Advice re: mobility and docking locations

My husband has mobility issues which don't allow him to walk long distances under pressure of time. We took a viking river cruise last year and found that he had to walk great distances at almost each port to gain access to the charter buses or other supplied transportation to shore excursions. He frequently had to leave 30+ minutes before other passengers to get to the bus on time - if he lasted the distance.

Anyone have any insight on the viking ocean cruises and docking as far as distance to either the charter bus or whatever form of transportation is provided for the excursions? we were told by numerous people at viking that the ocean cruises were much better suited for us due to my husbands bad hip. we are interested in the iconic western mediterranean cruise which includes barcelona, marseille, monte carlo, florence and rome.

any advice is greatly appreciated. well, except snarky responses. keep those to yourself :p;)

My husband has mobility issues which don't allow him to walk long distances under pressure of time. We took a viking river cruise last year and found that he had to walk great distances at almost each port to gain access to the charter buses or other supplied transportation to shore excursions. He frequently had to leave 30+ minutes before other passengers to get to the bus on time - if he lasted the distance.

 

Anyone have any insight on the viking ocean cruises and docking as far as distance to either the charter bus or whatever form of transportation is provided for the excursions? we were told by numerous people at viking that the ocean cruises were much better suited for us due to my husbands bad hip. we are interested in the iconic western mediterranean cruise which includes barcelona, marseille, monte carlo, florence and rome.

 

any advice is greatly appreciated. well, except snarky responses. keep those to yourself :p;)

Cruise ports aren't necessarily any better than river ports.

I can tell you about Barcelona. I'm basing my comments on Moll Addossat Terminal C, where we docked for almost our entire cruise this past NYE while the ship was being repaired. Just getting off the ship and into the terminal is a long walk up an inclined ramp (steep in a few places, especially at low tide). Once inside the terminal, there are both elevator and escalator to get you back down to street level; yes, you go up to enter the terminal and then back down to exit to the parking lot. The buses park just outside the cruise terminal but the terminal themselves are big buildings running almost the length of the ship. My guesstimate of the distance from exiting the ship to the front door of the terminal is at least two and half boat lengths.

Monte Carlo and St. Tropez are both tender ports (although sometimes Viking actually gets to dock there but there is no way of predicting what it will be when you get there). From what I have read about Monte Carlo, it is a long walk from the dock to where the buses park.

I don't know anything about the port in Livorno but I do know that the center of Florence, where all the sights are, is closed to tour buses. The bus drops you and you walk from place to place until you get back to the bus. If you must go to Florence, then look into hiring a guide with a car who can drive into the center and get you from place to place. (Lots of recommendations for guides to be found in the Ports of Call section of these boards or on Trip Advisor).

There are two websites with information about the various ports for cruise passengers. One is cruise crocodile and the other is Tom's Port Guide. Both have fabulous pictures.

I would think in general there is less walking with River Cruises based on my one cruise, though often with somewhat challenging terrain. Ocean cruises are longer partly because the ships are much bigger in the first place. In general - the dock is paved and easier to walk on.

There is a section on CruiseCritic for folks with mobility issues that might help.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=190

To tag onto what Peregrina shared with you, when reading your question it made me think of the various cruise ports we have visited, whether on Viking or other cruise lines, and I just don't think that the mobility issues would be confined with a specific cruise line. There is no way for a ship to know for certain in many ports where they will dock. That is up to the harbor officials. Unfortunately, I honestly do not believe that there is a concrete answer for you.

And I agree with garycarla that our experience with river cruise seems in my mind to have been more conducive to mobility issues from a distance standpoint.

I wonder if you went to the ports of call section and studies some of the private tours that are available in the ports you are interested in....if reaching out to them might provide you a more personalized pick up service.....that said, the cruise terminal still needs to be negotiated distance wise.

Garycarla' suggestion to go onto the link he provided will most likely give you more accurate information from others who have more expertise!

Truly, Best of luck to you in making this happen....

I just bought a volaris smart all terrain walker. It's light and it has large wheels so it can go over anything. You pick up the seat and it folds. I usually use a cane but this will make walking easier

All cruise ships have wheelchairs on board. Could you not arrange with the tours/excursions people for one of their number to wheel your husband from the ship to the coach? There are usually plenty of them hanging around at departure time, and surely one could be spared for a few minutes to do something useful. Same on return, Problem arises the next day when lots of pax want to be wheeled to their coach. . . . .

