Center Stairs on Royal

[AliceS]

When I board the Royal on 10/8, I will let you know what I find. Whatever they do to the center staircase, I will survive the transatlantic! I like to use the stairs onboard to get the exercise, but but usually pop in the elevator for that morning cup of coffee!

[CruiseKing]

Captain Oliver although an extremely knowledgeable and competent man will not be on board for the cruises leading up to or overseeing the ship in dry dock. That being said he may not get the latest and most updated information regarding the dry-dock for the Royal. In other words....... Stuff Happens.

Edited September 3, 2016 by CruiseKing

[IECalCruiser]

When I board the Royal on 10/8, I will let you know what I find. Whatever they do to the center staircase, I will survive the transatlantic! I like to use the stairs onboard to get the exercise, but but usually pop in the elevator for that morning cup of coffee!

It looked like you have an active Roll Call and we will be anxiously awaiting your report [emoji4] Two years ago I used the stairs on a four day cruise and my knee was in pain for well over a week after the cruise so it is few if any stairs for me now. I was on the Regal later that year and the programming of the elevators caused real problems.

 

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Edited September 3, 2016 by IECalCruiser

[TheRabbit]

It looked like you have an active Roll Call and we will be anxiously awaiting your report [emoji4] Two years ago I used the stairs on a four day cruise and my knee was in pain for well over a week after the cruise so it is few if any stairs for me now. I was on the Regal later that year and the programming of the elevators caused real problems.

 

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An engineer from they elevator company was one of the other engineers I tripped into in 2013. Princess was trying to have the elevator system anticipate need such as at the start or end of a show or around the time daily events are letting out and starting. This was all based on timing. I found it interesting, but I didn't think they had thought out the model to well. I don't think Princess nor the company realized how complicated the model could be.

 

So thinking of modelling passenger flow, Are the members of CC the type that most likely would use the stairs? Then the concern here is much higher than among the average cruiser. My wife who has used CC from the beginning but never joined, doesn't care that the stairs don't exist, she will take the elevator. As she says, it gives her time to stop and think and reflect about how lucky she is to just be on the trip.

 

COME ON OCTOBER 8TH!!! Go AliceS!!!

[caribill]

An engineer from they elevator company was one of the other engineers I tripped into in 2013. Princess was trying to have the elevator system anticipate need such as at the start or end of a show or around the time daily events are letting out and starting. This was all based on timing. I found it interesting, but I didn't think they had thought out the model to well. I don't think Princess nor the company realized how complicated the model could be.

 

 

They need better elevator engineers.

 

When, on the Royal for example, where all four aft elevators all go to the same decks, why do they have one button summoning two of the elevators and another button summoning the other two?

 

The result is that both buttons get pushed. One elevator comes and you get onto it. Then another elevator stops and nobody gets onto it. The result of this engineering is that passengers spend a lot of wasted time on elevators that are the second-to-arrive but stop anyway.

 

Also on the Royal, the six center elevators have three different buttons to summon elevators. Same scenario as the aft elevators, but now two elevators stop unnecessarily.

 

And on the Royal the forward elevators have their own problem. On previous ships, when an elevator arrived at your deck you could see the up or down arrow lit for all four of the elevators while standing in one spot. There was one up/down set of lights mounted at each elevator. Four elevators, four mounted sets of lights. When an elevator arrived you could see which one it was.

 

But some engineering genius for the Royal figured that it would be better to have only two such mountings. Now you can only see the up/down arrows for two of the four elevators with your position determining which two you can see. If the elevator is one of the two that you cannot see the arrows for, you do not know it is there until the doors open and you might not make it to that elevator before the doors close.

[TheRabbit]

They need better elevator engineers.

 

When, on the Royal for example, where all four aft elevators all go to the same decks, why do they have one button summoning two of the elevators and another button summoning the other two?

 

The result is that both buttons get pushed. One elevator comes and you get onto it. Then another elevator stops and nobody gets onto it. The result of this engineering is that passengers spend a lot of wasted time on elevators that are the second-to-arrive but stop anyway.

 

Also on the Royal, the six center elevators have three different buttons to summon elevators. Same scenario as the aft elevators, but now two elevators stop unnecessarily.

 

And on the Royal the forward elevators have their own problem. On previous ships, when an elevator arrived at your deck you could see the up or down arrow lit for all four of the elevators while standing in one spot. There was one up/down set of lights mounted at each elevator. Four elevators, four mounted sets of lights. When an elevator arrived you could see which one it was.

 

But some engineering genius for the Royal figured that it would be better to have only two such mountings. Now you can only see the up/down arrows for two of the four elevators with your position determining which two you can see. If the elevator is one of the two that you cannot see the arrows for, you do not know it is there until the doors open and you might not make it to that elevator before the doors close.

