cruisinagain1960

18 hours ago, Schoifmom said:

Which ship, please?  Oops, you certainly mean the Sunshine 🙂

 

This is NOT an accessible cabin, although I can tell you from experience that there ARE fully accessible cabins on the Sunshine.  There just may not be any available for your cruise.

 

EDIT:  Looking at the accessibility charts, it appears that all of the previously designated accessible cabins have been converted to AA cabins 😞  You also might want to think through keeping your cabin.  It it right underneath the Liquid Lounge (super noisy).

 

 

If there are no FAC's, I'm actually rethinking the entire cruise - how does Carnival get away with not having any FAC's?  This is horribly frustrating - we love sailing out of Carnival (it's our home port), but we need a cabin with a wider entry door...Taking apart my scooter every time I want to come in to the room, is going to be darned frustrating.

And thanks for the heads up on room location - they use the Liquid Lounge late at night as a nightclub, right?

Sorry - the Sunshine

We are booked in cabin 3102 for January 2021 - trying to find out if this cabin has the wider entry door as well.  The information on Carnival's website seem to indicate that there are NO fully accessible cabins on this ship - every list of door width I've been able to find shows 22" entry doors - we need a wider entry  door as my scooter is wider.  

We've also looked at 7105 and 7106 - these are corner cabins with a view to the outside walkway - again, they show on the site as AAC, nor FAC.

Anyone have any input?

On 8/8/2019 at 3:38 AM, ed01106 said:

IMHO, the cruiser is NOT at fault.  The travel agent bears 100% responsible for this.

 

The travel agent is being paid to be an expert on these things, not some forum on the internet.

 

Blaming the traveler in this case, is the equivalent of blaming a patient for following faulty advice from their doctor rather than listening to what some random folks said on the internet.

 

 

I agree with you to a point, but this person didn't have to take advice from "some random folks" on the internet - they could have gone right to CCL's website to verify what documentation they needed to cruise.  It's listed on there very clearly.  People also need to take responsibility for themselves.  

On 8/28/2019 at 11:58 PM, Stick93 said:

The video is informative but doesn’t show the 3900 passengers navigating the narrow and congested areas. It also doesn’t have the rude and disgusting behavior that I and others have witnesses.  It’s different to watch this than to live on it for 8 days. 

 

 

I can certainly understand that the behavior you witnessed would make a huge impact on your overall thoughts on the ship and i am so sorry you had to deal with that on your vacation.  I don't know that I would want to sail on a ship that crowded myself.  Add to that rude passengers, and it would be a no-go.  I do wonder if that issue might be different sailing from a different port.  We'e never sailed out of NYC and after reading your review, I'm not sure I would in the future

We were on the Carnival Miracle in March and our cabin had an automatic door.

On 8/17/2019 at 1:56 PM, Essiesmom said:

Celebrity M class all have the bed by the bath.  No alternation of bed placement.  

 

 

 

 

Unless they have added outlets with the 'revolution' all are by the balcony wall.  EM

We were on the Summit in June and even my travel companions standard scooter would not have fit in the cabin without blocking the bathroom door - it was an extremely small cabin and the "sofa" was next to the verandah with not enough room at the bottom of the bed to get the scooter over to that side of the cabin.

31 minutes ago, soremekun said:

Please let us know why you think Grandeur may be the next ship added.  It would be amazing if someone had their release schedule. 

I have no idea when Grandeur is going to be added - we had the app on the Summit when we sailed in June and it's more blind hope that Grandeur might be added before we sail - I highly doubt it though...

We cruise with 2 scooters - my cruise partner's scooter is narrow enough to fit in the cabin, but mine is about 1/2 an inch too wide to fit in a standard cabin.  Therefore, we are left with no alternative but to book a handicapped cabin.  We would do the ambulatory accessible as we don't need the roll in bathroom as the reduce step height is manageable, but they still have a standard door on them.  We have been very lucky on our last few cruises that our room stewards gave us permission to park in the elevator lobby (in a corner out of the way) and then we try to either find somewhere on board to charge (we only need to recharge every 2 or 3 days, generally), or on our most recent Celebrity cruise, the steward actually took the scooters and charged them for us and returned them to the elevator lobby early the next morning.  

