Does Discovery Princess have a full promenade deck?

[beluga_baby]

I've looked on the Discovery Princess deck plans and watched some video tours but I still can't figure this out. On deck 7, the promenade deck, it looks like there are four promenade area - outside dining for Gigi's and Bistro Sur La Mer, and some outside area on both the starboard and port sides of the Vista Lounge in the back. But does the promenade deck stretch around the entire ship? Is the deck plan missing something or does it just not exist? It looks like this is were the lifeboats are so I'm sure there is some kind of platform for getting on them, but are they available to passengers? And if you wanted to get outside, are you able to go to the restaurants' outdoor dining areas when they aren't serving passengers, like in the morning?

[cr8tiv1]

The Royal Class ships (and newer) do not have a walk around full Promenade Deck. Many complaints. Princess didn’t listen to their “loyal” passengers and built a newer class without.  
 

Welcome to Cruise Critic. 

Edited November 5, 2022 by cr8tiv1

[koreakruiser]

More like a Promenade Alley, and it doesn't go all the way around.

[SargassoPirate]

4 hours ago, cr8tiv1 said:

The Royal Class ships (and newer) do not have a walk around full Promenade Deck. Many complaints. Princess didn’t listen to their “loyal” passengers and built a newer class without.  
 

Welcome to Cruise Critic. 

Most likely because a promenade doesn't produce much, if any revenue, per square foot like extra cabins, shops, or restaurants do.  At least on the Island Princess they left most of the promenade intact.  Bigger ships with no promenade keep people inside and the money flowing.

[beluga_baby]

Thank you all for your responses! They are very helpful. The lack of a real promenade (despite the deck literally being called the "promenade deck") is disappointing. It actually doesn't look like there is much ocean viewing space on this one, especially if you don't pay for the sanctuary. Plus not a lot of covered spaces for when it rains. That might make viewing glaciers in Alaska tricky. 

[MsSoCalCruiser]

There is a blue walking track up near the basketball court. We spent a lot of time walking up there.

[tanyaewa]

We spent a lot of time on the promenade deck on Majestic in Alaska this September. It was rarely busy and we were literally the only people on the back of the ship on that deck as we left glacier bay. Stunning. It does NOT go all the way around but there are certainly pockets of very underused viewing space on both sides. And there’s the smoke 💨 loungers section too which can sometimes be empty and a nice place for a nap 

[tonit964]

This was my one disappointment of Discovery. I’m so used to the full walk around Promenade deck on the other ships.

 

Didn’t stop me from booking another cruise on her though, will be sailing again in 3 weeks.

[caribill]

4 hours ago, MsSoCalCruiser said:

There is a blue walking track up near the basketball court. We spent a lot of time walking up there.

 

But it is not covered like the traditional Promenade deck is.

 

You could use the traditional Promenade deck rain or shine.

[SargassoPirate]

6 hours ago, tonit964 said:

This was my one disappointment of Discovery. I’m so used to the full walk around Promenade deck on the other ships.

 

Didn’t stop me from booking another cruise on her though, will be sailing again in 3 weeks.

When I sail solo, I sail in an inside so the promenade is my own sanctuary.  I use it to walks laps in the morning and afternoon and I love to sit and read on whatever is the shady side - upwind on the Nicotine Alley side.  A full promenade is almost a deal breaker for me unless She Who Must Be Obeyed wants to do a cruise for a particular itinerary and it's on one of the ships without a wrap around promenade - but then together we book balconies as her private sanctuary. 

[MsSoCalCruiser]

6 hours ago, caribill said:

 

But it is not covered like the traditional Promenade deck is.

 

You could use the traditional Promenade deck rain or shine.

You are 100% correct. I wish it was covered.

[Wildcatllamas]

On 11/5/2022 at 5:05 AM, SargassoPirate said:

Most likely because a promenade doesn't produce much, if any revenue, per square foot like extra cabins, shops, or restaurants do.  At least on the Island Princess they left most of the promenade intact.  Bigger ships with no promenade keep people inside and the money flowing.

