Holy Land cruise with scooter

My husband and myself are booked on the Pacific Princess Holy Land cruise September 24, 2010. This will be the first time he is traveling with a scooter. We rented the scooter and it will be delivered and picked up on the ship. We have booked our own private overnite tours in Isreal and Egypt, but I am concerned about the other ports of call with the scooter.

Any suggestions about how difficult or anything else we might need to know about would be appreciated.

Suggest you list all ports on the intinerary so people can better answer your question.

Sorry - you are so right.

The ports we will be visiting are Ravenna Italy, Patmos Greece, Dubrovnick Croatia, Haifa Isreal, Port Said Egypt, Kusadasi Turkey. There are overnights in Isreal and Egypt that we have booked private tours and hotels for.

Thank you

Can your husband climb the steps into a bus? When we did a similar cruise with Princess all the tours were on buses, even the "easy" ones. I took the easy tours in Patmos and Kusadasi and found them interesting. In Patmos there was only one stop for shopping, otherwise we viewed the sites from the bus windows. In Kusadasi the easy tour was to the museum at Ephesus not to Ephesus itself, a carpet school which turned out to be very interesting, and a mountain village with a shopping opportunity in the village. Back then I used a rollator which was placed under the bus as we travelled and retrieved by the driver each time we stopped. In Turkey the driver provided a small stepstool which made that first big step up into the bus much easier. The hardest part of the Turkish tour was that the bus let you off outside the port so you could walk past all the shops. That was much further than I could comfortably walk. Thank goodness my rollator had a seat.

Thank you for answering my questions. Yes, my husband can walk up and down bus steps. He had Polio as a child and now finds it very tiring to walk any distance and he is very slow. I will check on the tours with the buses which is a good idea.

I was wondering if any of the ports that are tendered will allow the scooter on the tender? He is able to get on and off the tender with out being on the scooter. He will just need it for walking tours and sightseeing at ports if we decide to do anything on our own instead of bus tour.

I know this trip will be wonderful - and we can't wait, but you always worry about the unforseen

Sorry but I have heard that Princess no longer allows scooters on tenders at all.

Just be aware that alot of sidewalks outside of the US don't have curb cut outs. This may limit where the scooter will be able to go.

I own the very light travelscoot (only 35 lbs) and have been able to transport it on Princess Tenders without problem. I do not stay on the scooter when boarding the tender. Either my DH or one of the crew pick it up and put it on the tender. If needed my DH could put it into the duffel it came in. This has never been asked of us.

We are renting a scooter thru "Special Needs at Sea" it will be the smallest and lightest one they offer - it is supposed to come apart so that it can be put into car trunks and holding areas of buses.

My husband can get on and off the tenders on his own and he can walk up and down stairs. I am hoping that they might let the scooter on the tender since he does not have to be on it at all times. We only have one port that a tender is needed, so the plan will be to use a taxi when we get off the tender to maybe show us around if we do not have the scooter.

Another question - does the tours from the ship that are on buses allow the scooter to be stored in the holding area. My husband and myself will be able to take it apart and pick it up with out any help from anyone else.

Thanks for everyones input. I really appreciate it

When you get back, please update us. I think this cruise sounds wonderful and would love to go in the future. I have to use a smallish regular scooter but can walk short distances on crutches. Buses are iffy but workable if they can lower the step or have a step stool and can take the scooter.

I will update this site when we return. We leave on September 23, just a month away.

I am also bringing two cell phones that should work in Europe and the other areas we will be visiting. That way if my husband can not be part of a tour or we get seperated we can keep in touch.

The cruise sounds amazing , and I am hoping with the private guides in Isreal and Egypt we will have a wonderful time.