Bloodgem

Firstly let me say I have no kids. We use the kids club to borrow books for my disabled adult DS. A couple of time we have been in the kids club, exchanging books, when one of the staff have rang a parent to come and collect their child. Unsure of the reason why the child wanted to leave but I think it must be reassuring for a parent to knew that their child can be collected from the kids club any time the child wants to leave.

That's a relatively recent change. Used to be lower levels could get free upgrades too, but that was back in the day before the bean counters completely took over the management.

Thank You of info.

If you use ABP Parking you access the terminal via Dock Gate 8 or 10. The security guards will direct you were to park. Once you have parked a ABP Parking luggage truck pulls up and takes your luggage. Then it's just a short walk to the terminal with your carry on luggage.

We always use ABP Parking and never had a problem.

7 nights away from Diamond Plus....cruising Royal for 20 years and I have NEVER EVER been upgraded...so enjoy!!!!

I thought you could only get a free upgrade if you were Diamond Plus or Pinnacle?

Doing a "15-minute" meal requires a lot of prep work that was never shown on camera. I'm doing an alder smoked salt seared salmon filet with saute'd zucchini noodles tonight for my wife, and the actual cooking time is only about 8 minutes for the salmon and 7 minutes for the zucchini, but the prep for getting to that 15-minute meal is about another 20-30 minutes.

Hope your wife enjoyed your food? I found this on the web and thought you might enjoy reading it :)

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2012/sep/27/how-to-make-jamies-15-minute-meals

Yep, and I stand by it. I've watched him cook, I've tasted his creations, and IMO he's a hack and a poser. For example, no self-respecting chef would ever put a red sauce on Risotto, or consider the menu he prepared for RCL as specialty Italian cuisine - maybe it's what a brit who made his money passing off mediocre creations as high-end cuisine on the Food Network thinks is Italian, but my Sicilian mother would roll over in her grave if she was served any of that c#$p.

Have you ever tried to recreate his 15 minute meals? Most people have to take 20-30 minutes to create them.

It looks like with the bed by the door' date=' the space available to come into the cabin and get around the bed will just be too small for a scooter. The only accessible cabins available are insides, and I want to keep a balcony so he can chill out there.[/quote']

Have you thought of posting your thread on https://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/forumdisplay.php?f=190. As the scooter user that read the Disabled Cruise Travel board will have a better idea if you can get a scooter into your cabin.

Royal Esplanade is fine during “off hours” when there is no Giant.LifeAltering.SALE. 😉

I agree with the above comment.

My DS is confined to a manual wheelchair and we have not had problems with carpets on any of the ships. On embarkations day get one of the wheelchair helper to push your DH on to the ship, it will make life easier for you. During muster drill we are always told that if we help getting to the lifeboats let the CS deck know and they will make a note on their system.

Our cabin won't accommodate a scooter' date=' [/quote']

What makes you say this? If it is because of the width of the cabin door, I believe you can rent scooters that can fit through standard cabin door.

HI, was wondering if anyone has stayed in this cabin?

In the only review I can find, the writer claims "Lovely room, however this is not suitable for 4 people, luggage, wheelchairs and hoists, far to small. When pull out sofa bed was out we then didn't have room to use the hoist, and either side of bed was not big enough to use a hoist. As there was no where to put cases ( we had 4), these were stored under the open frame bed, but again this would prevent a hoists feet from going under the bed.

We ended up not using the hoist and having to physically lift my son from bed to chair, bathroom to chair which is a real safety issue for us and him." ( https://www.cruisecritic.co.uk/membe...EntryID=544475)

I was wondering if other wheelchair users has found the cabin to be too small. There will be 3 of us in the cabin with a hoist and wheelchair.

Thank you for any information given :)

I wish Blackpool was like CocoCay as I'd go every weekend if it was ;D.

With or without the donkeys :D

I was once told by a UK TA that RC releases new cruises in stages by region.

Firstly; RC releases cruises departing from the US.

Secondly; RC releases cruises departing from Europe, roughly 2 weeks after the cruises departing from the US .

As for cruises departing from other ports the TA had no idea.

Is there any truth in this statement?

Too bad hand sanitizers are ineffective (or at least insufficiency effective) against the main thing one would generally be concerned about on a cruise ship (norovirus).

Are sanitises ineffective against norovirus? Or is it because some paxs still refuse to wash their hands or use the sanitises?

Would you guys say it's really stupid to chase points? Meaning book a longer cruise just so you get the points for an upgrade or book a suite just to get more points to move up? Are there tiers really that important? I find myself sometimes doing that, looking at ways to increase points and then I snap out of it like who cares.

