Sun Princess Elevators or Lifts

[john watson]

I have to say the new style of Elevators or Lifts was amazing.  They are grouped in banks of six of them and there are no up or down buttons to summon the lift.  Just six black blank pads that when you touch them and are offered the complete list of decks you may travel to from that deck. If you press say 8 for example it tells you which lift A,B,C,D,E or F has been scheduled for that deck. Say the pad shows D then an arrow points out which direction to walk to that lift and the D sign lights up to confirm the correct one. When it arrives you just get in and there are no buttons in the lift to press, instead a list of decks appear on the display advising where it will be stopping.

 

This system prevents people pressing up and down in the lobby and then going one direction and leaving an unwanted stop for the lift later.  Also nobody just jumps in a lift as it might not stop at your required deck.  This means people are sorted out into groups that want the same destination just like trains or buses. It was amazingly efficient.

 

Regards John

[Rick&Jeannie]

We experienced elevators such as this for the first time last year on the Carnival Panorama (their newest ship at the time).  It was very interesting.  You'd better not just get on the first elevator that opens!  You have no idea where you might end up and you can't change it by pressing buttons inside!

[john watson]

I forgot to mention that in the lobby they had a big disabled/handicapped button which if you pressed had the choices displayed lower down.  I do not know if priority also came in to play. It may well have also had fewer passengers sent to that lift based on a larger scooter being considered by the system.

 

Regards John

Edited October 7 by john watson

[PMGS247]

One question I've seen pop up a couple times on social media is - with multiple people in a group, do you have to (or is it advised) to enter in an elevator request for the same floor multiple times so the system knows how many people are waiting? 

 

Seems like it might not make a difference at slow times or if you're a group of two but it makes intuitive sense to me that if you're a group of 8 at a busy time that the algorithm might actually break up your party and send of you to a different elevator when it calculates that one elevator will be near capacity when it arrives.  Having said that there seems to be two schools of thought with some people chiming in calling it a "myth" that you have to hit it multiple times for a larger group, and other more adamant that you do indeed need to do that.

 

I ask this having not yet experienced it yet...sailing on the sun in a couple weeks.

Edited October 7 by PMGS247

[Rick&Jeannie]

1 hour ago, PMGS247 said:

One question I've seen pop up a couple times on social media is - with multiple people in a group, do you have to (or is it advised) to enter in an elevator request for the same floor multiple times so the system knows how many people are waiting? 

 

I don't think so...at least it did not *seem* to operate that way on the Carnival ship. (Could be different, I realize.)  The first "request" seems to put you in line for the next available elevator.  Subsequent requests just seem to "echo" what the elevator is going to do based on the first request.  We had a rather large group...very often we would have up to 6 people riding.  I don't recall having to press multiple times.  (Although I VERY vaguely recall maybe telling it we had 6 people when making the initial request...I don't remember, but that would take care of your scenario.)

[PMGS247]

8 minutes ago, Rick&Jeannie said:

I don't think so...at least it did not *seem* to operate that way on the Carnival ship. (Could be different, I realize.)  The first "request" seems to put you in line for the next available elevator.  Subsequent requests just seem to "echo" what the elevator is going to do based on the first request.  We had a rather large group...very often we would have up to 6 people riding.  I don't recall having to press multiple times.  (Although I VERY vaguely recall maybe telling it we had 6 people when making the initial request...I don't remember, but that would take care of your scenario.)

 

yeah general consensus seems to be it makes sense for the AI/Algorithm that it's leveraging to maximize efficiency would need to know how many people in order to operate optimally.  May not make a difference for 2-3 people vs 1 but I'm guessing it would start to split things up into different elevators when you get to passengers 7,8,9 all requesting the same floor.

[dides]

3 hours ago, john watson said:

 Also nobody just jumps in a lift as it might not stop at your required deck.  This means people are sorted out into groups that want the same destination just like trains or buses. It was amazingly efficient.

Except on embarkation day if people are not aware of the new system - we had a couple of instances on our cruise to Southampton where people just walked straight into the nearest open elevator car after us without knowing they couldn't press a button once inside. We had to send them back out again! 😄

[PMGS247]

5 minutes ago, dides said:

Except on embarkation day if people are not aware of the new system - we had a couple of instances on our cruise to Southampton where people just walked straight into the nearest open elevator car after us without knowing they couldn't press a button once inside. We had to send them back out again! 😄

 

🤣 yeah I see this coming big time.  I'm always the one to go over the top in doing my homework before a cruise so I'll be good to go on day 1 but I asked my wife how many people I would personally have to explain the system to.  She said if it's less than 10 on embarkation day I'll be shocked.

[paddingtonbear]

3 minutes ago, PMGS247 said:

 

🤣 yeah I see this coming big time.  I'm always the one to go over the top in doing my homework before a cruise so I'll be good to go on day 1 but I asked my wife how many people I would personally have to explain the system to.  She said if it's less than 10 on embarkation day I'll be shocked.

I’m like you! I’ll be able to walk around the ship and find just about any venue as soon as I board even though I’ve never been in the ship just researched it. 

[SiliconCruiser]

4 hours ago, john watson said:

I forgot to mention that in the lobby they had a big disabled/handicapped button which if you pressed had the choices displayed lower down.  I do not know if priority also came in to play. It may well have also had fewer passengers sent to that lift based on a larger scooter being considered by the system.

 

Regards John

I think that is to allow a little more room in the elevator for wheelchairs.  Pretty smart logic.

[Esprit]

I agree, the lifts work well, but press for the floor you want too many times and you can get redirected to another!

[nasa1974]

1 hour ago, Esprit said:

I agree, the lifts work well, but press for the floor you want too many times and you can get redirected to another!

Great picture. That's my deck for my cruise coming up next week.