Midships stairs

[towny44]

There is report over on CC that during her recent refit Royal Princess had her midship stairs refurbished and opened up for passengers.
If true it is quite likely that Carnival will do the same when Britannia goes iñ for her first refit, sometome in 2020.

[Mervyn and Trish]

There is report over on CC that during her recent refit Royal Princess had her midship stairs refurbished and opened up for passengers.
If true it is quite likely that Carnival will do the same when Britannia goes iñ for her first refit, sometome in 2020.

Good news if true

[qbman1]

The Environmental Officer hosting our Peninsular lunch on Oriana said much the same thing so I suspect it is definitely on the agenda

[Mervyn and Trish]

Sensible move

[Ray B]

I have not yet sailed on Britannia, but what was the thinking on the midship stairs stopping short of higher decks ?

[Mervyn and Trish]

Probably no thinking at all!

Makes no sense and contibutes to lift congestion.

The stairs are there. They're just behind doors and for crew only, other than in emergencies.

The daft thing is Royal Princess, with the same issue, was launched 2 years before Britannia. You'd think they'd have spotted the problem and tweaked later ships. Although the build had started on Britannia, if the stairs can be rearranged at refit it could surely have been done before she was completed.

[daib GC]

Probably no thinking at all!

Makes no sense and contibutes to lift congestion.

The stairs are there. They're just behind doors and for crew only, other than in emergencies.

The daft thing is Royal Princess, with the same issue, was launched 2 years before Britannia. You'd think they'd have spotted the problem and tweaked later ships. Although the build had started on Britannia, if the stairs can be rearranged at refit it could surely have been done before she was completed.

I find it odd that Celebrity can only have 2 staircases and RCI have only 2 staircases and P&O must have 3.

[towny44]

Probably no thinking at all!

Makes no sense and contibutes to lift congestion.

The stairs are there. They're just behind doors and for crew only, other than in emergencies.

The daft thing is Royal Princess, with the same issue, was launched 2 years before Britannia. You'd think they'd have spotted the problem and tweaked later ships. Although the build had started on Britannia, if the stairs can be rearranged at refit it could surely have been done before she was completed.

I find it odd that Celebrity can only have 2 staircases and RCI have only 2 staircases and P&O must have 3.

They need them because their lifts are only half the size of those on Celebrity Eclipse and the aft stairs are in the wrong place and underused as a result. Not sure about RCI but I will find out in Sept when we are on Navigator OTS.

[Mervyn and Trish]

Thing is it doesn't matter whether you have two or three if they have the appropriate stair and lift capacity. The midships design on Britannia is neither one thing or the other. Plenty of capacity half way up then none. If the stairs were there we'd walk. Just a pain if you're in a midships cabin as we always are and have to walk to one end or the other.

[daib GC]

Thing is it doesn't matter whether you have two or three if they have the appropriate stair and lift capacity. The midships design on Britannia is neither one thing or the other. Plenty of capacity half way up then none. If the stairs were there we'd walk. Just a pain if you're in a midships cabin as we always are and have to walk to one end or the other.

As you have to do do Celebrity and RCI.

[towny44]

Thing is it doesn't matter whether you have two or three if they have the appropriate stair and lift capacity. The midships design on Britannia is neither one thing or the other. Plenty of capacity half way up then none. If the stairs were there we'd walk. Just a pain if you're in a midships cabin as we always are and have to walk to one end or the other.

As you have to do on Celebrity and RCI.

You are correct as usual Dai, BUT the longest walk on most of the RCI/Celebrity fleet is the 30 odd cabins from the very stern to the somewhat Aft of midship stairs, the cabins forward of these stairs have a maximum walk of 20 cabins, so only two lots of passengers per deck with a long trek.
However Britannia has just over 60 cabins between the Fwd and Aft stairwells which means 4 lots of passengers per deck have the very long trek.
It will of course improve things if they do open up the midship stairs at its first refit, but I doubt they will ever be able to fit bigger lifts without a massive modification, and that is the major issue, especially for all those passengers with mobility problems and not just the wheelchair and scooter users.

[Mervyn and Trish]

You see I don't think it is a lift size problem. Extra stairs will reduce the lift traffic. And a software upgrade will make them operate more efficiently. The biggest problem on the Maiden was they didn't complete their journey to the top or the bottom before changing direction. We met people who'd been up and down several times before reaching their destination. And then people start going up to go down because they can't get a lift going their way. That's all wasted capacity. Sort the stairs. Sort the software and the problem will go away.

[towny44]

You see I don't think it is a lift size problem. Extra stairs will reduce the lift traffic. And a software upgrade will make them operate more efficiently. The biggest problem on the Maiden was they didn't complete their journey to the top or the bottom before changing direction. We met people who'd been up and down several times before reaching their destination. And then people start going up to go down because they can't get a lift going their way. That's all wasted capacity. Sort the stairs. Sort the software and the problem will go away.

We will forever beg to differ on this problem Merv.

[Mervyn and Trish]

We will.