Royal (and Regal) Staircases

[terrierjohn]

I agree a cruise ship is just one big cash generating machine and the cruise lines want to persuade you to spend, BUT, whether a ship has midship stairs or not IMO makes no difference whatsover to passengers spending habits.

In fact if they are p***** off because of the missing stairs they are far less likely to feel like spending extra cash, no matter how many times you force them to walk past a bar or whatever else.

[RDC1]

It is my opinion that the primary decision not to have a public central stair is more to do with ship operations then any other reason.

 

Even on the Grand class ships that have a central stair, you will often see the crew using the space by those elevators to stage items used in cleaning the cabins.

 

When I cruise I always try to avoid the elevators and try to only use stairs (usually I manage to go entire cruises without ever using an elevator). One thing I have noticed, is that for all of the discussions about the need for public central stairs, I hardly ever see other passengers on those stairs. I see them being used far more often by crew members. They are narrower and less inviting then the stairs at the front and back.

 

Recently returned from a cruise on a Celebrity S-Class ship which only has two sets of stairs, did not miss the central stairs at all.

[Mississippian]

So book a stateroom on the Lido deck if you spend so much time there.

A cabin next to the central staircase on the deck below Lido actually puts you much, much closer to the action.

 

There is a tendency for Lido deck cabins to be hot because the hallway gets hot. And since you are at the very front of the ship you are actually quite a way from the center of the action. Dashing one floor up a staircase is just much quicker than walking half the length of the ship.

 

Every cabin has its advantages and disadvantages. But the lack of a central staircase makes the mid-ship cabins far less desirable to me. It's really just a preference, but given my druthers I will choose another ship over the Royal or Regal if given the opportunity.

[sunsetbeachgal]

In my opinion that is correct. I had made that assumption way back when this topic came up before the ship sailed. Having worked as a merchandiser in retail for over 30yrs I can tell you that traffic patterns are studied and the flow is designed to take the consumer deeper into the store. The spa is a destination venue. Only those who are interested will seek it out. However by moving it mid ship and creating a flow of traffic that forces you to pass it may increase the sales. I am sure they have a bunch of people outside the spa offering tours or hard selling services.

 

I cruised in the Royal last summer for 12 days and my cabin was right by the forward stairs and elevator..the spa is forward, not mid ship. I walked past the spa numerous times and not once was anyone offering tours (.other than on embarkation day, which is the norm) or "hard selling services". There is someone behind a reception desk, and that was it. Walking past the passenger services area was a pleasure as there is a lovely fountain in the lobby.

Edited August 26, 2014 by sunsetbeachgal

[anthonyy7]

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.

[Mom33]

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.

 

The stairs used by the crew are behind closed doors. Those doors are only opened for the muster drill.

We have been mid-ship on most all our cruises including the Royal cruise. We did not experience any noise in the corridor. We didn't wait forever for the elevators either.:D

[Colo Cruiser]

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.

[anthonyy7]

Thanks for the reassurance!

[MandD]

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.

 

We had A435 on the Royal and didn't have any problems with noise.

[ar1950]

Having read this thread over again I am inclined to posit a controversial idea. But, first, let me change into my Nomex suit.

 

OK, here we go. Having observed that the configuration of the fore and aft stairs on the Royal and Regal are pretty similar to the Grand class ships and, except for the Grand itself, the only difference in the stair arrangement is that there are passenger accessible stairs midship on the rest of the Grand class ships, I would wonder if this really makes any difference to most passengers (that would be the lack of a midship stairway for passengers use)? On both of our most recent cruises on the Star and the Ruby I took the stairs as often as possible (in other words, just about always). One of the things that I noticed when using the midship stairs was that there was seldom anyone else using them. I always saw people using the aft stairs and, when using the forward stairs, almost always saw people on them. The center stairs, though, deserted except for me. Hmmm. Maybe the fact that they were kind of hidden (you have to go through a set of doors off of the elevator lobby to find them) I would guess most passengers didn't even know that they were there.

 

So my premise is, that, with the exception of a vocal few (and no offense meant here!!), maybe no passenger accessible midship stairs on the Regal, Royal and Grand is not an issue for most passengers. You don't miss what you don't know could have been there (we certainly didn't on our Grand cruise 10 years ago).

 

Flame away, I'll keep the Nomex on........:cool:

[caribill]

OK, here we go. Having observed that the configuration of the fore and aft stairs on the Royal and Regal are pretty similar to the Grand class ships and, except for the Grand itself, the only difference in the stair arrangement is that there are passenger accessible stairs midship on the rest of the Grand class ships, I would wonder if this really makes any difference to most passengers (that would be the lack of a midship stairway for passengers use)? On both of our most recent cruises on the Star and the Ruby I took the stairs as often as possible (in other words, just about always). One of the things that I noticed when using the midship stairs was that there was seldom anyone else using them. I always saw people using the aft stairs and, when using the forward stairs, almost always saw people on them.

