Deck Names, not Numbers. Why?

[D C]

2 minutes ago, caribill said:

 

Which shows how useful the Medallion is to the staff for identifying who is placing an order.

or points out how bad medallion is at doing what it's presumed to make easier.  I was surprised that I was constantly asked for my room number despite standing right in front of someone with a reader.  Perhaps the staff doesn't trust what they're seeing, or maybe they're instructed to verify?  

[Moondogy]

3 hours ago, lx200gps said:

That why pilots have been the phonetic alphabet for hundreds of years ;o) Alpha, Bravo, Charlie etc instead of A, B C etc.., it's built in to the psyche of every pilot from day one of our training.  FWIW, on the Sky a few weeks ago, a number of times I overheard a waiter asking a guest for their cabin number, only to be answered with "312", or "724". The poor waiter, for the hundredth time that day, patiently asked the guest what deck they were on.

That doesn't go just for pilots. The phonetic alphabet was taught in the US military for years. My father was in the Army as a radio operator in WWII and it was even taught back then 😊 and I was taught it in basic training back in the 70's and I'm pretty sure it's still taught today.

Edited March 7, 2023 by Moondogy
added more

[travelin.sisters]

17 hours ago, wowzz said:

So, when a member of staff asks you your cabin number, and you are in, say, cabin 123 on Aloha, how many  say A123 and how many say Aloha 123 ?

I must admit I have never considered using the name of my deck, I have always just used the initial letter. Perhaps I am in a minority.    

I say A123, but they often respond Aloha 123?

[Thrak]

14 hours ago, Renmar said:

Darn, I thought I had something going here 🤔🍷🍹

 

Theo

 

Enjoy your upcoming Hawaiian cruise! If we didn't already have plans for a several week camping trip at that time we would be checking prices to sail then.

[mtnesterz]

5 hours ago, D C said:

A UK-specific definition of lido (not the same as Italian), an obscure Spanish definition of Baha, a maritime definition of Dolphin which is a point on shore vs the ship (and how does that mean 'deck 9'?), Aloha might make some sense for an embarkation deck, but not for deck 12 full of staterooms.  As reference names, those are nothing short of positively horrible.  

Well then, going back to your original post, what would you propose?

We live two hours drive from Baja California. Let me assure you, the Spanish language is not obscure, but used daily and thriving.

Edited March 7, 2023 by mtnesterz

[skynight]

23 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Why not both? It makes exploring the ship more fun! At least you'll always know the deck the promenade is on as well as the buffet. 😃

 

              Royal Princess Deck Levels                                                              Sun Princess Deck Levels

 

Possible that Princess just hasn't posted the deck names on the Sun deck plans.

[2 cruises a year]

21 hours ago, paradiselivin1 said:

Majestic also uses numbers only. I am so accustomed to hearing "Deck 12..Aloha" that when they just announce the number I say "Aloha.." or whatever. Too many Princess cruises....

Whenever I hear "Aloha" in the elevator "All Night Long" by Lionel Ritchie vividly comes to mind. If no one else is in the elevator, I even sing it out. Drives my wife crazy. She's right though, I cannot carry a tune in a basket. 

I apologize in advance to everyone that becomes afflicted by this now.  I believe that the term is "Earworm".

[2 cruises a year]

15 hours ago, ldubs said:

 

 

I get what you guys are saying but still, to me, it is clear where deck 7 is in relation to 5.  I have no idea where Baja is in relation to Aloha or Riviera.  Doesn't matter in what language I say 8, it is always after 7 and before 9.   

Originally on Princess Ships, before they started adding decks, it was alphabetical above the Promanade Deck.  Not too hard to figure out.   This is another reason to not like the newer, larger ships. 

[D C]

1 hour ago, mtnesterz said:

Well then, going back to your original post, what would you propose?

We live two hours drive from Baja California. Let me assure you, the Spanish language is not obscure, but used daily and thriving.

Simple: use numbers

[paradiselivin1]

15 hours ago, caribill said:

Princess web site deck plans shows names for the decks on the Majestic.

Odd as when we were on there last month there was NO announcement of the deck name. Sure it wasn't just my cruise...

[2 cruises a year]

1 hour ago, 2 cruises a year said:

Whenever I hear "Aloha" in the elevator "All Night Long" by Lionel Ritchie vividly comes to mind. If no one else is in the elevator, I even sing it out. Drives my wife crazy. She's right though, I cannot carry a tune in a basket. 

