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Looking for advice on scooter rental


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I used Care Vacations/Cruise Ship Assist to rent a wheelchair for my mom's cruise this past January... the chair was on board (Norwegian Gem) when she got there and she just left it in her room when she disembarked. It was about $200 for the 10 days. Pricey, yes, but it made me feel better knowing that she had a "lift" if she needed it. I don't know if I can post links, but you can Google the website!

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I've used Care Vacations as well. HAL recommends Care Vacations http://carevacations.com/ or Special Needs at Sea http://www.specialneedsatsea.com/ they both deliver to the ships. So no hassles!!

You can contact Princess to find out who they recommend if there are other companies.

Hope this helps!

Laura

Edited by bermuda triangle
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Ken, I used Care Vacations last February for a scooter rental. It was waiting for my cabin on Ruby Princess and worked very well. We couldn't have been happier with our experience and it was priceless! I couldn't have gone on that cruise without it.

 

Princess needs to be informed of this rental and they can advise you of the exact width of your cabin door which you will want to make sure is compatible with the width of the scooter you select.

 

This link on Princess' website will give you all of the info that you need and links to Care Vacations as well as another company. http://www.princess.com/learn/faq_answer/pre_cruise/prepare.jsp

 

We didn't have any problem keeping the scooter in our cabin once we put the chair in the closet which worked out well for me while dressing too. The power cord had plenty of length to reach the electrical outlet on the desk for re-charging at night.

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I've used Care Vacations as well. HAL recommends Care Vacations http://carevacations.com/ or Special Needs at Sea http://www.specialneedsatsea.com/ they both deliver to the ships. So no hassles!!

You can contact Princess to find out who they recommend if there are other companies.

Hope this helps!

Laura

 

I've used both these companies. Both are recommended by Princess. Call both of them and compare price. Care Vacations recently had a sale but still wasn't quite as low as Special Needs at Sea.

 

An electric scooter will not fit through the door of most cabins, and you can not park it in the hall so I hope you have a handicap accessible cabin. If you follow the suggestion to call Princess for the door width, remember that is from side to side of the doorway. You need to subtract about 2 inches for the space taken up by the door.

An alternative (although not as good) is to rent a manual wheelchair which can be folded up and brought into the room.

 

If you do get the scooter into the room and the cord is too short, you can ask the steward for an extension cord.

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Our upcoming cruise in two weeks will be the fourth time (third on Princess) that DW has used specialneedsatsea. I'm adding my voice to those who say that unless you have reserved a handicapped accessible cabin, check with Princess to determine whether the scooter you are renting will fit through the door of a regular cabin. Princess does not allow scooters, wheelchairs, etc. to be stored in hallways, near elevators, and so forth. It would create a safety hazard to other passengers.

 

Should you be thinking of using a supply company other than the two mentioned in the thread, you MUST contact Princess. They have a list of allowed vendors, and will not permit any other vendor access to the ship for security reasons.

 

Shalom. Andy

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Hi Ken,

 

DW uses a scooter and when we don't take hers, it's a pain to fly with, we rent from either one of the vendors mentioned with great results. To beat on the drum, PLEASE contact your cruise line's special needs department for a handicapped room as well as letting them know there will be a scooter delivered to the cabin.

 

Another tip, if I may. If you board before cabin access is permitted, ask the stewards if you can go to the cabin JUST to retrieve the scooter. And please just do that as they are probably not done cleaning, but they may appreciate the room you make by removing the scooter.

 

We could not cruise, at least the wife couldn't, without the help of a scooter. Enjoy your cruise

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If you can drive to the port, bring one from home. Renting is expensive. You can buy used ones in newspapers/garage sales/estate sales/online/etc.

 

Getting to your cabin to pickup a rented mobility scooter is a problem. You will wait in line for a wheel chair. Then be dumped on the ship and may not be allowed into your cabin for more than an hour. Then you have to walk to your cabin, carrying your carry on luggage.

 

I bring my own power chair & hang my CPAP on the back of it.

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Can you give me some sources to contact for scooter/power chair rentals?? Some of these companies can be very pricy! I would appreciate your opinions.