 

The forward stairs are by the main theater and thus will have a lot use use after shows let out. The aft stairs are by the rear lounge and thus will also have a lot of use when events are over there.

 

Center stairs are likely to be used mostly by passengers who need go to up or down a couple of flights, for example from a cabin on the Emerald deck down to the Atrium.

 

Events which attract a crowd in the Atrium usually have many of the participants leaving to go to dinner, not back to their cabins.

[caribill]

Recently returned from a cruise on a Celebrity S-Class ship which only has two sets of stairs, did not miss the central stairs at all.

 

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.

[PescadoAmarillo]

So my premise is, that, with the exception of a vocal few (and no offense meant here!!), maybe no passenger accessible midship stairs on the Regal, Royal and Grand is not an issue for most passengers. You don't miss what you don't know could have been there (we certainly didn't on our Grand cruise 10 years ago).

 

It's the lack of mid-ship passenger stairs combined with insufficient and poorly programmed elevators that make for a perfect logistical storm. We went from the Royal Princess to the Nieuw Amsterdam last fall, a ship with 1500 fewer passengers and it had the same number of elevators and they were all larger than on the Royal Princess.

 

I've never studied elevator engineering, but it seems that, like public restrooms, there has to be a minimum recommended number per capita. Surely the Royal Princess is on the very low end of that.

[terrierjohn]

It's the lack of mid-ship passenger stairs combined with insufficient and poorly programmed elevators that make for a perfect logistical storm. We went from the Royal Princess to the Nieuw Amsterdam last fall, a ship with 1500 fewer passengers and it had the same number of elevators and they were all larger than on the Royal Princess.

 

I've never studied elevator engineering, but it seems that, like public restrooms, there has to be a minimum recommended number per capita. Surely the Royal Princess is on the very low end of that.

Unless Royals elevators are bigger than the Grand class ones then they will be overloaded in comparison, with 1000 more passengers than the original small grand class and exactly the same number of elevators, especially without the central stairs to act as an overflow at busy times.

[Lovetocruiseprincess]

It's the lack of mid-ship passenger stairs combined with insufficient and poorly programmed elevators that make for a perfect logistical storm.

 

I think I've saw you post that you've sailed on HAL. Do they have their elevators programed as poorly or are the banks independent of each other?

[PescadoAmarillo]

I think I've saw you post that you've sailed on HAL. Do they have their elevators programed as poorly or are the banks independent of each other?

 

The only ones that are not programmed together are the panoramic elevators on each side midship. But all the forward and aft elevator groupings are logically programmed, as are the two center elevators mid-ship. And the center elevators, forward, mid and aft, are nearly twice the size of those on the Royal Princess.

 

The lack of elevator capacity is what turns the lack of passenger stairs mid-ship from an inconvenience to a bottleneck on the Royal Princess.

[caribill]

Unless Royals elevators are bigger than the Grand class ones then they will be overloaded in comparison, with 1000 more passengers than the original small grand class and exactly the same number of elevators, especially without the central stairs to act as an overflow at busy times.

 

There have been a number of posts claiming that the mid-ship elevators on the Royal and Regal are smaller than on the Grand class. Some of the posts have called them "tiny tubes of terror."

 

I have no first hand knowledge of the size of these elevators.

[CruisenOne]

There have been a number of posts claiming that the mid-ship elevators on the Royal and Regal are smaller than on the Grand class. Some of the posts have called them "tiny tubes of terror."

 

I have no first hand knowledge of the size of these elevators.

 

The elevators do seem to be smaller on the Royal.

 

I do not know the exact dimensions but upon entering the elevator for the first time I did notice a difference.

 

Many people commented on the size.

[azdmelani]

Unless Royals elevators are bigger than the Grand class ones then they will be overloaded in comparison, with 1000 more passengers than the original small grand class and exactly the same number of elevators, especially without the central stairs to act as an overflow at busy times.

 

The elevators are smaller in size than the ones on the Grand class ships, regardless of the number of people. The added 1000 passengers just compounds the issue.

[dbeckett]

Just back from the Regal and to me the lack of stairs mid-ship was to say the least damned annoying. I normally only use lfts (elevators) at the start and end of a cruise when I have a suitcase with them. We were midship on the Regal and did as a lot of people have suggested walked forward or aft to use those stairs. When coming back from or going to Shore Excursion or even to HC or HB it was annoying to have the lift go past the floor because it was already full.

 

I was talking to a member of the crew about it (I voiced my opinion that it was a cost cutting exercise for Princess) and was told that it was because one group cruisers (the ones that are the majority of Princess cruisers) didn't use them. I did point out that there were more cruisers than them but was told that was the reason the crew had been told that passenger stairs had gone.

