accessible rooms

[deaflawyer1]

We just booked a cruise for 4 of us on the Carnival sensation. Money is a major issue, so we went the cheapest room since we dont plan to be in the room much anyhow. When we booked, we informed them that 3 of the 4 passangers had special needs. I am Deaf and will require a room kit and terp. one friend is diabetic. the third friend is on oxygen and in a wheelchair. We booked an interior, two twin, two pull downs room. The booking agent made our reservations then transfered us to special needs, telling us to call him back after we spoke to them. We did not pick the room. He picked it for us.
We called special needs and took care of all the requests, ect. We have called and emailed the booking agent several times since, with no answer/reply.

Problem...we just found out the room is not handicapped accessible!! Not only that, they do not have a single assessible cabin on board that sleeps 4! Had we known this, we may have went with a different line! Now we are in a quandry. We do not want to be separated. The only option seems to be that they have ONE set of adjoining rooms that sleep 2 each, one being assessible. That would be ok, except they want to charge us more for that.

I told them we were very flexible on room. We will accept pull downs, trundles, inside, outside, even upside down!! but it had to be safe for all of us (shower seat and grab bars) and we have to be together.

Any advise??!!

[Umbarger]

You will just have to pay more for the two cabins. The ship simply doesn't have a accessible cabin that sleeps 4. Many accessible cabins on ships only sleep 2.

You may have to change to a different cruise line.

[deaflawyer1]

we booked last week...have already paid the deposits, have already requested time off work, ect.....
seems to me they should not have booked us in a room without informing us of this issue. we only happen to come upon it ourselves. if we hadn't checked, we would have gotten there ad never known. What Im tocked off about is the fact that the agent booked us in this room in th first place, knowing ahead of booking what the issues were.

[Umbarger]

Did you ask your agent specifically for a wheelchair accessible cabin or did you just say one in your party used a wheelchair?

Just because someone uses a wheelchair doesn't mean they need an accessible cabin. Lots of people use wheelchairs but book regular rooms. Some people can walk but only need the wheelchair for long distances and therefore book regular cabins.

I didn't think regular agents can even book accessible cabins. I thought these were held in restricted inventory and bookings are done thru special needs. I think this was a simple misunderstanding between you and the booking agent.

Perhaps you assumed the agent booked you into an accessible cabin because you told him about the wheelchair?

I had an accessible cabin that slept 3 once. Two beds and a sofa bed. There was no way we could have added another bed into the room. Cruise ship cabins are very small and you would have no room in the cabin to move around because of all the beds. Not to mention the safety issue and liability. It may be safe in the bathroom but not in the cabin.

If they do not allow this (and I doubt they will) your only other option is booking the two cabins which I think would be the best option. This would give you more room and also give you two bathrooms. 4 people trying to share one bathroom can be an issue handicapped or not. You can always keep a regular cabin and make do with a normal bathroom. You can request a shower seat.

They will not break the rules for you or do something that may be unsafe for you. Don't wait too long until all the accessible cabins are booked. There are very few of these cabins and they book up fast.

Good luck.

[uppitycats]

Originally Posted by deaflawyer1

We just booked a cruise for 4 of us on the Carnival sensation. Money is a major issue, so we went the cheapest room since we dont plan to be in the room much anyhow. When we booked, we informed them that 3 of the 4 passangers had special needs. I am Deaf and will require a room kit and terp. one friend is diabetic. the third friend is on oxygen and in a wheelchair. We booked an interior, two twin, two pull downs room. The booking agent made our reservations then transfered us to special needs, telling us to call him back after we spoke to them. We did not pick the room. He picked it for us.
We called special needs and took care of all the requests, ect. We have called and emailed the booking agent several times since, with no answer/reply.

Problem...we just found out the room is not handicapped accessible!! Not only that, they do not have a single assessible cabin on board that sleeps 4! Had we known this, we may have went with a different line! Now we are in a quandry. We do not want to be separated. The only option seems to be that they have ONE set of adjoining rooms that sleep 2 each, one being assessible. That would be ok, except they want to charge us more for that.

I told them we were very flexible on room. We will accept pull downs, trundles, inside, outside, even upside down!! but it had to be safe for all of us (shower seat and grab bars) and we have to be together.

Any advise??!!

I think you're going to be stuck with booking the two rooms adjoining. You need to understand that cabins on cruise ships are VERY small, not like hotel rooms. 4 people in a cabin, without a wheelchair, would be very crowded. 4 of you in a cabin with one person IN a wheelchair would be extremely difficult for you all. There aren't usually handicap-accessible cabins that fit more than 3 people anyway...so your choices are to book the 2 cabins...or cancel the cruise entirely!

I am a little surprised that, when you talked to the special needs person at the cruise line, that they didn't make this clear! Your agent was correct to send you to the special needs department, but it seems like that person should have been more clear about what you'd need to book.

