Selbourne

I’m dreading these lifts, especially as I will be pushing my wife in her wheelchair. It sounds as though a strategy meeting is needed at each lift lobby, with each waiting passenger designated to ‘mark’ a lift and then the winner stands in the doorway to hold it for the others 😂

We are saying the same thing. Impossible to know who is at fault until that very specific question is answered!

I’ve asked the same question (twice) and am still not 100% sure that the OP specifically stated on the very first Onboards Needs Questionnaire submitted immediately after booking that they intended to bring a wheelchair. This is the absolute crux of the issue. If they did then P&O is at fault. If they didn’t (or relied on the TA, or Mobility at Sea, to do so - or didn’t mention the wheelchair until the second submission in April) then, unfortunately, the fault is the passengers. Jury is out for me until that is specifically answered!

My last post was removed as well, possibly because I replied to the post that mentioned the TA. To repeat my point, there is one critical question that I don’t believe has been answered. When the OP completed the onboard needs questionnaire immediately after booking, did they state at that time that they would be bringing a wheelchair and state the dimensions (as is required)? If they did, then the fault lies with P&O. If the passenger was deemed to need an evacuation chair but no more were available, the booking should have been cancelled at that stage. Conversely, if the OP did not state on the Onboard Needs Questionnaire that they were bringing a wheelchair, or somehow assumed that by informing their TA or by booking one through Mobility at Sea that they would be covered, then P&O would deem that the fault lies with the customer for not declaring the wheelchair on the Onboard Needs Questionnaire. It sounds pedantic, but this seems to sum up all the issues that I have read here and elsewhere when people have run into problems. One of the many issues that P&O (and other Carnival brands) need to resolve is that they don’t always acknowledge receipt of the Onboard Needs Questionnaire and that issues flagged have been noted. This leaves the customer with at best a nagging doubt that they might run into difficulties, or at worst being refused embarkation at the terminal.

The problem with MS, especially at the early stages, is that a persons level of mobility can vary enormously from day to day, especially if the person still has a degree of mobility. Some days they can cope reasonably well without much assistance, whereas other days a wheelchair may be essential. I remember this well when my wife was at the earlier stages of the disease. It is therefore quite feasible that someone may be able to make their way to the muster station unaided some days but not others.

I’ve just taken a screenshot of our Cruise Personaliser showing that an Evacuation Chair is required for my wife for our cruise next week, just in case!

The whole system definitely needs reviewing urgently. As well as issues such as these being highlighted on this forum (and no doubt others) there have been several reports in the press recently about passengers with wheelchairs and scooters being denied boarding. Whilst we understand the issue here, the press don’t and the articles are all painting P&O in a very poor ‘anti-disability’ light, which is not the case.

What a nightmare. You say that you completed the on-board needs questionnaire in January. Did you declare that you were intending to bring a wheelchair at that time? If you did, then you should have been told at that stage that you couldn’t be accommodated, not 4 months later. If you didn’t, and have only recently declared that you are bringing a wheelchair then as @molecrochip states, if the limited number of evacuation chairs are already taken then you cannot be accommodated. It’s not discrimination, it’s safety. My wife has secondary progressive Multiple Sclerosis and is now a full time wheelchair user. We have to use an accessible cabin and we declare the wheelchair immediately when we book and an evacuation chair is allocated. On that basis, once they are all allocated you’d assume that further bookings wouldn’t be accepted from those who need to bring wheelchairs. If I’d declared it in January and it had taken until 4 weeks before the cruise to be told this I would be furious. As well as clamping down on people turning up at the terminal with an undeclared wheelchair, presumably as they have a need, it’s high time that P&O also clamped down on the abuse of the assisted embarkation and disembarkation by those who don’t genuinely need it. Folk who cope perfectly adequately walking around the ship and the ports throughout the entire cruise, but then claim that they need to be transported on or off the ship in a wheelchair when they perceive that there is some advantage to be gained by doing so. Even though we have a genuine need, we avoid assisted disembarkation now as it annoys me so much

I can’t abide whisky or coke! 😂

Yes, I can see the logic, as long as runners don’t feel that they have priority and everyone else has to stop, move to the side etc. Walkers are in the majority and the runners should run in such a way to avoid them, not the other way around. If they want a completely unhindered running route then I would have thought that the running machines in the gym are a better bet!

We are on the same cruise as you and also like to ‘promenade’ around the deck. From the videos I’ve seen, the Prom Deck does seem very narrow on Queen Anne and my view is that those who wish to jog will have to accept that they can’t expect everyone to keep ‘pulling in’ for them and will have to wait until it’s wide enough to pass.

Websites such as National Rail Enquiries will often suggest going Cross Country to Reading and then GWR from there. Apart from the fact that Cross Country is hideous, this is quite a roundabout and expensive route. The other option is Southampton to Salisbury (around 30 mins) which connects with the Waterloo to Exeter route. If the timings work, it can be quicker and cheaper - and you avoid Cross Country which is always a good thing!

We live ‘down south’ where prices are more inflated 😉

I just don’t accept that P&O drink prices are a rip off. As previously mentioned, they are no more than any pub or restaurant that we use ashore. You just cannot compare the cost of a bottle of booze bought from a shop versus the individual drink price in a pub, restaurant or cruise ship. As with any service business, the cost to buy the product is only a small amount of the cost of supplying the service.

I completely understand that, as I do hidden disabilities etc, but the difference with a wheelchair user is that they need more space. Those who are just elderly or have hidden disabilities can usually stand in a lift (or the disability isn’t hidden) and therefore can still get into busy lifts. The issue we had on Iona was that most lifts were arriving half to two-thirds full and, as a result, we couldn’t get in as the lifts were ridiculously small. We’d not had the issue on any other cruise ship and were hoping that this wasn’t going to be an issue with all new builds.