Grand Princess Mid-Ship Stairs

[pablo222]

Just got off Grand a few hours ago. No mid-ship stairs other than the curved stairways from deck 5 to 6 and 6 to 7 in the Piazza. The original stairs are still there, but go up half way and end at an "Employee Only" door. Inconvenient is the insight I can offer.

 

This is not correct. There are stairs 'behind' the mid-ship elevators, as (almost?) all princess ships have.

 

On Grand, they are open to passengers from deck 5 to deck 7, and crew only upward.

[sloopsailor]

This is not correct. There are stairs 'behind' the mid-ship elevators, as (almost?) all princess ships have.

 

On Grand, they are open to passengers from deck 5 to deck 7, and crew only upward.

 

Yes, I know the ones we can use only go between decks 5 and 7. THAT is what I was referring to. That they are there on higher decks only for the crew to use is of no help to passengers.

[momoftwins+]

It's not a bad walk. We stay aft, the furthest away from any stairs. Doesn't bother us a bit. Actually, it helps! I can have an extra glass of wine or dessert that night for the extra steps!

[Yosef42]

It was not as bad as we expected. Mid elevators were slow/crowded around dinner and boarding times, but otherwise weren't significantly worse than the others. And we were usually heading for the fore or aft to go outside, anyway, so walking on our deck or elsewhere was usually a wash.

[Yehootu]

My Mom was 93 this Aug. She has sailed on the Grand at least twice each year for the last 3 years. We always stay as far aft as we can. She loves the aft facing balcony rooms. Yes she's not mobile challenged, but uses a cane. The central stairway problem is much over hyped ( yes if fixed it would be better for all). I love the ship and crew, Leo my bartender and Sonia in the Botticelli dining room.

[IECalCruiser]

The first time we were on the Grand in 2007 we didn't know the difference and didn't miss the center stairs even though we had sailed on the Golden a couple of years before.

 

The second time was in 2014 and we were in a Window Suite. One of our traveling companions needed to use the elevator so we just walked to the forward elevator bank and had no issues. Sailed on the Regal a few months later and what a disaster [emoji33] The forward elevator programming was a mess and several elevators would pass by before one stopped minutes later. I was able to look downstairs and find out that many of the elevators that passed us by were empty or nearly empty [emoji848] The elevator programming on the Grand was much more efficient and we hardly ever had a wait [emoji846]

 

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Edited August 10, 2017 by IECalCruiser

[caribill]

ailed on the Regal a few months later and what a disaster [emoji33] The forward elevator programming was a mess and several elevators would pass by before one stopped minutes later. I was able to look downstairs and find out that many of the elevators that passed us by were empty or nearly empty [emoji848] The elevator programming on the Grand was much more efficient and we hardly ever had a wait [emoji846]

 

 

On the Grand any the forward elevator buttons apply to all four elevators there. In addition you can easily see the lights that indicate going up/down for all four elevators.

 

If the Regal is like the Royal, one elevator button only summons two of the elevators. So many people press two buttons and thus two elevators eventually stop there even though only one is needed. If you do not press two buttons, then only two of the four will head to your floor. The other two elevators will bypass it as no signal was sent to them that there is a passenger waiting. In addition, you can only see the up/down lights for two of the four elevators (which two depends on where you are stranding), so by the time you realize which elevator has arrived for you, it is often too late to walk to it and get on it before the doors close.

[IECalCruiser]

We pressed all buttons and it was still messed up [emoji849]

 

 

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[Yosef42]

On the Grand any the forward elevator buttons apply to all four elevators there. In addition you can easily see the lights that indicate going up/down for all four elevators.

 

If the Regal is like the Royal, one elevator button only summons two of the elevators. So many people press two buttons and thus two elevators eventually stop there even though only one is needed. If you do not press two buttons, then only two of the four will head to your floor. The other two elevators will bypass it as no signal was sent to them that there is a passenger waiting. In addition, you can only see the up/down lights for two of the four elevators (which two depends on where you are stranding), so by the time you realize which elevator has arrived for you, it is often too late to walk to it and get on it before the doors close.

Yes, I noticed this on the Grand: the aft elevators have different options (inside elevators stop at 14, outside go higher), and the center elevators have one button for the regular ones, and separate buttons for each of the glass elevators.

 

The most efficient way to get the next available elevator, therefore, is to press all the buttons, but that means you're constantly dealing with elevator calls that go unanswered (because the person already took an earlier one).

[SantaFeFan]

Yes, I noticed this on the Grand: the aft elevators have different options (inside elevators stop at 14, outside go higher), and the center elevators have one button for the regular ones, and separate buttons for each of the glass elevators.

 

The most efficient way to get the next available elevator, therefore, is to press all the buttons, but that means you're constantly dealing with elevator calls that go unanswered (because the person already took an earlier one).

 

I also noticed on our cruise on Grand in June that some of the elevator arrivals on some of the floors weren't announced by the traditional "ding". There was no audio indication that it had arrived, the doors then opened silently, and just as we finally noticed it was there, the doors started closing resulting in a mad dash to catch it, sometimes unsuccessfully. My wife called them "stealth elevators".

[Yosef42]

I also noticed on our cruise on Grand in June that some of the elevator arrivals on some of the floors weren't announced by the traditional "ding". There was no audio indication that it had arrived, the doors then opened silently, and just as we finally noticed it was there, the doors started closing resulting in a mad dash to catch it, sometimes unsuccessfully. My wife called them "stealth elevators".

I don't recall any missing "dings," but there were definitely some where the lights were out, so you couldn't immediately tell whether it was going up or down.

[caribill]

I don't recall any missing "dings," but there were definitely some where the lights were out, so you couldn't immediately tell whether it was going up or down.

 

Since you did not miss the dings you need to know that one ding means going up and two dings means going down.

[Yosef42]

Since you did not miss the dings you need to know that one ding means going up and two dings means going down.

Clearly, I am ding-impaired.:D