Need Opinions of HC Cabins on Other Cruiselines

Can I get some opinions on the HC cabins on other cruiselines than RCCL? We are RCCL lovers, but have not ventured on any other lines. When I have questioned customer services reps from Carnival, their description of their HC cabins have not impressed me. i.e., they will provide us with a ramp to lay down for access to the bathrooms, etc. Not my idea of a good plan. RCCL HC cabins are wonderful and the staff is always there if we need anything and seem to enjoy doing their jobs. Just curious about how well laid-out the other lines cabins are.

My husband is a paraplegic and is unable to walk. We have sailed on both the Pride and the Paradise without any problems. The bathroom on the Pride was huge. The bathroom on the Paradise was much smaller, but still completely accessible. There was only a very small lip into the bathroom, which did not pose any problem for my husband. There is a bench in the shower, which was sufficient for him, and a handheld showerhead for easy bathing. So far, we have only had interior staterooms. The stateroom on the Pride was huge and there was plenty of room for him to maneuver around. The stateroom on the Paradise was much smaller, but there was plenty of room for his wheelchair. We have a balcony room booked on the Pride next month, and we have been assured that there is a ramp for him to be able to access the balcony.

The staff on both ships have been more than helpful. After the first dinner in the dining room, the wait staff always had the chair removed from the table to make it easier for him to roll up to the table. When we were on the Pride, we tendered in Cabo. The staff was happy to carry my husband down the stairs (which are inside the ship) to the tender, and they loaded him onto the tender with no complaints. They would not accept a tip. When we sailed on the Paradise, the tender in Catalina Island was a different story. The steps were metal and they were on the outside of the ship. It was also raining, so I vetoed that right away. My husband was more than willing to try to see if we could disembark, but I don't think that my heart could handle watching that.

You must have been asking Carnival about one of their older ships. Like RCCL, Carnival's handicap cabins on ships build since the mid '90s have no bathroom step and are equipped with roll-in showers and roll-under sinks. However, the bathrooms are smaller both lines than on newer ships built in the last 5 years.

The major difference between Carnival handicap cabins and RCCLs is size. In general RCCL's handicap cabins are spacious while Carnival's can be a bit tight for a wheelchair, especially on their older ships. They are workable though, but you may have to place the beds perpendicular to each other to give enough room for a wheelchair to turn.

In general HAL, Celebrity, princess and NCL also offer spacious HC cabins. However our bathrooms on the Grand Princess and Sun Princess both had ramps.

Can I get some opinions on the HC cabins on other cruiselines than RCCL? We are RCCL lovers, but have not ventured on any other lines. When I have questioned customer services reps from Carnival, their description of their HC cabins have not impressed me. i.e., they will provide us with a ramp to lay down for access to the bathrooms, etc. Not my idea of a good plan. RCCL HC cabins are wonderful and the staff is always there if we need anything and seem to enjoy doing their jobs. Just curious about how well laid-out the other lines cabins are.

Disney Cat 3 HC cabins are awesome.....2 large bathrooms, 1 w/ roll-in shower and seperate tub, the other with roll-in shower only.....large roll-in closet in bedroom.....very large balconies...no ramps necessary.... I've never been in any other Cat. on DCL...

Carnival Ecstacy Oceanview room was terrible IMHO.....Roll-in shower allowed water to run out of bathroom into room with a terrible mold smell the entire cruise... flip down seat in shower was slippery and sloped so it was easy to fall off of....Tiny room (as are almost all non suites)

These are just my experiences....I'm sure that there are others who've had much better luck with Carnival....hopefully they'll post also so we can all learn from their experience...

Good luck:)

our experience has been the most accessible cabins and the ship in general are rccl's Radiance class. automatic door openers, ramps, roll in showers the whole works. we recently were on 2 new Vista class HAL ships in accessible verandah cabins both times. the bathrooms were great but the cabin layout was awful. when they put in the new bedding with super thick mattresses there was barely enough room to get a wheelchair between the wall and the bottom of the beds- we left scratches on the wall to attest to that - in addition to bruised fingers. we had to ask them to remove a table and chair to provide adequate turning room. we also found that the golden princess handicapped verandah was nice, but not as good as rccl. we avoid european based lines like costa and msc because they have no concept of handicapped accessibity and often have only a few inside rooms:)

We have sailed on the Carnival Elation (twice) and the Regal Princesss (three times). We will not go back to Carnival after experiencing Princess. On Carnival they (barely) widened the door to get into the cabin; otherwise accessibility was a joke. The Princess cabin was lovely and generous, with a large bathroom with roll-in shower and large fold-down shower-seat. You might want to look at this website, which compares HC cabins: http://access-able.com/dbase/cruise.cfm

K Loomis

Thanks everyone. I appreciate all the info, but I think we'll stick with RCCL. Hubby isn't too keen on trying new lines because we have always been so happy with RCCL. Just wondered what, if anything, we were missing. Gotta love RCCL!