I apologize in advance to everyone that becomes afflicted by this now.  I believe that the term is "Earworm".

Boy, talk about a senior moment, I  meant Fiesta, as in Party, Fiesta, All Night Long.

[D C]

2 hours ago, 2 cruises a year said:

Boy, talk about a senior moment, I  meant Fiesta, as in Party, Fiesta, All Night Long.

And I was thinking that there must have been something in that song that I missed! 🤣

[billco]

On 3/6/2023 at 9:10 AM, D C said:

Having been a Celebrity cruiser for a decade before taking our first Princess cruise on the Regal in Jan, I'm totally befuddled by what appears to be an apparent insistence on using deck names and not numbers.   

You should stay with Celebrity. Anyone who gets totally befuddled over something as mundane as deck names isn’t ready to move up to Princess. In other words, Who Cares?

[D C]

4 minutes ago, billco said:

You should stay with Celebrity. Anyone who gets totally befuddled over something as mundane as deck names isn’t ready to move up to Princess. In other words, Who Cares?

🙄

Call it a curiosity as to why people would embrace a nonsensical naming system that provides no relevant information as to the actual correlation between names and a logical set of numbers.  In other words, it makes no sense. 

[Joy Bunny]

3 hours ago, D C said:

🙄

Call it a curiosity as to why people would embrace a nonsensical naming system that provides no relevant information as to the actual correlation between names and a logical set of numbers.  In other words, it makes no sense. 

 

Actually, it does make sense. Instead of mundane numbers, giving the floors names gives the sense of vacation vibe and adventure. To argue that numbers are more than enough, would you also argue that each ship in a cruise line's fleet be identified only by a number? How special would the name of a cruise ship be if instead of Grand Princess it was #6 Princess, or instead of Royal Princess, it was #9 Princess. Or how about instead of the MDRs being named Symphony, Allegro or Concerto, they were named #1, #2 or #3? That would be so boring and cold. The same with floors.

 

Using names gives a sense of style and fun that mere numbers could never give. 

Edited March 8, 2023 by Joy Bunny

[tutumomickey]

5 hours ago, 2 cruises a year said:

Boy, talk about a senior moment, I  meant Fiesta, as in Party, Fiesta, All Night Long.

My entire family, even 5 year old granddaughters do this. Whenever we do, others in the elevator tend to chime in. For those of you who want numbers to make sense- relax. You are on a cruise. Have fun. Besides, if you ever cruise with more than one cruise line it helps you remember which one you are currently on.

[brisalta]

On 3/6/2023 at 12:06 PM, ldubs said:

 

How do you know for sure there is a deck 13?  Most understand that deck 13 is removed during const'n and they put #14 right on top of #12.  That is why major shipyards have a deck junk pile filled with all those #13's that were never used.   Apprentice shipwrights often cut their teeth erasing the "1" so they can be retasked as deck 3's.   

 

Well played!!!!

[brisalta]

On 3/6/2023 at 1:35 PM, Ken the cruiser said:

Why not both? It makes exploring the ship more fun! At least you'll always know the deck the promenade is on as well as the buffet. 😃

 

              Royal Princess Deck Levels                                                              Sun Princess Deck Levels

 

 

Sun Princess is not completed so the deck names may change.

[brisalta]

15 hours ago, D C said:

A UK-specific definition of lido (not the same as Italian), an obscure Spanish definition of Baha, a maritime definition of Dolphin which is a point on shore vs the ship (and how does that mean 'deck 9'?), Aloha might make some sense for an embarkation deck, but not for deck 12 full of staterooms.  As reference names, those are nothing short of positively horrible.  

 

A dolphin is a structure, typically with 3 legs, that stands out of the water and can either have a day mark or light on it or be a place to tie up a ship. ( I would need to dig out a reference or two to check the typical height above mean high tide).  Baha is not an obscure definition.

The names appear to be have chosen to be phonetically distinctive and easy to teach crew to recognize.