You say you've called your travel agent and not gotten a response? I'd keep calling him..and call the cruise line back and inform them that you've not been able to reach your agent. Usually you can cancel without penalty within a short time of booking, but you don't want to get past the deadline to cancel, if that is what you decide to do.

[xxoocruiser]

For what it's worth RCCL has some HC cabins that can sleep 4. I was just on the Enchantment of the Seas is HC Cabin 4077 that sleeps 4. 2 in beds, 1 on the sleeper sofa and 1 in a pullman.

[deaflawyer1]

I think I need to clarify some things. One, the booking agent was not a travel agent. We called Carnival directly. We booked directly thru carnival. We DID discuss the need for handicapped bathrooms. THAT was the main point. My friend is mobil. She CAN walk. She needs her chair only for distance or when her oxygen level drops. She will fold her chair up and out of the way inside the room. The NEED was for a shower seat and grab bars in the bathroom...a safety issue. And yes, this was made clear to the guy booking us.
I am an attorney. The guy booking us realised that from my email address and was asking me for advise regarding sitting for the LSAT (his second attempt), getting into law school ect. I think he was distracted by asking me about this stuff, that he wasn't realy paying attention to his job! After booking us and after being fully aware of our needs, he personally transfered us to special needs. He told us to call him back after we took care of that. We have tried every since.
As for paying extra. I admitt I do not have alot of cruise experience. This will be only my second cruise and the first was many moons ago. However, I DO have ADA experience, and it is unlawful for them to charge more to a disabled group than to an able bodied group, and that is what this boils down to. A person needing accomodations is not permitted to travel to the same extent as a person not needing accomodations. Able bodied persons can travel in groups of 4. Disabled persons can not.
But, this realy would not have been such an issue for me, had they been upfront from the get go. Our deposits are non-refundable. They manipulated us into booking a room that would leave us no choice but to upgrade? THAT is not acceptable.
Also having issues with the terps for myself. They keep insisting all of their terps are ASL certified. Thats great, only I am not ASL fluent. I require the assistance of sign assisted oral terps. No big deal, most ASL terps can do this, but not all, so they need to make sure the terps they retain can. But they don't seem to understand the difference enough to put it to the terps.

[cb at sea]

They are not charging you extra because of the handicapped issue...they are charging extra because you require 2 cabins....if they can't fit 4 souls into 1 HC, then they can't.

It sounds like a communications problem.... Call back, talk to a supervisor and see if you can work it out.

They aren't trying to do a "bait and switch"....just seems like they didn't understand that you needed a true accessible cabin from the start.

[PrincessPeggyLynn]

This is for general information not a commentary on deaflawyer1's current issue. My husband is a full time wheelchair user and does not walk so we plan all our cruises as soon as they are available for booking. We always study the deck plans and also work through a travel agent who is experienced booking cabins for people with disabilities. We also prefer mini-suites. The mini-suites on the newer Princess ships are very spacious and we travel with both my husband's manual and motorized chairs. The sitting areas in the mini suites have the sleeper sofa and the pullman and would easily accommodate 4 persons, one who is a wheelchair user. We have cruised in the past with another couple who are both wheelchair users and they had no problems in their cabin (at that time we were booking the accessible balcony but not the mini-suites). As many on this thread and other threads on this board have shared, when you are a wheelchair user traveling does require more advance planning and booking whether on land or at sea.

[deaflawyer1]

Originally Posted by cb at sea

They are not charging you extra because of the handicapped issue...they are charging extra because you require 2 cabins....if they can't fit 4 souls into 1 HC, then they can't.

It sounds like a communications problem.... Call back, talk to a supervisor and see if you can work it out.

They aren't trying to do a "bait and switch"....just seems like they didn't understand that you needed a true accessible cabin from the start.

From a purely legal standpoint, yes they are charging more as a direct result of a disability. If you look at a booking account of 4 passangers for instance, you will see that passanger one and two are higher than three and four. There is a "discount" so to speak, when adding the third and fourth passanger to a room. When you take away the ability to add that third and fourth passanger to a room, you also take away that discount. Thus, as a direct result of the disabled passanger not being able to book a third or fourth in their room, they also, as a direct result of their disability, unable to take advantage of a discount widely and fully offered to all abled passangers.

No, I don't think they intentionally misled us. But as a result of the screw up of their own employee, we are now going to be expected to pay more than we were paying as an able bodied group. If we end up having to take separate rooms, we will not be happy, but it may be a compromise we have no choice but to accept. However, we will not pay more.

I have no experience dealing with cruises or with wheelchair access, but I have had to fight discrimination every step of the way as a Deaf person. I have learned to stand up for our rights.