I have pics of Celebrity H/C inside room. I also have pics of Maasdam (but be careful here some are not true H/C Rooms. You have to ask which are true H/C rooms such as H709 OV). I have also been on Dawn Princess. I agree with above, go on ships built after 1997 for more accessible cabins and lounges.

I just thought that I would let you know that we have been on 8 cruises in two years, with so far this year. All of them have been on Carnival ships, and we have a cruise booked for Dec. and next July on Carnival, and are looking at another. We have one booked on a Holland America ship for March because of the itinerary. We love Carnival ships, and have always had great handicapped rooms. The Carnival Liberty, Glory, and Valor all have excellent, large handicapped cabins with large bathrooms complete with big roll in showers with a great shower seat, etc. There are no lips, no need of any ramps, no tight places to manauver. We have three adults in our cabin, lot's of luggage, a wheelchair, and an electric jazzy, and have never been crowded. We have been in more than one of the cabins on these ships and they are all alike, big and really nice. As far as a smaller or older ship we have cruised on the Carnival Fantasy four times and had the same cabin, the cabin is a bit smaller, but the bathroom is plenty big, and has the same large roll in shower, and there are no lips. ramps, etc. The cabin even has a new this year, automatic door that works great! On the Fantasy the public restrooms even have an automatic door. Carnival has made their ships very accessible! I am wondering what Holland America's Volendam's handicapped cabins will be like, as we really prefer to stay with Carnival, but for the itinerary we decided to try Hal once next March, but then it will be back to the Valor in July! I have pictures of Carnival's handicapped rooms and bathrooms if you would like to see them, let me know. If you ever decide to try Carnival you will definately love their Handicapped cabins! Happy Cruising!:)

Fantasy June 2004

Fantasy December 2004

Valor May 2005

Glory July 2005

Fantasy January 1, 2006

Liberty March 2006

Fantasy May 2006

Glory July 2006

COMING UP!

SENSATION DECEMBER 2006

VOLENDAM MARCH 2007

VALOR JULY 2007

Princess has nice HC cabins with roll in showers and grab bars. The balcony cabins have a ramp

I've had inside accessible cabins on Royal Caribbean's Enchantment (2002), Explorer (2004) and Voyager (2005) and the NCL Dawn (2006). I use a power chair and I found all ships provided very good overall accessibility. Nevertheless, I'd give RCI the better accessibility rating as there were a few barriers with the NCL Dawn. Nevertheless, as the access issues in my view were very minor I would cruise again on the Dawn without any hesitation if the price, itinerary etc. were appealing.

Our inside cabin on the Dawn (# 10711) was huge - the largest we've ever had by far (30%+). It's well laid out with a sofa-bed for our son. It is close to the elevators, a very nice feature. The bathroom too was good size, with a good turning radius, a roll-in shower with a large fold down shower seat, grab bars etc. The room had only one feature that didn't meet our needs. The slope into the bathroom was just slightly greater than on Royal Caribbean ships. I use a lift (ARJO Trixie) for all transfers and it bottomed out at the threshold. Fortunately, we had brought a travel shower chair/commode we could use to access – otherwise I'd have been in deep "do do". I had no problem getting into the bathroom with my power chair and if one does not need/use such equipment this would not be an access problem.

The Dawn does have some access issues. First, the hallways in the cabin area are narrow; I'd say the RCI ships are about ¼ or so wider. This is a real pain when cleaning carts/room service cooler/trays are in the hall. Second, there are two sets of doors going from the deck to the public areas. The first is an automatic glass sliding door but the second must be opened manually – a very stupid design. The only area where I found I could travel independently was on Deck 12 from the Garden Café buffet to the pool area. The ship's layout was a bit confusing at first, but all areas seem accessible. However, the "free style" NCL feature is very nice as you are not tied to a set dinner/show time. As my disabilities do, at times, interfere with getting to places at a set time we found this to be a huge plus and one which tended to offset the minor access issues we experienced.

We have been on Princess and Holland. Both have great handicapped cabins.

Our last two were on Princess and they were WONDERFUL.

