deck plans and cabin floor plans

[meow!]

This thread is for ship enthusiasts.

Depending on the size of the ship (and of course other considerations), a cruise ship can be "single aisled" or "multiple aisled". A single aisled cruise ship has only one walkway along the midline, with cabins (or function rooms) one on each side. The benefit of this is efficient use of space, you don't "waste" space in having additional walkways. The limitations is that this is practical only if the ship is not too big, with a beam that is not too wide (under 40,000 tonnes and less than 90 ft.) The reason: imagine you have a 90 ft. beam and a 6 ft. walkway, the cabins on each side will still be 42 ft long. Cabins, even if well elongated in shape must be close to 9 ft wide, to allow reasonable clearance at the end of the bed. At 42 fot long, it will become 380 sq.ft. in area, good for those upper suites, but pretty well the practical limit for standard (majority) cabins. (The RSSC Voyageur is perhaps already pushing the limit, so no single aisled newbuilds are of its size in the last five years).

With the above in mind, Seabourn, Silversea and RSSC ships are "single aisled". The benefit of this elongated cabin shape is that it will be easy to put in a walk-in closet along its longish shape. Also, the balcony can be nicely more squarish shaped, at perhaps 10 ft. x 7 ft., which will be quite practical. Also, it can be separated into sleeping and sitting areas, with a heavy curtain in-between, so that one person can sleep while the other reads or writes his/her diary, for example. Of course, some people may perceive this design as being less spacious, and would prefer a more squarish cabin shape that gives more space to "move around" instead.

For small ships, less than 20,000 tonnes with a beam of less than 60 ft., it will be impractical to have anything but "single aisled" design. However, as ships become larger, it needs to be "multi-aisled" (as explained above). We don't know of any large ship that is not. The present Oceania R ships are of a "transition size", it can be either way, and its original owners, Renaissance, opted for multi aisled, such that they can put more smaller cabins in, including some "inside cabins" at lower fares. That has its advantageous, as so many people prefer the inside cabins for various reasons (usually price), and they are quite happy with it.

With the newbuild Marina, at 66,000 tonnes, and a beam of 105 ft., being multi aisled should be a certainty (we will see when the deck plans come out, but since it will have "inside cabins", at least some decks will be multi aisled. With this design, you split the beam into three, possibly four sections, depending on what is in-between the aisles, one or two cabins lined up in the middle. (Some very large ships have several cabins in the middle, accessed through additional walkways).

If the two aisles are 5 ft wide each, this leaves 95 ft for cabins. If there are three cabins across, it can be 32 ft. long each, and at around 310 sq.ft., as they claimed for the Marina standard (majority) cabin, it will be 10 ft. wide. This is a good shape, however, it you give 7 ft. to the washroom and 6 ft. to the balcony (for the balcony cabins on the two sides), you are left with 19 ft., good for a sleeping and sitting section of 9 ft. each, but difficult to put in a walk-in closet (at least 4 ft. wide). You can of course, tighten some of the other areas to put it in anyway (The existing Silver Cloud/Wind and the older Seabourn triplets have standard cabins not much different from 32 ft. long and they managed).

If on the other hand, they put four cabins acoss the beam, then the length of each becomes 24 ft. The cabins, at 310 sq.ft. will be 13 ft. wide, decent and comfortable, with ample turning space (you can do "stretching exercise" in your own cabin!). In that case, it will not be divided into sleeping and sitting sections, and it will be more difficult to have one person sleeping while the other reads/writes, etc.

Also, it will be tight though possible to put in a walk-in closet. There are four corners to a cabin, two of them are adjacent to the balcony, one corner will be for the washroom (say 5 ft. minimum), and 4 ft. for the cabin doorway walkway. That leaves 4 ft for the closet. We remember reading a year ago on this board that Oceania invited some passengers to see "mock modules" of cabins, to ask their opinions on where to put what and how to make it most convenient and functional. We don't know what has come out of it, and will be curious to see the deck plans, cabin floor plans.

Any comments from other posters who are ship enthusiasts?

[wripro]

I am a ship enthusiast and I have no comment.

[hondorner]

A walk-in closet, while convenient and luxurious, wastes space. I would expect there to be no walk-in closets in the standard staterooms aboard Marina. I would expect it to be a 2-aisle ship, even though there are very few inside cabins, because the space between the aisles is so logical for housekeeping, offices, elevators, storage, exhaust stacks, laundry rooms and much more.

[meow!]

A lot of ships do as you suggest. By the way, do you think they can also use the space in-between for crew/staff cabins? That can be practical too?!

[meow!]

Originally Posted by hondorner

... there are very few inside cabins, ...

Judging from the large number of posters favouring inside cabins, http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showt...8#post21718648
it is a pity that the newbuild Marina will have so few of them. Perhaps the designers misjudged public sentiments a year ago when they were drawing the deck plans? IF there is enough interest, perhaps it is still in time to increase the proportion of inside cabins for the next, yet to be named, Marina's newbuild sister?

