Going Up: Elevator Traffic on Bliss

[drwbrt]

Disclaimer: the thoughts and opinions below are mine and they are just that. I’ve cruised with RCL and DCL in the past.

 

There have been several posts in the few short months I’ve been on this forum regarding elevator traffic and long waits in the elevator lobbies. I’ll be honest, I was very concerned myself.

 

My brother had booked this cruise just a few weeks after I got off my cruise on Harmony OTS. He asked about the elevators and I looked up the deck plan. I saw that Bliss had 16 elevators for 4,004 pax (double occupancy) vs Harmony’s 24 elevators for 5,479 pax (double occupancy). That’s about a 10% difference in pax/elevator at double occupancy; closer to 8% at max capacity. I was worried.

 

I felt like the wait for lifts on Harmony were a little long (1.5-3 minutes waiting). This concern I had was before I was onboard the Bliss and found out that the elevators were 25% smaller than those on the Harmony. Now I was even more concerned.

 

During our 5-day cruise on Bliss, we never waited longer than 1.5 min for an elevator and most the time less than 30 seconds. The elevators did seem a little fuller than I was used to, but we only turned down a full elevator two times during the whole cruise. 

 

We think it is possibly unique to our cruise. Our cruise had only a small handful of strollers. It also had a very small amount of electric conveyance vehicles. We think if either of these were higher it could have a huge impact on the busyness of the elevators.

 

As mentioned in another post, we believe the flow of the ship helped with congestion and peak passenger times. I would be interested to see how an Alaskan cruise, or mid-summer cruise, might impact the elevator traffic.

[itsnotjustme]

Travelling on the Escape to Bermuda pre-pandemic, we were disappointed in the elevator situation.  They were typically close to full or full except at off hours.  While full, they would stop at every deck, only to have no one new get on, but delaying the arrival at your deck of choice.  This is the only cruise (of ~15) I have experienced this type elevator crowding and delay.

[Greenpea2]

52 minutes ago, itsnotjustme said:

Travelling on the Escape to Bermuda pre-pandemic, we were disappointed in the elevator situation.  They were typically close to full or full except at off hours.  While full, they would stop at every deck, only to have no one new get on, but delaying the arrival at your deck of choice.  This is the only cruise (of ~15) I have experienced this type elevator crowding and delay.

This was our experience on the Bliss just before Covid started, so it was a few years ago. It was the only complaint we had, though. Love the Bliss. We took stairs a lot but going up a lot of flights all the time is darn tiring. I'm no spring chicken!

[seemoreroyals]

On Bliss this past November, back elevators not nearly as busy as front elevators.  Don't remember a single time waiting more than a minute.  Front elevators on the other hand always waits and multiple stops people getting on and off going up or down.

[JustAllie]

One thing I like about the older ships (e.g. Jewel class) is that they have 3 banks of elevators (Forward, Mid-ship, and Aft) instead of 2. That and the lower occupancy tend to ease the elevator crowding. 

[drwbrt]

Thanks for all the feedback. I don’t know that we noticed foreword or aft being any better than the other. We struggled some with the stopping at multiple floors, often for someone that decided to walk instead. 
 

Ultimately it wasn’t a huge issue for me. I was willing to walk down any number of flights. I preferred the elevator for anything more than three decks but was willing to do it. We liked splitting up our journey up and down the stairs by walking a few decks, crossing from fore to aft or whatever direction was called for (normally on 6/7/8), and then climbing/descending the other decks.

 

Our biggest desire for the elevator was to and from deck 5 for the arcade package we got, and to and from 6/7/8. Our staterooms were on 13 and 15.

 

For those that commented, did it feel like strollers and mobility scooters were the issue or just sheer volume of people?
 

 

[Greenpea2]

9 hours ago, drwbrt said:

Thanks for all the feedback. I don’t know that we noticed foreword or aft being any better than the other. We struggled some with the stopping at multiple floors, often for someone that decided to walk instead. 
 