All cruise ships have wheelchairs on board. Could you not arrange with the tours/excursions people for one of their number to wheel your husband from the ship to the coach? There are usually plenty of them hanging around at departure time, and surely one could be spared for a few minutes to do something useful. Same on return, Problem arises the next day when lots of pax want to be wheeled to their coach. . . . .

No, you can't. Viking makes their policy very clear in this statement in the FAQs.

thank you all for your quick and honest responses. it's greatly appreciated. we aren't experienced cruisers...and being able to gather information from those well traveled is priceless. i can't thank you enough!!

I just bought a volaris smart all terrain walker. It's light and it has large wheels so it can go over anything. You pick up the seat and it folds. I usually use a cane but this will make walking easier

I googled just so I could put an image to the name:

Thanks peregrina, I didn't know how to put the picture on. This is a great walker. I got the 10 inch wheel because it can go along rocky paths and cobblestone. Folding up is easy and not heavy at all

Thanks peregrina, I didn't know how to put the picture on. This is a great walker. I got the 10 inch wheel because it can go along rocky paths and cobblestone. Folding up is easy and not heavy at all

If you are working on a PC and know about right-clicking, I can tell you how to do it. It is not difficult as long as you can get the URL for the image you want to share. E-mail me so we don't further hijack this thread.

I dont know what river cruise you went on but when we went on the Romantic Rhine and Danube Waltz most tour busses were very close to the landing. The landing can be very slippery and steep. I usually travel with my mother who needs a cane and cant walk long, so I pay attention to access and ease of travel. While on the Romantic Med this year I thought wheel chair access was pretty good and the tour busses were close to the exit of the terminal, which as others have said can be a long difficult walk with mobility problems. That being said, I think that you could stay onboard the tour bus or walk near the bus if the one or two stops sound too far to walk. We had 3 walkers and a wheel chair and the guide helped them get around by showing them easy passages. I would certainly check before getting on the bus (there are usually a few going to each location so no rush if you have to wait for a tour guide to think about an answer. A wheel chair from the ship to the bus and back would be very helpful. And if you cant enjoy the shore for that day, enjoy the ship.

Pryoforyou, thanks for info. Taking into the midnight sun, glad I won't have issue getting the walker on the bus.

Currently the SKY...Baltic and beyond....I have watched twice crew struggling to get someone's wheelchair down the ramp. They have not offered a slow walkers group on this ocean cruise as they did on the river cruise. Slow walkers HAVE impacted my enjoyment of walking tours!

Our guides so far have been excellent although the tours are too many people even with voice boxes.

It seems to be a valid critique of Viking tours vs top echelon competition that there are too many people per tour & tour guide. Having a slow walker special group is a necessary option, although on our Danube cruise an elderly woman with a walker was with the regular group and should have entered the Olympic races. She was impressive! Really enjoyed herself.

The worst impact on tours are clueless and/or inconsiderate people who wander off and do not inform the guide such that everyone sits in the bus or wherever waiting for them for 20 minutes or more as the guide searches frantically and calls all the other busses. On our Silversea cruise, it was the same couple, time after time. Once, they went to lunch after the guide had told us, "No time for lunch here. Be back at the bus by X so we can all get back to the ship in time for lunch." Guide found them but they refused to leave until finished. And then another day they just walked away and sat on a different later bus. I dreaded seeing them on our tour.

Currently the SKY...Baltic and beyond....I have watched twice crew struggling to get someone's wheelchair down the ramp. They have not offered a slow walkers group on this ocean cruise as they did on the river cruise. Slow walkers HAVE impacted my enjoyment of walking tours!

 

Our guides so far have been excellent although the tours are too many people even with voice boxes.

Make sure that you put all of this on your ship board critiques of the tours. Talking about it here isn't enough to catch the ear of the operations department, which oversees the shorex.

Done! Written and submitted. If we don't tell them they don't know!

Already suggested voice boxes for galley tour and they were very receptive to our comment.