[hondorner]

Certainly not from my point of view; we did an inside cabin exactly once, and never again. Felt like a dungeon. Could not tell if it was day or night. Betsy woke up, couldn't find her watch, and had to dress and go outside to see if it was morning, yet. It was not -- it was 4:15 AM.

Since then we have done ocean views with portholes, ocean views with windows, balconies and some suites (no suites on Oceania, yet). They are all fine, and while we prefer a balcony, we would go back to an ocean view if necessary. But, we would sail on a garbage scow and work our passage for a window before we would sail in an inside, again.

[StanandJim]

Cruise lines in general try to minimize the number of inside cabins for several reasons:

It has been established (by careful review of Sail & Sign accounts) that while passengers sailing solo spend the least per capita, passengers sailing in inside cabins are very nearly as frugal. Just as single cabins began to disappear after the late 1960's, so inside cabins are now being phased out wherever possible.

The presence of inside cabins is sometimes seen as a detriment to a ships luxury reputation. The inside/outside cabin ratio is often used as a luxury indicator by such travel companies as Frommers and Virttuoso.

Many of the crew and/or staff, who might otherwise rate an inside cabin, also work inside (think Kitchen, or housekeeping), and will probably object to living in an inside room over the course of a multi-month contract. In the same vein, shipboard offices are seldom inside rooms for the same reason.

[Dreps]

I would just like to point out (for accuracy) that while Regent's Voyager is, indeed, single-aisled, the similar-sized Regent Mariner has two aisles. The Mariner's standard cabin's are slightly smaller than the Voyager's though still very spacious. We've sailed in both.

[meow!]

That is interesting. Thank you for pointing out. Presumably there is no inside cabin on the Mariner, do you know what they use the "in-between" spaces for?

[ClaudiaF]

I love this detailed information. It is, as usual.. truly, the most comprehensive info from my favorite cats!

[ClaudiaF]

Originally Posted by meow!

That is interesting. Thank you for pointing out. Presumably there is no inside cabin on the Mariner, do you know what they use the "in-between" spaces for?

The aisles are fairly small on Mariner..I do not recall that there was anything but walls there..maybe some hidden crannies for supplies but even ship brochures don't tell.
Check out cruisestaterooms.com
for aisle info ;-)

[meow!]

Thank you so much ClaudiaF, you have always been so kind, and we are delighted that you are back regularly since this board needs your wise input.

We have never been on an RSSC ship and are thus guessing at their deck plans for comparison .. meow!

[bbwex]

While this is a bit of an exercise in futility, I might point out a couple of things.

It's nice to talk about using all of the space on the ship for the comfort of passengers, but there are lots of things on ships not related to comfort. For instance there are electrical control spaces, fire control equipment spaces, crew access spaces (and stairs), the aforementioned cabin service storage spaces, and myriad other things. While the R ships have some inside cabins, if you look, there are lots of other spaces that are "unaccounted for." There is no real mystery here, and there is no real need for every passenger to know what all of these spaces and lockers are for. Suffice it to say that a large ship has lots of "gear" of all sorts, and it is put in all sorts of places. You cannot simply plan for passengers -- you need to run the ship.

While we all like to discuss these things, they actually have engineers and architects who do this sort of thing professionally. They might (just might) have some expertise. AND the owners hopefully have some expertise and skill, and all of the engineers, architects, designers and executives very likely sit down and discuss this sort of thing and decide what they think is best. Not that all of that talent couldn't screw things up now and again, but my bet that people who don't take everything into consideration might make more of a mess.

That being said, I have long been a believer that someone with no training and therefore no preconceived notions might have some better ideas once in awhile. And it's useful to have someone from outside throwing ideas into the mix.

I suggest only that a) we have very limited input via CC; and b) detailed designs without sufficient knowledge is likely a waste of time. Good ideas communicated in a timely fashion to the powers that be might be of some value.

My two cents. Someone send me my change!

[meow!]

What you say is very true. Just for curiosity, where do they put the things (otherwise needed in the space between aisles on two aisle ships) on single aisle ships? Perhaps on other decks?

While hopefully we can suggest outsider opinions and ideas (input from the "end users" as sometimes sought by cruise lines as Oceania invited a group of passengers to look at their cabin modules and suggest on where to put what a year ago), as car magazines discuss car designs after a new car comes to market, there are other purposes, that is for "knowledgeable pass time and curiosity satiation". Quite often people read engineering articles on cars not because they can change it (except for specialty custom shops), but to learn for the sake of interest. People spend time to paint (well you can just take a photograph), join trivia pursuits, build model aeroplanes (for fun, not to change the air line industry). It is an interesting, mentally rewarding and healthy quest with no cost to the participants!