A large part of the problem is that every time a new ship launches or an existing ship in the fleet is refurbed, the cruise lines have to create more cabins, thus making the cabins that are already on the ship smaller.  We were in a verandah cabin on the Summit in June and one scooter in that cabin would have been a nightmare to get around and there was no way two would have fit (even if mine would have fit through the door).

However, with the ambulatory accessible cabins that Carnival Corp offers on their lines, if they would just widen the entry door a couple of inches, that would help tremendously : ))

I'm beginning to think Grandeur is going to be the last ship to be added to the app  ; ))   I'm stalking and checking for updates daily - we sail on 10/3.

With Carnival, you can use the gift cards for anything they sell, you are not limited to using them for the cruise fare, as RCCL does ; ))

We just changed our 11/20 from FLL to 4/9/21 on the Constellation - got a great deal and all the perks we originally booked.  Cruise price is actually about $500 less p/p and we prefer to sail out of Tampa because of the valet parking : ))

We are looking at the Eastern Caribbean sailing in April 2021 - I'm waiting to hear back from my t/a on whether I would lose any of my perks or obc from our November 2020 sailing.

1 minute ago, riredsox said:

Same here!  Booked Reflection for Nov 2 but would love to sail from Tampa as it is 1/2 hour from our house.  Will have to check prices and make sure we can keep our perks as we booked onboard our last cruise.  

that's the sailing we're currently booked on!!

I'm really excited for these sailings - we are currently booked on Reflection in November of 2020 to the ABCs.  But we would much prefer to sail out of Tampa.

I'm stalking the page now for the itineraries to be loaded so I can what the potential price difference would be, then we'll make a decision.

On 7/23/2019 at 10:45 AM, Benthayer Gonbak said:

Cruisingagain1960,

 

Is the Sunshine a newer ship?  The older ships, eg RCL, could not adapt their door widths so they warn you that the doors are relatively narrow.  

 

As for the Summit, we had trouble getting 2 rollators in a handicap verandah.  At least where a scooter is most likely placed,.  

 

Fairly recently we were on a Celebrity president’s cruise where someone asked if the newer ships would have more accessible cabins.  We were told that they average 5% vacancy and thus there seems to be no reason to add more, atm.  If that includes the rest of the world that may be possible but I haven’t experienced it their either.   I think the a missing that they cannot count those that don’t book because they cannot function in a non handicapped room!   The feeling seems to be with more ships more rooms were becoming available.  So far I haven’t found that to be true, which is why I think there is a undercounting of need.  

 

My mobility is deteriorating, so my option to deal with” non accessible” rooms is becoming less too.  No more than 7 days!  And then I need handrails more and more, and a bench shower! 

 

 

 

 

I think you hit the nail on the head with your observation about the percentage of rooms.  I can't tell you how many times, we've decided not to cruise a particular ship or itinerary simply because there were no handicapped accessible cabins available.  I understand that the more cabins they can cram on the ship, the more money they can make, but at the very least put some wider cabin doors on some of these larger cabins.  We don't have to have a handicapped accessible bathroom (it's nice to have to the extra grab bars, hand holds and larger shower), but we do need the wider door to at least get the scooters in the room...

On 7/23/2019 at 12:44 PM, Benthayer Gonbak said:

 

I’ve tried that when tables and carts were left in inconvenient locations by the crew, and overnight.  Normally 3 days later they are back!    The scooters in lobbies that I’ve seen are more out of the way than I could have imagined they could be!  