I think it all depends on what you want. As we can normally only sail out of Southampton our only real goal was to reach Diamond, which we did with the aid of booking a JS once. Now our goal is to try and not do the same cruises every year. If we do the Baltic on year we do the Med the next.

Respectfully disagree in regards to your statement "that people with disabilities should be prioritized in transportation, in restaurants, comfort rooms elevator and crowded places where they need to go. Even in cruises".and BTW I am disabled. Being disabled is not to be confused with a sense of entitlement as what that statement implies. As far as disabled people should be treated nicely ... everyone should be treated nicely regardless of having a disability or not.

It is a pity more people don't share your view. I'm not disabled but my DS is. He has been confined to a wheelchair for 25 years. What we are finding, on recent cruises, is that some scooter users seem to think they should have priority over us. I am not sure if they think they should have priority because my DS is young (he is 28 but looks younger) or if it is because he is in a manual wheelchair which needs to be pushed.

While I understand where the OP comments are coming from. I can also understand why able bodied pax push into lifts ahead of scooter. On several occasions I witness a scooter user drive into a lift, then turn 90 degrees so that no one else can get into the lift.

You could stay in a junior suite on the 12 night and get double points!

We did this once to get to Diamond quicker :D

I am not a fan of loud people of any age -- and I have been disrupted by kids (and adults). I have been in elevators where kids think it funny to hit all the buttons

We never cruise during school hols and the above comment sums up our experience beautiful.

Our last Cruise on Independence May28th 2018 out of Southampton there was over 600 top tier member's but they did open Olive&Twist lounge as a DL overflow.

It was also school holidays in the UK, they had 1 week off. We were on the Indy 20th May 2018, 8 Night Norwegian Fjords and there was only about 400 Diamond and above

We cruised on Indy in May for 8 nights, after refit. We were in a cabin over looking the Royal Prom. We did not see any teenagers running riot nor did we see or hear any rowdy adults. The problems we had were: 1 sea day we could not get a table for lunch in the Windjammer; We could not get the wheelchair up to the mini golf course, as there was only stairs upto the golf course. We would book the Indy again, once they put a lift upto the golf course.

Sorry you feel you had a bad experience. Please don't let that colour your view of RCI. The newer ships are better. As bad as the dust on the phone cord was it you could have found something much worst. We were on the Indy in May and found medication packets on the floor between the bedside cabinet and the wall.

Thank you for a balanced review.:*

Why don't you use MTD but have set meal times? For example Sea days eat at 18.00; Port day eat at 19.00. This way the whole family know what time dinner is.

I'm not sure that is true as all Paxs had to rotate to each of the 4 restaurants.

When we cruised on the Anthem in July 2015 we were allowed to drop out of DD and just eat in Silk. Not sure if we were just lucky or it was because we were in a JS.

I know many US citizens that tip at the start of a cruise as they say it ensures good service, I do not and I get good service. I suggest people do as they please when it comes to the tipping, whatever works for them.

We have noticed this happening more and more in RCI Diamond Lounge during Happy Hour. At first it did not effect the service we got. However on our last cruise on Indy in May if we wanted a drink we had to go to the bar ourselves. The only time the waiters came to us was when the Hour was nearly up and the Diamond Lounge was mainly empty.

Thank you very much to the people who wrote back. This was very helpful. I spoke to the daughter of the elderly lady I was asking about. Based of the difficulties she will have, they have decided to either stay on the ship at these ports of call or else get off the ship and stay close by. My cabin mate and I will go on the shore excursions by ourselves. I really appreciate the time you took to give me this information.

Here is info for the accessible shore excursion department: shorexAccess@rccl.com. There are often accessible shore excursions that are not offered on the regular shore excursion list.

My son is confined to a wheelchair and we always book excursions. We normally email shorexAccess@rccl.com about 3 months before we sail, as this gives us time to consider the tours they and research if we could do them independently.

Flam can be a tender port depending how many ships are there that day! Only 1 ship can dock the otherrs tender.

When docked at Flam, the town centre is about a 2min walk from the bottom of the gangplank.

http://www.mobilityatsea.co.uk/ rent scooters in the UK. According to their website they have a suitcase type scooterhttp://www.mobilityatsea.co.uk/stowaway-morphic. We always hire a hoist from Mobility at Sea when we cruise and we have found the company to be reliable.

We always cruise around Europe and I agree with the above comment. We have found that Norway and Sweden are mainly wheelchair friendly also.

 

 

Not sure which cities poster is referring to as we have not found this.

Forgot to mention DS is confined to a manual wheelchair and I mainly do the pushing. The reason I am mentioning this is because we actively avoid places that are not wheelchair friendly.:D