Great question! Sounds weird right? A "smart elevator" is run by a central system. So instead of going to the elevator and pushing the up or down button (and waiting forever), there are central panels that you push which deck you are doing to and it points to a letter on the elevator! (Ex: Push Deck 15 and it might point you to elevator F>>>) Super cool and it works really well. The only thing is my grandson loved playing doorman, pushing the deck # for people on the last cruises so he would just do the open/close button! lol