I managed to make my walks on the inside by walking laps on decks 5 and 6. Never once set foot in any of the shops while doing it. Although once I was done I did stop and get either a coffee or tea at the IC. On the days that it wasn't a scorcher I did the track. And on the day I lost my sunglasses I logged over 11,000 trying to find them. Alas - never did - so walked inside the remaining days.

[john watson]

10 hours ago, caribill said:

 

But it is not covered like the traditional Promenade deck is.

 

You could use the traditional Promenade deck rain or shine.

 

Prior to the "traditional" Promenade Deck as most more contemporary cruisers perceive it the feature was enclosed at the sides of the ship.  More of an indoors set up but one could nevertheless promenade about it. The feature has evolved but lately the ship designers seemed to have completely phased out the continuous nature of it.

 

Regards John

 

Regards John

[Pam in CA]

On 11/5/2022 at 4:05 AM, SargassoPirate said:

Most likely because a promenade doesn't produce much, if any revenue, per square foot like extra cabins, shops, or restaurants do.  At least on the Island Princess they left most of the promenade intact.  Bigger ships with no promenade keep people inside and the money flowing.

Actually, the Promenade deck is a casualty of the Concordia disaster. SOLAS regulations require emergency boats to be directly accessible. 
 

There hasn’t been a true wraparound Promenade deck on any Princess ship in decades. 

[SantaFeFan]

1 hour ago, Pam in CA said:

Actually, the Promenade deck is a casualty of the Concordia disaster. SOLAS regulations require emergency boats to be directly accessible. 
 

There hasn’t been a true wraparound Promenade deck on any Princess ship in decades. 

 

All the Grand Class and Crown sub-class have wraparound promenade decks. The Ruby Princess was built in 2008, the Emerald in 2007, the Crown in 2006, and the Caribbean, Sapphire and Diamond, in 2004.

[gottagocit]

2 hours ago, Pam in CA said:

Actually, the Promenade deck is a casualty of the Concordia disaster. SOLAS regulations require emergency boats to be directly accessible. 
 

There hasn’t been a true wraparound Promenade deck on any Princess ship in decades. 

Hi Pam in CA,

I tried to message you but couldn’t get it to go. We exchanged emails a couple years ago where we discussed your Africa safari after you mentioned having done one on the board. After seeing your post I wanted to write to tell you we finally got around to making it happen but not in the south as you had done.
In July we visited Tanzania on a private safari and it was simply amazing.  It was the most incredible experience we’ve had while traveling. We spent just over two weeks in total including travel days. Thanks for all the info you shared with us related to your trip. 
I’ve been off this board for a year or so until recently and am glad I ran across your post. 
Chris

Edited November 6, 2022 by gottagocit

[beluga_baby]

Bringing this topic up again to ask another related question. On the Discovery there are two "al fresco" dining areas on the promenade, one for Bistro Sur Le Mer and one for Gigi's Pizza. Are those seating areas open even when the restaurants aren't in service? For example, can you grab a coffee or pastry at the International Cafe and take it out on one of those tables to seat and eat? Bistro only appears to open for dinner, so during the day is it a place you can just sit?

[Cruise Raider]

47 minutes ago, beluga_baby said:

Bringing this topic up again to ask another related question. On the Discovery there are two "al fresco" dining areas on the promenade, one for Bistro Sur Le Mer and one for Gigi's Pizza. Are those seating areas open even when the restaurants aren't in service? For example, can you grab a coffee or pastry at the International Cafe and take it out on one of those tables to seat and eat? Bistro only appears to open for dinner, so during the day is it a place you can just sit?

Yes, you can sit out there at any time.  Even though we usually book a balcony, we use those chairs on the promenade deck quite often.  We’ve actually never seen those chairs / tables used for full dining services although, we may have just missed it.  
 

