Best cruise line and/or ship for accessibilty

Hello all,

I am looking for a little feedback from those of you that have been cruising with any type of disability and what your experiences are with the different cruise lines or even specific ships.

I have seen some reviews that say Disney is the best, and then I read where someone had a very difficult time navigating the exact same ship.

As someone who is just beginning to require an accessible cabin, this is extremely important when it comes to researching for our next trip.

Hello all,

 

I am looking for a little feedback from those of you that have been cruising with any type of disability and what your experiences are with the different cruise lines or even specific ships.

 

I have seen some reviews that say Disney is the best, and then I read where someone had a very difficult time navigating the exact same ship.

 

As someone who is just beginning to require an accessible cabin, this is extremely important when it comes to researching for our next trip.

Evaluating how accessible a cruise ship or cruise line is is somewhat subjective and depends greatly on one's level of disability. In addition to what (if any) mobility items the person uses and what features of the ship are important to them. As an FYI I also read the same review that someone recently posted about their less than stellar experience on Disney. Hope you read all the other additional posts as well as one bad review should not be taken into consideration.

Some things to consider are:

• Select a ship that has been built later than 2002. The newer the build the more accessible the ship.
  
• What cruise lines are recommended : What you like to do on board plays a big part in the decision. For example if you want to be able to use the pool and or whirlpool RCCL and believe Disney are the only cruise line that have an accessible chair lift for one pool and one whirlpool fleet wide. If you plan to not to go into port and want to be able to participate in organized on-board activities on port days than Holland America and or Celebrity IMHO are probably not the best option as there tends to be little to no scheduled activities for those that remain on board during port days.
  
• An accessible cabin would be the best choice provided you require the features contained in such a cabin. Whether it's an inside, window, balcony or suite all depends on one's budget. A standard cabin regardless of type will not have a doorway wide enough to accommodate a wheelchair. Nor will there be enough interior floor space to use a wheelchair in the cabin. Additionally a standard cabin will have a step into the bathroom as well as a step up/over into the shower. An accessible bathroom with have a zero threshold doorway and shower entrance. Additionally there will be grab bars by the toilet/shower and a fold down shower seat.
  
• Do you need to rent a scooter or other mobility equipment. Scooters can not be rented for the day while in port nor do the cruise lines have such equipment on board for rent. If a scooter is needed than it has to be rented from the start of the cruise through the cruise lines approved vendors. Here's the links :
  
  • http://www.specialneedsatsea.com
    
    
  • http://www.carevacations.com
    
    
  • NCL only allows Special Needs at Sea. Both vendors can be used by most all other cruise lines.
    
    

• Itinerary : Recommend one that has no tendered ports if possible. Generally cruise lines will not allow the person to board a tender unless they can walk down/up a few steps and have a collapsible folding wheelchair. Mobility scooters will not be allowed on tenders unless the tender has roll-on capabilities. Holland America is the only cruise line that has one tender on most of it's ships with roll-on capabilities but more often than not it's not available. Only a few ports of calls provide there own tenders that have roll-on capabilities. For example in Grand Cayman the ships do not use their own tenders . Rather the Grand Cayman tourism Boards provides tenders with roll-on capabilities in which you can remain in on a scooter or in a wheelchair when boarding.
  
• It should also be noted that ADA law only applies to the USA. There will be little to no accessible tours offered by the cruise lines so you may want to look into whether or not there will be private accessible tours offered in the ports selected. Also accessible taxes that can accommodate a mobility scooter are often hard to find in many ports. Please come back and post the ports of call of interest to obtain further information.
  

Have cruised most all Mass Market Cruise lines and found RCCL to best meet my personal needs when it comes to cruising. Believe one of the reasons that puts RCCL at the top of my list is the fact it has an association with the "Make a Wish Foundation" which seems to help to better understand the needs of the disabled traveler.

Having required the use of a mobility scooter for several years, I have found Celebrity to be the most accommodating for me. Their H/C rooms have buttons that you push to automatically open the cabin doors and the doors close automatically. The staff is very helpful also. Holland America and RCL follow a close second. Carnival allows scooters to be parked in hallways (or at least they did on our last Carnival cruise) which can be difficult to maneuver around. We haven't sailed on Disney, NCL or other cruise lines so I can't comment on those. Whichever cruise line we sail on, however, we always try to make the best of it and "go with the flow".

For the last two summers, my sister and I cruised on RCI - Allure and Oasis. Both ships are huge but we felt they were very accessible. We had a HC balcony cabin (she brings her own scooter) and the cabins are great. She didn't need to pool lift but we did see several people use them. All the venues were easy to get in/out. All the public rest rooms have automatic doors both to get into the restroom itself, and then to get into the accessible stall.

What might make one ship or cruiseline the wrong choice for me, might make it a good choice for you.

What ship or line best suits your accessibility needs really depends on what your needs are - for both you and the people you're travelling with.

Someone travelling in a scooter who needs it for distance or stamina issues may have very different needs than someone in a manual wheelchair who self-propels and again different from someone in a manual wheelchair who is pushed by a caregiver.

Also, if you're travelling with more than 2 in the cabin, you want to check out the third bed. On Princess, it's usually a bunk (which if it's a couple travelling with an disabled parent or child and the expectation was that the disabled person would use the 3rd bed, may not work out too well).

I have had some difficulties with Disney but they also do have their positives. And truthfully, that's the same with most mainstream lines.

Personally, I'd start with where and when you want to go and then look at your options. Most of the cruise websites have links for guests travelling with disabilities where you can see deck plans and possible staterooms. As well, cruise deck plans dot com allows you to see the pictures of accessible cabins without signing up.

For me, as a full time scooter user, the best ships have been the S Class of Celebrity. The worst were Holland America. I also had problems on three Royal Caribbean ships.

On Celebrity, the accessible cabins have auto open doors and the bathrooms are nicely appointed. Nearly ever door to the open decks are automatic, and the thresholds are even with absolutely no lip that can catch your scooter. All their public restrooms have auto doors, not only for the stalls, but for the main entry doors.

On RCI, I found many of their doors to the open decks to either be manual or if they were auto, they were broken. They also have a higher lip on their thresholds where my scooter would get stuck. Their public restrooms did not have auto doors on the stalls or the main doorway.

HAL was by far the worst. Nearly every door to an outside deck had a VERY high lip where my scooter got tightly stuck. Their accessible cabins were terrible and badly designed. Their hallways on the public decks, decks where all the fun public venues are located, are terribly narrow and you cannot get a scooter through if there are other people walking at the same time. Their public restrooms are all located within a small alcove where a wheelchair or scooter cannot fit, and their two accessible restrooms both had broken auto doors, which were very heavy and nearly impossible to open.