 

Prior to the muster drill (tell me why do people insist on going an hour early with their life jackets just so they can use the lifts) I asked a different crew member where the stairs were that the route map of where to go when the alarm sounds and was told that there are no stairs - use the lift!!! Like you should do that in the event of a real emergency.

 

The stairs and other things we prefer on the mid-size ships mean that it would have to be a very special itinerary for us to consider the Regal (or Royal) again.

[Grego]

I've got a cruise booked on the Emerald where our stateroom is on the Riviera Deck just a few steps from the central stairs. My guess is that we can go from our stateroom to the center of the Lido deck is less than a minute, perhaps less than 30 seconds. It is my hope and plan to make this trip at least 10 times a day.

 

If I had to walk to one end of the ship or the other it would add two to four minutes to the time it took me to get to the central portion of the Lido deck. That's perhaps 30 minutes per day lost to walking to the far end of the ship just to use a stairway or waiting on an elevator. That's 3.5 hours per cruise

 

Having 3.5 hours taken away from my vacation is a deal breaker. I will not book on any ship that doesn't have central stairs.

 

You probably spent more time figuring this out than it would take to make those journeys....and most likely while at work. Your assumption would be correct if you always had a midship cabin one deck from Lido and you were always making 10 trips a day just to the middle of Lido. What's with that? If you are including trips to Lido for HC or other venues then you would have to walk aft or forward from midship anyway so it doesn't compute in your scenario.

 

Regardless, guess we won't be seeing you on the Royal or Regal anytime soon and that's OK.

Edited August 29, 2014 by Grego

[Grego]

To me it comes down to, "it is what it is" and it won't change on the Royal class ships. What gets me is that those that complain about not having a central staircase are those that most likely use stairs frequently either due to convenience or for the exercise. If that is true, then walking a few more steps forward or aft to connect with those stairs really shouldn't be that big of an issue....it just takes a little longer and maybe even faster than waiting on a lift to arrive.

 

Regarding the lifts on the Royal class ships, there are as many as on the Grand class and in the same locations, however, they are smaller which does present a problem during peak usage times such as embarkation, muster, performance times and disembarkation. Other times seem to work well. I would like to hear the real reason for choosing to use smaller cars for the lifts and I can't believe it was really a cost factor. That would be like tripping over the dollar bills to pick up the pennies saved with the dollar bills being the annoyance of their customers due to the small cars.

 

We were on the Royal for 7 days and really didn't have a problem with lack of central stairs or small lifts because we don't let the small stuff bother us. I'm sure our 17 days coming up on the Regal won't be a problem either. There just is so much good stuff changes on this class ship that overcomes the small stuff.

[Woobstr112G]

To me it comes down to, "it is what it is" and it won't change on the Royal class ships. What gets me is that those that complain about not having a central staircase are those that most likely use stairs frequently either due to convenience or for the exercise. If that is true, then walking a few more steps forward or aft to connect with those stairs really shouldn't be that big of an issue....it just takes a little longer and maybe even faster than waiting on a lift to arrive.

 

Regarding the lifts on the Royal class ships, there are as many as on the Grand class and in the same locations, however, they are smaller which does present a problem during peak usage times such as embarkation, muster, performance times and disembarkation. Other times seem to work well. I would like to hear the real reason for choosing to use smaller cars for the lifts and I can't believe it was really a cost factor. That would be like tripping over the dollar bills to pick up the pennies saved with the dollar bills being the annoyance of their customers due to the small cars.

 

We were on the Royal for 7 days and really didn't have a problem with lack of central stairs or small lifts because we don't let the small stuff bother us. I'm sure our 17 days coming up on the Regal won't be a problem either. There just is so much good stuff changes on this class ship that overcomes the small stuff.

 

What seems small to you is obviously important to others.....

 

Bob

[smtcan]

 

We were on the Royal for 7 days and really didn't have a problem with lack of central stairs or small lifts because we don't let the small stuff bother us. I'm sure our 17 days coming up on the Regal won't be a problem either. There just is so much good stuff changes on this class ship that overcomes the small stuff.

 

We recently returned from eleven days on Royal. Princess is not our usual line of choice although we have cruised on Star and Ruby. I read extensively about the problems on Royal, although I was careful not to mention them to the rest of our family, who had chosen the ship because they liked the idea of having their first, or second for some, cruise on a new ship.

 

I was very favourably impressed with the ship. There were so many good features that I forgot about the lack of a central staircase or slow elevators. The food was the best we have had on Princess. The cabins were spacious and kept immaculately clean. The entertainment had something for everyone and the service was outstanding.

 

Thank goodness I didn't let the complaints put me off. We would cruise on Royal again in a heartbeat. BTW we have cruised on six different lines for our close to thirty cruises, so have a valid basis for comparison.

[sunsetbeachgal]

On our cruise last year on the Royal our cabin was located near the forward stairs/elevator. Therefore I never noticed the missing staircase. Just booked the Regal, and chose a cabin near the forward stairs again.