Edited March 8, 2023 by brisalta

[SCX22]

1 hour ago, Joy Bunny said:

 

Actually, it does make sense. Instead of mundane numbers, giving the floors names gives the sense of vacation vibe and adventure. To argue that numbers are more than enough, would you also argue that each ship in a cruise line's fleet be identified only by a number? How special would the name of a cruise ship be if instead of Grand Princess it was #6 Princess, or instead of Royal Princess, it was #9 Princess. Or how about instead of the MDRs being named Symphony, Allegro or Concerto, they were named #1, #2 or #3? That would be so boring and cold. The same with floors.

 

Using names gives a sense of style and fun that mere numbers could never give. 

TUI Cruises names their fleet Mein Schiff 1 to 6.  But, the decks on their fleet have names like Princess, but in German.  The Germans don't seem to mind.

 

If I recall, the defunct Renaissance Cruises also named their ships in numerical order with the prefix "R".  Princess' last iteration of the Pacific Princess was the R Three.  The 2nd iteration of the Royal Princess was the R Eight.  The 3rd iteration of the Ocean Princess (or formerly, Tahitian Princess) was the R Four.

Edited March 8, 2023 by SCX22

[wowzz]

Interestingly, on P&O the public decks have names, whereas the accomodation decks are just numbered. 

[Joy Bunny]

8 hours ago, SCX22 said:

TUI Cruises names their fleet Mein Schiff 1 to 6.  But, the decks on their fleet have names like Princess, but in German.  The Germans don't seem to mind.

 

If I recall, the defunct Renaissance Cruises also named their ships in numerical order with the prefix "R".  Princess' last iteration of the Pacific Princess was the R Three.  The 2nd iteration of the Royal Princess was the R Eight.  The 3rd iteration of the Ocean Princess (or formerly, Tahitian Princess) was the R Four.

 

Princess never called the last Pacific Princess "R Three" or the last Royal Princess "R Eight". Those were internal designations for corporate use, not for public and marketing use. 

 

As for TUI Cruises, all I can say is how romantic it must seem to sail on a ship named like an office building in an industrial park. 😁

[D C]

14 hours ago, Joy Bunny said:

 

Actually, it does make sense. Instead of mundane numbers, giving the floors names gives the sense of vacation vibe and adventure. To argue that numbers are more than enough, would you also argue that each ship in a cruise line's fleet be identified only by a number? How special would the name of a cruise ship be if instead of Grand Princess it was #6 Princess, or instead of Royal Princess, it was #9 Princess. Or how about instead of the MDRs being named Symphony, Allegro or Concerto, they were named #1, #2 or #3? That would be so boring and cold. The same with floors.

 

Using names gives a sense of style and fun that mere numbers could never give. 

Where one sees vibe and adventure, another sees an illogical arrangement.  I honestly never paid attention to floor names while onboard, but the numbering scheme I found quite helpful as they did arrange those in order.    If they're numbering ships, they should at least use one number for the class and another for the ship.  Ship 3-4 is the 4th ship in that series.  Easy to figure out which one is the newest vs oldest within a class.  I sort of like that.   Or maybe class and year built.  That'd help, too.  

[D C]

13 hours ago, brisalta said:

 

A dolphin is a structure, typically with 3 legs, that stands out of the water and can either have a day mark or light on it or be a place to tie up a ship. ( I would need to dig out a reference or two to check the typical height above mean high tide).  Baha is not an obscure definition.

The names appear to be have chosen to be phonetically distinctive and easy to teach crew to recognize.

 

The number of people who know the earlier-stated definition of either of those things is sufficiently small to call them obscure.  A dolphin is a swimming mammal to 99.99% of English-speaking people, and frankly I'd be surprised if Princess actually meant the mooring definition instead of the mammalian definition.   Now, while the mooring definition of dolphin shows up in 4th place, Webster doesn't even recognise 'Baja'.  Google seems unable to distinguish 'baja' from 'Baja California'.  Google translate thinks it's English when asked to detect the language, and correctly returns 'low' when told it's Spanish.   Yup. Obscure, as in relatively unknown.   Again, I doubt Princess had 'low' in mind when selecting the name.

[JGmf]

17 hours ago, D C said:

Call it a curiosity as to why people would embrace a nonsensical naming system that provides no relevant information as to the actual correlation between names and a logical set of numbers.  In other words, it makes no sense. 

 

OP: thanks for asking the question.  As a Princess newbie I was stumped at the missing deck numbers.  I guess now I (sort of) know. 

 

That said, it seems odd and probably does them no favors should there ever be land-based first responders who need to be directed to a specific room.