Princess has the best HC of the 4 lines we've traveled and we also love RCL. They are bigger and havegreat access in the bathrooms. Better layout in the room as well. Whatever you cruise....have fun:D

We have been in HC balcony cabins on the Disney Magic, Sapphire Princess, Norwegian Star, and Celebrity Summit. All four of these ships had wonderful HC cabins with plenty of room. No ramps into any of the bathrooms and all four also had the roll-in showers. I think the best bet is to try to book ships that are relatively new (maybe 2001 or newer).

On another note, the Celebrity ship was the best for having accessible public restrooms. Every public restroom on the Summit has either an accessible stall or a separate HC restroom. It's a pet peeve of ours how some ships have few and far between public HC restrooms. Also, the Summit had the lowest thresholds (ramps) in the public areas when you are going from inside to outside. Some ships have a pretty steep ramp that's hard to get over without assistance but that was not true on Celebrity.

I've had inside accessible cabins on Royal Caribbean's Enchantment (2002), Explorer (2004) and Voyager (2005) and the NCL Dawn (2006). I use a power chair and I found all ships provided very good overall accessibility. Nevertheless, I'd give RCI the better accessibility rating as there were a few barriers with the NCL Dawn. Nevertheless, as the access issues in my view were very minor I would cruise again on the Dawn without any hesitation if the price, itinerary etc. were appealing.

 

Our inside cabin on the Dawn (# 10711) was huge - the largest we've ever had by far (30%+). It's well laid out with a sofa-bed for our son. It is close to the elevators, a very nice feature. The bathroom too was good size, with a good turning radius, a roll-in shower with a large fold down shower seat, grab bars etc. The room had only one feature that didn't meet our needs. The slope into the bathroom was just slightly greater than on Royal Caribbean ships. I use a lift (ARJO Trixie) for all transfers and it bottomed out at the threshold. Fortunately, we had brought a travel shower chair/commode we could use to access – otherwise I'd have been in deep "do do". I had no problem getting into the bathroom with my power chair and if one does not need/use such equipment this would not be an access problem.

 

The Dawn does have some access issues. First, the hallways in the cabin area are narrow; I'd say the RCI ships are about ¼ or so wider. This is a real pain when cleaning carts/room service cooler/trays are in the hall. Second, there are two sets of doors going from the deck to the public areas. The first is an automatic glass sliding door but the second must be opened manually – a very stupid design. The only area where I found I could travel independently was on Deck 12 from the Garden Café buffet to the pool area. The ship's layout was a bit confusing at first, but all areas seem accessible. However, the "free style" NCL feature is very nice as you are not tied to a set dinner/show time. As my disabilities do, at times, interfere with getting to places at a set time we found this to be a huge plus and one which tended to offset the minor access issues we experienced.

This is info from my review of our cruise on the Norwegian Dawn 7/8/06...My friend was in a power chair and had a handi-cap mini suite (11116)

"One of our party is in a motorized wheel chair-his room was 11116. It was the width of two mini suites with two sliding glass doors and a huge bathroom. Each side of the room had a bed and the only down thing was that the ramps to reach the lip of the sliding glass doors were too steep for anyone in a wheel chair to manage and with a motorized chair it could not clear it because of the angle. He got to sit near the sliding glass doors with them open and seemed okay with that. It was the one small complaint. They need longer ramps like they have all over the rest of the ship."

Hallways were a problem but everyone was very accomidating.....we managed easily.

I went on my first cruise this December 08 aboard the Carnival Inspiration. Cabin M298 was fantastic! I had an electric scooter that I parked between the beds and there still was ample room to put a chair beside my bed. There was plenty of room to get out of bed even with the ECV there. I also had my walker and there was plenty of room at the foot of the bed to store it. I was completely happy with my cabin!

I was not as happy with the elevators but even less happy that the bathrooms were on a different level than the dining rooms. It is difficult to get an empty elevator and you really had to pull straight in, not back in, because of the short time the doors stayed open. I had to do the elevator trips alone and was very frustrated.

The public bathrooms did not have any push-buttons to open the door. So I had to get out of my scooter and hobble into the bathrooms (once I eventually got there from the horrendous elevator trips!). Even if they had had a button to open the door, it wouldn't have helped as there were many turns that were very tight to be able to get into the main bathroom. The handicapped stall's latch was broken and the door swayed to and fro with the motion of the ship.

However, I got used to these problems and had a great time overall. At least I am forewarned for my next trip.

One note: I was told that the Carnival Sensation Cabins M298 and R298 were not the same as the Inspiration's. There are upper and lower berths in these rooms.