 

I know what you mean, though the engineer was there for modeling lift activity. As for design, that's another group that needs their heads examined! Thus this thread.

 

In the past there was a need for two buttons in the back area. Not sure why they kept it when all lifts go to all floors. One word, Lemmings! The middle has always had two so you can take the panoramic lifts if you wanted, or use the main lifts to go down further than the panoramic elevators went, but why 3? They all go to all floors now. I think the one word mentioned above might kinda apply here also. The front, who knows where the designers head was that day.

 

As for doors closing, who is not guilty of hitting the close button as soon as a door starts to open on a floor the occupants aren't going to? I at least pop my head out. I know others do not. How many here get a group of people to exit an elevator so a wheel chair can get on? Another good reason for those D___ stairs!

 

FYI, I found some information of changes to Maritime Safety Committee's (MSC) amendments to Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) made in 2010 referenced to the Costa Concordia disaster, but they are all high level. There is a whole section that deals with redundant capabilities located above water tight doors, but everything I found were summaries, no specifics.

[IECalCruiser]

We have sailed on both the Grand and the Regal. Neither ship has center stairs. On both ships we had a forward cabin and used the forward elevator bank. On the Grand there is no split of the call button and any button calls all of the elevators. If one stops to handle passengers the other go by until the call button is pressed again. I could never figure out how the forward elevators worked on the Regal. Numerous times one or more elevators would pass by without stopping and this was not a busy time of day. One time I was able to check the next floor to see an elevator that had passed us by stop and it was empty! The programming, at least in 2014, was terribly inefficient at best [emoji33][emoji33]

 

 

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[floridalover5623]

 

As for doors closing, who is not guilty of hitting the close button as soon as a door starts to open on a floor the occupants aren't going to? I at least pop my head out. I know others do not. How many here get a group of people to exit an elevator so a wheel chair can get on? Another good reason for those D___ stairs!

 

 

On the Emerald they've disconnected the door closing button. I think the one on the Royal still works or at least it did last year. It's annoying to someone near the panel & not at least hit it when no one is there.

[lstone19]

While I only have experience on Regal, not Royal, the elevator logic for the center elevators was a mess. Three different call buttons (the main non-panoramic group of four, the starboard panoramic, and the port panoramic). The floor skipping someone else mentioned. And logic that says if an elevator is already at a floor, don't allow another to be requested. Why is the last a problem? At the end of a port call when lots of people were re-boarding, they were boarding faster than the elevators would come. With one elevator at the gangway deck (always 4 on my cruise), everything else turned back up at 5. You couldn't even press the call button until the first one left (pressing the call button while the doors were closing just reopened the doors on the one that was already there and full (so much for the claim of them being programmed to anticipate demand).

 

I think the having separate call buttons for the panoramic elevators is the marketers expecting passengers to behave differently than they actually do. To the marketers, the panoramic elevators are a special ship's feature where people don't ride those elevators to get to a different floor, they ride them for the view. But to the passengers, they're just another elevator. And as a result (and as previously posted), people call all three and two of the calls end up just needlessly delaying others.

[floridalover5623]

 

 

To the marketers, the panoramic elevators are a special ship's feature where people don't ride those elevators to get to a different floor, they ride them for the view. But to the passengers, they're just another elevator. And as a result (and as previously posted), people call all three and two of the calls end up just needlessly delaying others.

 

I've seen that a couple of times during a party in the Piazza. Annoying. :mad:

[TheRabbit]

I've seen that a couple of times during a party in the Piazza. Annoying. :mad:

 

Another good reason for those D___ stairs! LOL

[SwissDave]

On the Emerald they've disconnected the door closing button. I think the one on the Royal still works or at least it did last year. It's annoying to someone near the panel & not at least hit it when no one is there.

 

They were certainly working ok on the Emerald 3 weeks ago.

[floridalover5623]

They were certainly working ok on the Emerald 3 weeks ago.

 

Good to hear. They must have fixed the problem. I'ts frustrating to have to wait for the doors to close even though no one is getting on.

[iceleven]

Maybe they just intend on opening the stairs and not finishing them like the others. Why not? Stairs are stairs. With a few quick changes to the doors leading to the staircase they would be easily accessible.

 

I, for one, would prefer to take a tumble down carpeted stairs than hard, metal stairs. :p

[iceleven]

Most routine dry docks are 10-12 days. The Royal's dry dock is 12 days. Re-doing the center stairs would not be a simple re-fit even though the stairs are already there. I guess it's possible during the scheduled dry dock but logic tells me that the dry dock would be longer if the stairs were being redone.

 

That does seem to be a reasonable observation but we also know that modifications and refabrications go on even while passengers are on the ship. Since it is closed off to the public it's possible that portions of the central stairwell could begin prior to drydock and finished before it sets sail again.

