanted to go up or down a couple of flights in the passenger area. After all no one indicated that the two stairways were over crowded. Or that the front and back elevators were too busy (only the center ones).

 

Clearly the Solstice Class was built with the concept that only two staircases were needed. Also the Solstice class only has two elevator banks, not three. So you don't even have the middle bank of elevators, yet everyone seems to do just fine with that configuration.

 

Imagine if Royal was built with that design in mind, how people here would be upset. Yet it seems to work just fine.

 

Now the Solstice has 8% more total elevator capacity per passenger (1 elevator per 237.5 vs 1 elevator per 257 on Royal. But if you look at it by bank.

 

Front

 

Solstice 4 Royal 4

 

Center

 

Solstice 0 Royal 6

 

Back

 

Solstice 8 (2 banks of 4 facing opposite sides) Royal 4

 

Now looking at that distribution which would you consider to be more convenient.

 

Interesting observation.....thanks for sharing your information.:D

[cheezenip]

The point was the distance to the stairs, which is where this conversation started. That the lack of a center staircase was inconvenient for those that only wanted to go up or down a couple of flights in the passenger area. After all no one indicated that the two stairways were over crowded. Or that the front and back elevators were too busy (only the center ones).

 

Clearly the Solstice Class was built with the concept that only two staircases were needed. Also the Solstice class only has two elevator banks, not three. So you don't even have the middle bank of elevators, yet everyone seems to do just fine with that configuration.

 

Imagine if Royal was built with that design in mind, how people here would be upset. Yet it seems to work just fine.

 

Now the Solstice has 8% more total elevator capacity per passenger (1 elevator per 237.5 vs 1 elevator per 257 on Royal. But if you look at it by bank.

 

Front

 

Solstice 4 Royal 4

 

Center

 

Solstice 0 Royal 6

 

Back

 

Solstice 8 (2 banks of 4 facing opposite sides) Royal 4

 

Now looking at that distribution which would you consider to be more convenient.

 

Before Royal Princess was ever built, I was on my first Celebrity cruise aboard the Eclipse (one of the Solstice Class vessels) and I was not as enamored with the ship design as others were. One of my first criticisms of the Eclipse (when comparing it to Princess) was the lack of a center staircase for the very reason of wanting to go down a few flights from the center of the ship. At that time, I made the remark that Celebrity needed to take a few lessons from Princess about interior ship design.

 

LOL...my how times have changed. I will be on Royal in December so I will have to mentally adjust.

Edited August 31, 2014 by cheezenip

[Cruise Junky]

Solstice class don't have aft stairs not centre stairs. If you check the deck plans, they're pretty central

 

http://www.cruisecritic.com/celebrity-solstice-deck-plans/dp/?shipID=381&deck=8

 

It's the aft cabins that have the walk which makes total sense if you look where all the dining rooms, lounges, buffet is. Aft stairs would run right through them.

Edited August 31, 2014 by Cruise Junky

[Craving A Cruise]

I have a midship cabin near the elevators on my upcoming cruise on the Regal. I'm not really concerned about a lack of passenger staircase or waiting for the elevator. I would like to know is if there are any doors leading to/from the midship elevator lobby area or is it open to the corridors? The stairs used by the crew, is this blocked with a door or just open? I'm just concerned about the noise of closing doors or conversations by those waiting forever for the elevator.

 

There are no doors in any Princess elevator lobby to passenger cabins that we have ever seen. Its not noisy. Princess cabins are very soundproof for noise from the passageways etc.

 

Our concern about cabins in this area is not so much about the noise level, but rather the privacy level or lack of privacy since your door would open up to the lobby. Has anyone stayed in these cabins ? (I.e. B705 or B706 on Crown Princess or similarly located cabins) Any thoughts? Pros and cons.

 

Thank you in advance :)