Why Carnival Cruise Line Doesn’t Use Escalators
Anyone cruising with large ships is certainly familiar with dreaded wait times at elevators, especially on disembarkation day when guests are all leaving within a hectic couple of hours.
One passenger wondered why ships don’t utilize escalators to help speed up the process and reached out to Carnival Cruise Line’s Brand Ambassador, John Heald.
“Why are there no escalators on ships?” the passenger asked. “I know they wouldn’t work with the configuration of the steps that way they are laid out now but has Carnival looked into installing them on new builds?”
The answer from Heald was relatively simple: with the constant up and down of a ship moving on water, the risk of injury for passengers on a moving escalator while waves are causing additional motion could be a serious one.
“With the movement of the ship that it could cause some safety issues, and one can understand why,” answered Heald.
He added that the maintenance on escalators – notorious for failing – would also be difficult for a ship’s engineers to maintain.
Unlike elevators, which move when requested, escalators are in a constant state of motion, requiring more power and increasing the routine wear and tear.
They also require more space than an elevator, needing not only vertical but horizontal space. Space on ships is, obviously, at a premium already.
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While it’s not likely passengers will find an escalator on a cruise ship, it’s actually not impossible. There are cruise lines that do have escalators.
Royal Caribbean’s Icon of the Seas, for example, has an escalator that travels from the vessel’s gangway to the ship’s promenade.
One surprised passenger even shared a video of his experience on YouTube and said it was like making a grand entrance to the promenade.
“It’s pretty simple to get back on board; you’re not fighting for elevators,” he said. “No stress, no mess.”
In fact, Royal Caribbean is a fan of escalators and features them in various areas of multiple ships, including Oasis of the Seas and Allure of the Seas.
However, they aren’t used to connect all floors, so passengers disembarking or trying to escape long waits for elevators might still face waits even when escalators are available.
Carnival’s Elevator Saga
The escalator question is another entryway into Carnival Cruise Line’s troublesome elevator system that has been giving its passengers headaches for years.
As the company upgrades ships, it has begun adding new smart elevators equipped with touchscreens to try to eliminate some of the pain.
Currently installed on Carnival Vista, Carnival Horizon, and Carnival Panorama – but oddly not on newer ships like Mardi Gras, Carnival Celebration, and Carnival Jubilee – the systems have stirred up more trouble with passengers confused about how the system works.
In order to function properly, guests need to touch the screen and indicate the number of passengers boarding by having each passenger select a floor before entering, even if going to the same floor as another.
This helps the elevator control how many guests are in an elevator and to condense stops by placing them in assigned elevators with other passengers going to similar decks.
Because the elevators are assigned, if someone boards the wrong elevator, they could get stuck, however, and cause overcrowding.
While some have praised the new elevators and Heald himself say they really work, it will take some time for Carnival to update its entire fleet of 27 vessels.
And then it will still have to deal with unruly passengers not following elevator etiquette and ensuring passengers with mobility issues have more access, but that’s a different story.