[Colo Cruiser]

If they are done they are done. If not life goes on. :rolleyes:

[floridalover5623]

I, for one, would prefer to take a tumble down carpeted stairs than hard, metal stairs. :p

 

I guess you don't use any of the outside stairs to go anywhere.

[Geoffa30]

We were on the Emerald at the beginning of August. We hardly ever saw anyone using the centre stairs :confused: or the stairs in general for that matter.

[chengkp75]

That does seem to be a reasonable observation but we also know that modifications and refabrications go on even while passengers are on the ship. Since it is closed off to the public it's possible that portions of the central stairwell could begin prior to drydock and finished before it sets sail again.

 

While what you say is true for many modifications onboard running after drydock, the stairwells are SOLAS escape routes, and even though the center stairs here are for crew only, they are a crew evacuation route, and from what I hear, a designated passenger evacuation route as well. Therefore, any work that impinges on the accessibility of these stairs cannot be done while the ship is in service. There are also other design criteria than carpet and pretty joiner paneling to make a crew stair into a passenger stair, so I lean more towards Pam's post that the stair renovation may take longer than 12 days, especially as it will adversely impact the traffic pattern for crew and contractors doing other work.

[Iamcruzin]

Totally agree......could care less about the stairs and I am always surprised to see a lot of people taking elevators up or down one floor.....really....too lazy to take stairs.....;)

 

Well if the there were midship stairs leading to deck 8 then you wouldn't have to use the lifts to go up one flight. During the inaugural year I booked an interior room midship on deck 8 for the purpose of being able to walk down to the international cafe for my morning coffee. I would have even purchased the coffee card. When I found out that there weren't any midship stairs I contemplated changing my room to a less expensive forward stateroom because I wasn't willing to pay a higher price to be inconvenienced. In the end I canceled and booked a better and less expensive itinerary on Celebrity. That was the best decision that I ever made. There is more wrong with that ship than the incomplete midship stairs. The pools aren't conducive for a Caribbean sailings and there aren't any ocean view rooms which creates a substantial difference in price between an interior and an obstructed balcony. I never would have considered Celebrity because I was happy with Princess and I have Platinum status but because of a poor design it provoked me to explore the competition. My next cruise is on Celebrity as well.

[floridalover5623]

Well if the there were midship stairs leading to deck 8 then you wouldn't have to use the lifts to go up one flight. During the inaugural year I booked an interior room midship on deck 8 for the purpose of being able to walk down to the international cafe for my morning coffee. I would have even purchased the coffee card. When I found out that there weren't any midship stairs I contemplated changing my room to a less expensive forward stateroom because I wasn't willing to pay a higher price to be inconvenienced. In the end I canceled and booked a better and less expensive itinerary on Celebrity. That was the best decision that I ever made. There is more wrong with that ship than the incomplete midship stairs. The pools aren't conducive for a Caribbean sailings and there aren't any ocean view rooms which creates a substantial difference in price between an interior and an obstructed balcony. I never would have considered Celebrity because I was happy with Princess and I have Platinum status but because of a poor design it provoked me to explore the competition. My next cruise is on Celebrity as well.

 

The lack of outside cabins I'm sure has affected many people from choosing Princess. Not so much the elevator/stairs problem.

I suppose the loss of some business doesn't bother them so much.

[daiB]

Odd as most Celebrity ships only have 2 staircases and no central lifts at all.

 

 

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[Iamcruzin]

The lack of outside cabins I'm sure has affected many people from choosing Princess. Not so much the elevator/stairs problem.

I suppose the loss of some business doesn't bother them so much.

 

No probably not because there are many new cruisers to Princess who wouldn't know the difference. I had friends who's first cruise was on the Royal and they loved it. They mostly ate in the buffet and they never mentioned a thing about the small balcony or lack of midship stairs. I didn't make any comments before they sailed because I wanted to see what the first time cruiser had to say. I can say the same about my self in terms of Celebrity. There are so many on that board who complain about the changes. It doesn't matter to me because I don't miss what I never had.

[Iamcruzin]

Odd as most Celebrity ships only have 2 staircases and no central lifts at all.

 

 

 

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But they do have ocean view rooms. Also had I known about the lack of midship stairs on the Royal when I booked, I would have choose a less expensive forward room. I book midship for the convince of being able to get from one end to the other. In this case being close to a forward or aft stairs/elevator is the way to go. My real peeve is the lack of ocean view rooms and at the time the Royal was sailing a dull Caribbean itinerary which for me is the first priority along with price. I guess when I booked I liked the idea of being on a new ship. Instead I booked a 13yr old M class Celebrity ship for the itinerary and accommodations. M class ships have a midship stairway.

[daiB]

Odd how some people are desperate for a balcony and complain about older ships with very few balconies. Well they do in the UK

 

 

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