 

Neither of these justifies blocking escape escape routes especially when lives depend upon them being available.  And yes I’ve not been able to pass a scooter left in the hall while trying to reach an accessible room farther down the hall!  

Agreed, and I would never park somewhere that could impeded anyone from evacuating the ship in the event of an emergency.  So I would NEVER park in a hallway, etc.  

My post was based on what I've personally experienced.  Everything is subject to change at any time : ))

I think your Clark leather sandals will be fine in the MDR.  I have a pair of leather thong-type sandals and I've worn them in the MDR on numerous occasions with no issues.

Thanks for the information - we've sailed out of Charleston on the Ecstasy several times, so it's good to know the process has changed : ))

On 7/19/2019 at 5:33 PM, midcarolina said:

http://www.scspa.com/cruise-prepay-parking/

 

 

Follow link to South Carolina state ports authority.....I am sure they can help.

I second this - the administrator of the parking area is EXTREMELY helpful and will answer any questions very quickly : ))

Is there one cruise line or ship that is more "handicapped friendly" with regard to mobility issues?

So, this is my experience on Carnival and Celebrity.  When we cruised on the Carnival Ecstasy with one scooter, we had a standard cabin and we were traveling with a scooter and rollator, neither of which fit easily through the door of the cabin.  Our cabin was right across from the elevator lobby and our room steward told us it would be fine to park both the rollator and the scooter in a corner of the elevator lobby - away from foot traffic and from the fire doors.  When we needed to charge the scooter, we simply found a couple of places where we could sit and work while the scooter charged.

On the Celebrity Summit in June, we were traveling with two scooters and were in a Verandah room.  We were advised by customer service that the door width on our cabin was 28", that was not true (I suspect the door to the verandah was 28").  The way the cabin was set up, there was no way to even get one scooter in the room without blocking the bathroom.  Again, we spoke with the cabin steward once we realized the scooters were not going to fit in the cabin, he told us it was perfectly fine to park in the elevator lobby at night (basically the only time we were in our cabin, except to change for dinner).  He also let us know to call Guest Services when the scooters needed charging and they would come get them and bring them back in the morning.  We would call and within 5 minutes they were there to take the scooters and they were back in the parking spots by 6:30 am in the next morning.

I realize not all ships will accommodate like this and I'm frankly quite concerned about a cruise we have booked in January of 2021 on the Carnival Sunshine.  The Sunshine does not have any fully-accessible cabins with 32" doors.  They only have ambulatory accessible cabins with standard 23" doors.  I do not believe my scooter will fit through that door.  The scooter is 22.25" wide at the base (I have the arm rests taken off, so the base should be the widest point).  Even though we are booked in an AAC, which will have room for both scooters, I don't think I can get mine through the door.  We specifically chose a cabin location that had alcoves near the cabin that we may be able to park at least the wider scooter in and be out of anyone's way, but if Carnival decides to actively enforce their rules about parking outside the room, we will have a problem.  

We do always try to book handicapped accessible cabins, but even booking a year or more out, they can be tough to find.  I have to wonder if the Sunshine have ZERO fully accessible cabins isn't a violation of the ADA.  And upon doing a Google search it looks like they paid a DOJ settlement for not having adequate accessibility onboard their ships.

We should NOT have to book a Suite or a higher class of room just to have a wider door.

On 6/14/2019 at 6:30 AM, depplep said:

Looking forward to your review. We are doing the 7nt in October. Do you have any excursions planned?

We are doing the 9 night that leaves on the 3rd of October - I'm really looking forward to it ; ))

13 hours ago, coevan said:

 

 

I have eaten at many fine dining establishments that serve herb and various flavored butters in open bowls. I find nothing disgusting about it, not like they reuse it.

The problem is that the herb and flavored butters in open bowls you are served in a fine dining establishment have not had up to 3000 different knives, spoons, forks in them or unknown origin.

This is good to know - the list I had with door widths showed all the AAC's as having standard width doors.  It must be out of date : ))