Ultimately it wasn’t a huge issue for me. I was willing to walk down any number of flights. I preferred the elevator for anything more than three decks but was willing to do it. We liked splitting up our journey up and down the stairs by walking a few decks, crossing from fore to aft or whatever direction was called for (normally on 6/7/8), and then climbing/descending the other decks.

 

Our biggest desire for the elevator was to and from deck 5 for the arcade package we got, and to and from 6/7/8. Our staterooms were on 13 and 15.

 

For those that commented, did it feel like strollers and mobility scooters were the issue or just sheer volume of people?
 

 

For us, it was just lots of people. Our cabin was in the bow of the ship so if the front ones were worse, maybe that's why. 

[eileeshb]

Have they changed the call button operation on Bliss ? I haven't sailed on her yet but I've been on Escape, Breakaway, Getaway and Epic. On the older ships you had to press the button on both the starboard and port banks of elevators to improve your chances of an elevator coming quickly. If you could just press one to apply to both sides then there'd be far fewer elevators stopping only to have no-one getting on. So the reason no-one got on when your elevator stopped at a particular deck wasn't necessarily because someone decided to take the stairs, instead it's more likely an elevator in the opposite bank arrived first and they got on that one.

I've usually had cabins at about the mid deck level between 10 and 12, so it wasn't a major effort to use the stairs when the elevators were busy. about the only time I used them was getting back on at a port or going from 6 or 7 up to the pool deck.  This may be the reason I tend to lose weight on a cruise... 

[drwbrt]

37 minutes ago, Greenpea2 said:

For us, it was just lots of people. Our cabin was in the bow of the ship so if the front ones were worse, maybe that's why. 

Separate note, how was the motion up there? I felt more movement on this cruise than others, but I’m thinking it’s the Pacific vs Caribbean rather than ship or position on ship. 

[drwbrt]

33 minutes ago, eileeshb said:

Have they changed the call button operation on Bliss ? I haven't sailed on her yet but I've been on Escape, Breakaway, Getaway and Epic. On the older ships you had to press the button on both the starboard and port banks of elevators to improve your chances of an elevator coming quickly. If you could just press one to apply to both sides then there'd be far fewer elevators stopping only to have no-one getting on. So the reason no-one got on when your elevator stopped at a particular deck wasn't necessarily because someone decided to take the stairs, instead it's more likely an elevator in the opposite bank arrived first and they got on that one.

I've usually had cabins at about the mid deck level between 10 and 12, so it wasn't a major effort to use the stairs when the elevators were busy. about the only time I used them was getting back on at a port or going from 6 or 7 up to the pool deck.  This may be the reason I tend to lose weight on a cruise... 

I wondered about this very thing. I had noticed that when I pressed a button is would only illuminate the other button on the same side, port or starboard. If I wanted all four buttons to illuminate I needed to press both a port and a starboard button. When I tested this theory out, were they separately controlled, I pressed only the starboard side and was eventually picked up on the port side. 
 

Perhaps pressing both sides increases your chances of getting an elevator, but they are certainly linked in some fashion. 

[Tutone56]

I think many people use the stairs (us included) so it may help on cutting down the number of people using the elevators. However, we’ve only been on the smaller ships. We’ll be on the Escape in September so we may not want to climb all those stairs 😊. 

[Greenpea2]

2 hours ago, drwbrt said:

Separate note, how was the motion up there? I felt more movement on this cruise than others, but I’m thinking it’s the Pacific vs Caribbean rather than ship or position on ship. 

We were in the Haven very far forward. Did not notice any unusual movement. Even on the sundeck which is right at the bow. But very windy when underway.

[gmbhardy]

16 hours ago, seemoreroyals said:

On Bliss this past November, back elevators not nearly as busy as front elevators.  Don't remember a single time waiting more than a minute.  Front elevators on the other hand always waits and multiple stops people getting on and off going up or down.

The front bank of elevators are extremely busy on ships that have both the Garden Buffet and Observation Lounge at the front of the ship. It’s a double whammy.

[debenson0723]

3 hours ago, eileeshb said:

Have they changed the call button operation on Bliss ?

No they have not.  But it was finally changed on the Prima.