Key Aspects:
- Thanks to a recent Facebook post from Carnival Ambassador John Heald, smart elevators on cruise ships are once again up for debate.
- On one hand, some don’t like the smart elevators because they are confusing and user error leads to long wait times and confusion.
- But when used correctly, the smart system is more efficient and mitigates bad behavior on and around the elevators.
Just like elevators rise to a higher deck on a cruise ship, an old debate about smart elevators on Carnival cruise ships has risen to the surface once again.
Several Carnival ships have been updated with smart elevators in recent years, including Carnival Horizon, Carnival Panorama, Carnival Venezia, Mardi Gras, Carnival Celebration, and Carnival Jubilee.
But while the smart elevators are supposed to ease congestion and make it easier for cruisers to get where they need to go, not everyone is a fan.
Carnival Brand Ambassador John Heald resurfaced the debate in a recent Facebook post.
“On Saturday I had over 2,000 comments about the smart elevators with most people saying how much they appreciate them,” Heald posted, along with a video explaining how to use the intelligent lifts.
“There were some that didn’t understand them and some that didn’t like them,” he also acknowledged.
In order to use the elevators, guests must proceed to a touch screen in which they are able to input their travel party size and desired destination.
They are then assigned to an elevator bay that corresponds with a letter (A, B, C, D, E, etc.), and that elevator will take them to their desired deck. No buttons need to be pushed once guests are inside the elevator.
In addition to party size, guests are also able to indicate if they need additional space to accommodate wheelchairs or mobility scooters – which the computer takes into account when assigning passengers to elevators.
Two Sides to the Debate
Among those who don’t understand or don’t like the smart elevators, the top complaints are that the elevators don’t function correctly or that other guests have trouble using them.
User error can then lead to confusion, congestion, long wait times, and flared tempers.
“Both my wife and I are in wheelchairs. When we get to the elevator and press the wheelchair and the floor we want to go to half the time is telling us that no elevator is available. I don’t see where the elevators are all that smart,” one guest wrote on the Cruise Hive Boards.
“They need to be programmed to ask how many in your party. Too many don’t understand that you need to press for each person. Then the elevator you are assigned is already too full for their group,” someone else chimed in.
People who were more in the “middle-ground” of the debate suggested that better signage or a crash course on how to use the elevators during the mandatory muster drills might also convert the naysayers into fans.
Others felt that the high-tech system doesn’t actually solve capacity issues on elevators (often because people enter their party number incorrectly), or because people still rush onto an open elevator without being assigned one.
“I understand how the “smart” elevator works, yet I am still frustrated by them. Often the wait is long, when the elevator arrives it is often full, and then it stops at every floor where someone is waiting for an elevator and has pushed a button for it,” one cruiser lamented.
“The problem is people see oh car X is going to 10 so I don’t need to push and just jump on instead of punching in the amount of people,” someone else shared.
But on the other side of the coin, many found that the smart elevators were very efficient and an improvement for their sailing when operated correctly.
If it doesn’t stop it completely, the smart system at least mitigates poor elevator etiquette, such as cruisers who cut the line or cram into a packed elevator because they don’t want to wait.
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Some also pointed out that it prevents unruly youths from going into elevators and selecting every floor, which causes annoying delays, because they think it’s funny.
And if cruisers are vehemently opposed to smart elevators, they can always take the stairs or choose to sail on one of the dozens of Carnival ships that still have traditional elevator systems.