[Cruise Raider]

On 11/4/2022 at 11:37 PM, cr8tiv1 said:

The Royal Class ships (and newer) do not have a walk around full Promenade Deck. Many complaints. Princess didn’t listen to their “loyal” passengers and built a newer class without.  
 

On the other hand, we consider ourselves to be “loyal” passengers and the need for having a full promenade deck makes absolutely no sense to me.  While I know some “loyal” passengers absolutely love that feature, I’d bet there are just as many that just don’t care.  I just love and actually prefer the Royal class ships, especially where it seems to keep the smoking sections isolated and not directly under passenger cabins, which is something that I’ve noticed each time I have cruise on a Grand class ship.   
So, maybe Princess does actually listen to their “loyal” passengers, even though you may perceive that as you not being heard.  What is actually a loss to some may be a win for others because we are all different in what we prefer.  As of now, we all still have a choice on ships we can book that satisfy our likes and dislikes.  Maybe ten years down the road, that won’t be possible.  
 

Edited November 11, 2022 by Cruise Raider

[SantaFeFan]

8 minutes ago, Cruise Raider said:

On the other hand, we consider ourselves to be “loyal” passengers and the need for having a full promenade deck makes absolutely no sense to me.  While I know some “loyal” passengers absolutely love that feature, I’d bet there are just as many that just don’t care.  I just love and actually prefer the Royal class ships, especially where it seems to keep the smoking sections isolated and not directly under passenger cabins, which is something that I’ve noticed each time I have cruise on a Grand class ship.   
So, maybe Princess does actually listen to their “loyal” passengers, even though you may perceive that as you not being heard.  What is actually a loss to some may be a win for others because we are all different in what we prefer.  As of now, we all still have a choice on ships we can book that satisfy our likes and dislikes.  Maybe ten years down the road, that won’t be possible.  
 

 

Agree with you on the full promenade deck. On all the Grand class ships I have been on, they were very much under utilized. At any given time, perhaps only about 40 people were using the entire promenade as my wife and I walked the full length a couple of times during our cruises. Too much real estate with too few people using it. It's no wonder they have been eliminated on virtually every cruise line's new ships. 

[Kay S]

On 11/6/2022 at 11:35 AM, SantaFeFan said:

 

 

 

On 11/6/2022 at 10:28 AM, Pam in CA said:

 

There hasn’t been a true wraparound Promenade deck on any Princess ship in decades. 

 

On 11/6/2022 at 11:35 AM, SantaFeFan said:

 

All the Grand Class and Crown sub-class have wraparound promenade decks. The Ruby Princess was built in 2008, the Emerald in 2007, the Crown in 2006, and the Caribbean, Sapphire and Diamond, in 2004.

I think Pam in CA is referring to ships with the promenade on one deck.  The Grand class, etc., ships have a promenade that requires going up and down stairs to circle the ship.  Or I could be misreading what Pam meant.

[Mike07]

The Edge class from Celebrity (their $1 billion pus new ships) has no promenade deck either.

 

[Mike07]

On 11/5/2022 at 1:37 AM, cr8tiv1 said:

The Royal Class ships (and newer) do not have a walk around full Promenade Deck. Many complaints. Princess didn’t listen to their “loyal” passengers and built a newer class without.  
 

Welcome to Cruise Critic. 

 

 

As others have said, we're walking dollar signs for the major cruise lines, and the promenade is space that cannot be monetized. If there were a way they could only fill the ship with people who spent $XXX dollars at the casino, shops, spa, duty free stores, excursions, etc., they would not allow non-spenders/users to make reservations on their ships.

 

Fortunately, we still mostly have a competitive country and global market, so there is enough supply and demand out there for most everybody to find a cabin regardless of how much onboard spending you do.

[LawDog61]

I know many walkers enjoy walking the Promenade deck where you are close to the water, as do I.   I have found walking on the Sun deck ( an “H” pattern rather  than a walk around) works well for me.  Also, the running-walking track (deck 19?) works great for me, and their is a stairway which takes you down 2 decks to the aft out-door section of the buffet for a cool drink and break.