Colleen:

Here is the problem they are dealing with on the Mariner tub/shower combos. And I took a tape measurer on the Mariner, and measured all this. First of all, the ceilings in the suites are only 7' high, not 8' or more as in your home. Then, there is, for some reason, a 5" step-up to the floor of the bathroom. Then, the tub is sitting on an additional 5" raised area. So when one stands in the tub to take a shower, the headroom is only 6'2". Clearly, if you are taller than that, there's a problem. But even at my puny 5' 9" height, I kept banging my hand on the ceiling while washing my hair. Every ship out there we've been on had the same 7' ceiling height in the cabins or suites. And some had tup/shower combos. But they didn't have the 5" step up into the bathroom, plus the added 5" rise to the bottom of the tub. So they benefited from a full 7' headroom when one stands in the tub to shower.

In my opinion, as one who has done some residential design, the problem happened when the ship was designed when the designer raised the bathroom floor and then raised the tub above that, leaving too little headroom. A better solution that would please more people than swapping the tub for a shower would be to lower the bathroom floor to "suite level" and also to lower the base of the tub/shower to "suite level", which would allow sufficient headroom and retain the tub.

Thanks,
Richard :) :) :)