If you have any questions or would like to see more pictures of Cabin M298 or the bathroom or the great storage/closet area, don't hesitate to ask. I also have pictures of the area that was to the right of our room (crew member walkway/elevator); to the left was the ship's funnels and air-conditioning. Never heard a sound from either area. Very quiet cabin.

The fault I have with Carnival is not their handicap accessible cabin -- I was on a new Carnival ship about two years ago and their HC cabin was wonderful, more space throughout the cabin and in the bathroom than on any other ship I've been on. The fault I have with Carnival is that their public bathrooms aren't accessible! If I needed to use the bathroom I had to return to my cabin -- not good for someone with a disability where bathroom needs might be unexpected!

I've been on Princess where there was good accessibility, including accessible bathrooms throughout the ship, and on NCL, with great handicap bathrooms, both in the cabins and in the public areas.

I do think you have to be sure to book with the newest ships in most lines, though.

We all need to be careful when we tell posters that HC cabins on _____cruise line are wonderful and we had no problems. Most cruise lines have some of their older ships where not all the HC cabins are wonderful; HAL and Carnival to name 2 have cabins on some of their older ships which are listed as HC-modified and these are just what they say - standard cabins modified to handle SOME accessibility features. In my replies to inquiries such as this OPs, I try to specify which ship(s) and not be so general as to say Oh, yeah, Princess or RCI HC cabins are great. Remember most posters here asking about HC cabins who are newbies do not usually spell out their disabilities other than to say I use a wheelchair (or scooter) It so happens that on some of the older Carnival ships, even a regular wheelchair will not fit through the cabin door of the "modified" cabin because they did not modify the door size by widening it. And this is just one example to illustrate what I am saying:)

We have been on the Celebrity Summit and Constellation and both were terrific! Lots of room and great bathrooms. You would love it!

I was just on the Carnival Legend and the HC cabin was very large with sufficient room to manuver the scooter around. It had a roll in shower with a seat. There was no problem with water overflowing. They also had a long handled mop just in case.

I must agree that we shouldn't critique HC cabins by cruise line but by ship name and cabin number. Not all HC cabins on cruise lines and ships are the same. When I was on NCL Dawn I got a horrible small HC cabin on Deck 8 (All HC cabins on deck 8 were very small) but not all HC cabins on this ship are small. Other HC cabins I saw on different decks of this ship were quite spacious. Then on Carnival Spirit the HC cabin was okay however there were no HC public restrooms so you have to go back to your cabin every time you need to use the restroom. Very inconvenient.

We have sailed on the Carnival Elation (twice) and the Regal Princesss (three times). We will not go back to Carnival after experiencing Princess. On Carnival they (barely) widened the door to get into the cabin; otherwise accessibility was a joke. The Princess cabin was lovely and generous, with a large bathroom with roll-in shower and large fold-down shower-seat. You might want to look at this website, which compares HC cabins: http://access-able.com/dbase/cruise.cfm

 

K Loomis

access-able.com is a great resource!

My husband has been in a wheelchair for a long time and we have been on 6 cruises, 3 on Royal, 2 on Princess and 1 on Carnival. He uses a manual wheelchair and we usually rent a power chair for him to use on the ship and on and off the ship in ports. We love RCCL and Princess as their HC staterooms are very large and near an elevator and kind of midship. On Carnival Conquest the HC room was the 1st cabin at the bow and the elevator was down the hall so that meant he had to scoot around carts and this made it very difficult. Also we noticed on Carnival he could never get an elevator, most of the people who can walk stairs would run in front of us to get the elevator. We've never had this happen on RCCL and Princess. We've been to the Bahamas, Alaska and Western Carribbean and have totally enjoyed our cruises. Happy cruising to all............

What are the HC rooms like on the Carnival Line Elation?

We just got off the Mariner June 7th and I must tell you I was amazed at the extent of accessibility. We were in HC cabin 7304.

Pull down closet pole

very large bathroom

under sink pipe padding

corner shower seat

drain completely around shower

drain across door

main light switch at both beds

panic buttons both sides.

telephone in bathroom for emergency

well designed auto flip up/down ramp at balcony door

ample room for two chairs

ample storage shelves and drawers

the desk has ample clearence for knees

All the public restrooms had the push button openers not only

to enter but for the stall also.

Almost all, and there are many, had the sink in stall.

Dining room staff was well versed and we could sit anywhere and they would make it work!

There is a stair lift to the wedding chapel

lifts into the pools and hottubs

lift down to the "peek-a-boo bridge windows

I could go on and on

This should have come as no surprise to me as the Ships God-Mother is Jean Driscoll, two-time paralympian and multi winner of the Boston Marathon in a wheelchair racer!:)