[katisdale]

You say the person using the wheelchair can walk a bit. I think you will be OK in a standard cabin IF your cabin mate can manage the step up into the bathroom. I can still walk perhaps 25 to 50 yards but have major problems with steps (I can manage 2 or 3 SMALL steps). We were on a Carnival cruise in April in a modified cabin which was OK but still had a step up into the bathroom. You can request a shower chair and toilet seat riser for your roommate IF he/she can manage the step up into the bathroom. Hopefully the chair will collapse as it will take up most of the floor space if it does not. We travelled with our daughter and grandchildren and in their non-accessible cabin there were grab bars in the bath. Their bath was the same size as ours (tiny). The only difference I noticed was that their room had a small step up into the shower while ours had none. I hope your cruise works out well.

[deaflawyer1]

Originally Posted by katisdale

You say the person using the wheelchair can walk a bit. I think you will be OK in a standard cabin IF your cabin mate can manage the step up into the bathroom. I can still walk perhaps 25 to 50 yards but have major problems with steps (I can manage 2 or 3 SMALL steps). We were on a Carnival cruise in April in a modified cabin which was OK but still had a step up into the bathroom. You can request a shower chair and toilet seat riser for your roommate IF he/she can manage the step up into the bathroom. Hopefully the chair will collapse as it will take up most of the floor space if it does not. We travelled with our daughter and grandchildren and in their non-accessible cabin there were grab bars in the bath. Their bath was the same size as ours (tiny). The only difference I noticed was that their room had a small step up into the shower while ours had none. I hope your cruise works out well.

YES! As long as there is a shower seat and a grab bar she can do that. Her wheelchair is collapsable and she will not need it to get around the room or for short distances, just for long ones, standing in lines, ect..So you are saying that other options could be made available if the only real NECCESSITY is a shower seat and grab bars? we even considered taking her own shower seat!

[sailinglisa]

IF your friend can handle the step up into the bathroom and can walk around the cabin, then, yes, the four of you should be able to make do in the cabin you have booked. Yes, there are grab bars in all the showers; after all, you are in a ship on a moving ocean...even us abs need those grab bars at times! lol Definitely call special needs and request and get a confirmation that a shower chair will be available before deciding not to bring her own.

The only thing you cannot do is store her w/c in the hallway.....it will have to be collapsed and stored inside the cabin...maybe inside the closet?

I hope this works out for you.

[raindropsalways]

Deaflawyer1 – Ask Carnival if cabin R298 or M298 is available. Both are accessible cabins that sleep four. I do not know if they are fully accessible or modified accessible. However, we had M298 on the Imagination and it was fully accessible. http://www.carnival.com/cms/fun/crui...ntasyClass.pdf

Betty

[Umbarger]

I say stay in a regular cabin. All showers have grab bars and you can ask for a shower seat. I think Handicapped cabins should be left for those confined to wheelchairs anyway, since there are so few of them.

[raindropsalways]

A factor not discussed is the step up to the bathroom in the standard cabins. This can be an unnecessary challenge to anyone that has problems walking. The fully accessible cabins do not have the step, plus they are normally larger than a standard cabin. With a wheelchair, that space can be a blessing. Try for one of the cabins I mentioned earlier.


Betty

[kyriecat]

I would verify that the cabin does have grab bars in the shower. Perhaps posting the question and including the ship name and cabin type on the Carnival board would get an answer. I've never sailed on a Carnival ship so they might have them in every shower. I know on Royal Caribbean ships some of the standard cabins do not have grab bars in the shower. Some of the ones that do have grab bars, have a single 12" bar so it can be difficult to use.

deaflawyer1,

You mention the shower and a seat, but nothing about toilet grab bars. Will those be a problem? I can't remember having a standard cabin with toilet grab bars.

They make suction-cup type grab bars that you can stick on a wall, but I'm leery of them. My mom used to have one for travel, but it slipped on her once when she needed it even though the indicator said it was secure. She fell but was okay. If you use one, have someone make sure it is secure each time.

[krisnme]

We did 3 in a cabin on Sensation and could easily have added the 4th with no real crowding issues, Carnival cabins are really quite large compared to others. We also got the "bargin" porthole room. My DS, 17 at the time, can walk a bit so we were able to fold his chair and stow it against the wall. The bathrooms had grab-bars and he did not need a bar for the toilet as the quarters there are so tight he held onto the sink counter. The step-up is about 5 inches if I remember correctly. I think you should ask Carnival for their shower seat, the shower is so tight I don't think your chair from home would fit. Don't forget to have your accomodations listed for the dining room, the wheelchair will only fit in certain areas. After we were seated, the staff removed our wheelchair and scooter to the isle untill we were done.

[deaflawyer1]

UPDATE: I am pleased to update that Carnival has placed us in two separate but adjoining rooms, one of which is accessible, and at no additional costs. They also finally understood that my terp needs is for a sign assisted oral interpreter rather than for an ASL terp. Soooo, we are good to go!

[recyclelady]

Originally Posted by deaflawyer1

UPDATE: I am pleased to update that Carnival has placed us in two separate but adjoining rooms, one of which is accessible, and at no additional costs. They also finally understood that my terp needs is for a sign assisted oral interpreter rather than for an ASL terp. Soooo, we are good to go!

Glad to hear this worked out for you!