The start-up luxury residential community at sea Storylines, which is set to debut in 2023 with the cruise ship M/V Narrative has recently created a survey targeting the crew members. The goal is to evaluate the mental health, productivity, safety of the shipboard employees with a focus on the crew living quarters. What is interesting about this survey is that the company is asking participants to give their thoughts about a new concept of accommodation by replacing the traditional crew cabins with sleeping pods. The survey also provides those who choose to take it a chance to provide insight on how the spaces will be designed and what accommodations should be available to members of the crew.

First introduced in Japan, sleeping pods are innovative and unique one-person capsules that allow for maximum privacy and comfort. This new style of sleeping accommodations is very popular in corporate environments, hospitals, airports and other public areas, but has never been implemented on a cruise ship.

Storylines is considering several concepts of sleeping pods, with individual private beds one on top of another, similar to the bunk beds in the traditional crew cabins, with a closet/storage space attached outside of the sleeping pod. Another concept is one room with a shared space for a desk directly attached to the room and a bathroom with a toilet and shower. 

The company is also considering different layouts and the optimal number of pod communities. Below is a concept of maximum of twelve (12) crew members per sleeping pod community. 

The sleeping pods can provide some advantages such as your own TV, 100% private and soundproof sleeping area which can be quite a challenge when sharing a cabin with a difficult roommate, or someone who snores loudly. But there are also some disadvantages such as small space, having to go to public showers, as well as no room for socializing like in the crew cabins, or cabin party.

Therefore Storylines would like to know if the crew would feel comfortable living in this pod community, and will take these results into major considerations when creating crew spaces onboard their first ship M/V Narrative. The survey is quite interesting and we would like to hear your thoughts and opinion. Here’s the link leading to the Storylines survey.