SUN to Alaska -- Deck 6 room with stair access only

[capecruzer]

Hi, my daughter and I just booked the SUN for an Alaskan cruise August 2024.  There were few OV rooms available shipwide and ended up booking a stateroom on deck 6 that has no elevator access.  This is not an issue for us but I wonder why, it looks as though the deck is divided somehow at the midship/forward line with about a dozen staterooms on this second level of the deck.  Anyone have experience with this?  Rep assured me we were not above/under/near noisy areas.

[cajun-crazy]

We had an inside cabin booked on this deck for our AK cruise this summer. I can’t tell you why it is like that. The deck is only in the front part of the ship. It almost looks like it was “inserted” between decks 5 and 7

[cruiser2015]

2 hours ago, cajun-crazy said:

We had an inside cabin booked on this deck for our AK cruise this summer. I can’t tell you why it is like that. The deck is only in the front part of the ship. It almost looks like it was “inserted” between decks 5 and 7

Crazy old-time ship design.

Fortunately, the engineers are better these days.

[chengkp75]

Having worked on the Sky (sister ship) for a few years, I can tell you why.  Everything aft of that deck, on decks 5 and 7 are "overheight" public spaces (i.e. taller than cabin decks), so they inserted deck 6 cabins in between.  You'll note that on deck 7, there is a ramp up to the cabins, since they are "shorter" than the spaces in the atrium and aft of it.  So, the cabins on deck 7 are higher than the rest of deck 7, and the cabins on deck 5 are shorter than the rest of deck 5, so there was space for another deck of cabins in between.  Considering the Sun and Sky were built in 2000, not really "old time design", and actually a good engineering use of the available space to insert more paying cabins.

[chengkp75]

Thinking harder on it, I remember that for instance, if deck 5,6, and 7 are 12' high aft of the forward elevators, that is 36' total height.  Say cabin deck heights are 8', then there is room for 4 decks of cabins where there are only 3 decks of public spaces.

[dexddd]

IIRC that deck six has two parts, an upper and lower. The upper has like a ramp.

[chengkp75]

10 minutes ago, dexddd said:

IIRC that deck six has two parts, an upper and lower. The upper has like a ramp.

Deck 6 cabins are on the same level as deck 6 atrium.  Deck 6A is accessible from deck 7 down some stairs, or up some stairs from deck 6, both only at the aft end of deck 6A.  Deck 7 cabins are up a ramp from the deck 7 atrium.

 

What cabin is the OP in?  Because the deck 6 cabins, 6001-6009 and 6201-6210 have elevator access.  It is the deck 6A that has no elevator service, cabins 6010-6024, 6101-6109, 6211-6225, and 6301-6311. From the comment about only a few cabins, I think they are on deck 6, not 6A.  Running down the center of deck 6 are some crew cabins.

 

If a guest booked on deck 6A had mobility issues, we normally issued a pass to use the crew elevator, which does stop at 6A.

[Homosassa]

While I have not cruised on the NC Sun, I have cruised on the Sovereign Series ships of Royal Caribbean that used the same ship design.

 

In 2004 we cruised on the Monarch of the Seas and stayed on one of the split decks. 

 

We liked it and it was only half a flight of stairs (half the normal distance between decks) down to the deck that ran the rest of the distance of the ship's length.

 

If you scroll down in the attached article, there will be a picture of one of the on board ship deck plans.  It is easy to see where the A and B decks were on the Monarch.

 

https://cruiseradio.net/final-look-monarch-of-the-seas/

[capecruzer]

Thanks everyone!

[Warbird]

Been on the Sun many times.  There is a crew elevator that we have used if you are lugging around your luggage.   

[spotfish]

There's Youtube video's on your cabin location