 

Thanks. Ken Lanier:)

 

Both CareVacations http://www.carevacations.com/cruiseshipassist/ and Special Needs at Sea http://www.specialneedsatsea.com/ are widely used . They offer similar but yet different equipment. So it's important that when comparing rental costs that you are comparing apples to apples.

 

Personally I prefer CareVacations because I'm able to rent the same exact scooter that I own .... the Midsize Pride Go Go Elite Traveler HD. This scooter easily breaks down to be packed into a trunk of a car. So it makes it very easy when I want to rent a taxi at port .... it's doesn't require an accessible taxi which is often impossible to get at the ports.

 

Also I usually fly a day before and CareVacations will deliver it to the hotel. This way I can ride the scooter onto the ship the next day and don't have to be stressed out waiting to get into my cabin to see if it has been delivered. Since I will be making my own arrangements to take it to the port the next day, CareVacations generally gives me the extra day at no charge. Here's a video to show how the scooter in question breaks down to fit into a car.

 

http://www.pridemobility.com/gogo/video/gogo_Elite_disassembly.html

Edited by xxoocruiser
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  • 1 month later...
Can anyone tell me how far in advance they have reserved a scooter from the mentioned vendors? We are going out of Bayonne, NJ on the Explorer in November 2011.

 

 

Thanks

Donna

 

I just rented scooter from Special Needs last week for Dec. 3rd cruise.

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Getting to your cabin to pickup a rented mobility scooter is a problem. You will wait in line for a wheel chair. Then be dumped on the ship and may not be allowed into your cabin for more than an hour. Then you have to walk to your cabin, carrying your carry on luggage.

 

I bring my own power chair & hang my CPAP on the back of it.

 

In my experience, Princess has always been very good at providing wheel chair assistance from the time we arrive at the boarding area, going through the registration process, getting on the ship and to our cabin.

 

Princess has the cabins ready when boarding starts.

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In my experience, Princess has always been very good at providing wheel chair assistance from the time we arrive at the boarding area, going through the registration process, getting on the ship and to our cabin.

 

Princess has the cabins ready when boarding starts.

 

Out of 11 boardings I've had problems twice, with wheelchair assistance, the first time in Vancouver, I ended up wheeling myself from the taxi to my cabin, the second time, just this past week-end, in Seattle, I sat at the start of the gangplank, just about begging for a crew member to push me up a fairly steep gangway, and on to my cabin.

Cato

 

 

Completed Cruises !

 

1st cruise - Coral Princess, 19 November 2008, 10 day Panama Canal, FLL to ACA

2nd cruise - Coral Princess, 15 May 2009, 3 day Repositioning, Los Angeles to Vancouver.

3rd cruise - Sapphire Princess, 25 November 2009? 7 day Mexican Riviera.

4th cruise - Golden Princes, 12 June 2010, 7 day Alaska. (Golden Anniversary Cruise)

5th Cruise - Island Princess, 04 October 2010, Vancouver - Los Angeles, Repositioning

6th cruise - Sapphire Princess, 05 January 2011, 10 day Mexican Riviera. LA to LA.

7th cruise - Golden Princess, 11 May 2011, 3 day, LA to Vancouver, Repositioning

8th cruise - Sapphire Princess, 14 May 2011, 1 day, Vancouver to Seattle, Repositioning

9th cruise - Coral Princess 19 May 2011 2 day, San Francisco to Vancouver, Repositioning

10th & 11th cruises - Coral Princess 02 July to 16 July 2011, round trip Vancouver - Whittier Alaska, B2B

12th & 13th cruises - Sapphire Princess, x2, Cabins, 18 Sep. 2011, 1 day, Seattle to Vancouver, Repositioning

 

 

Future & Hopeful Cruises !

( Already booked )

 

14th & 15th cruises - Golden Princess, x2, Cabins, 24 Sep. 2011, 1 day, Seattle to Vancouver, Repositioning.

16th cruise - Oasis of the Seas, 26 Nov. 2011, 7 day, Western Caribbean, Ft. Lauderdale, Ret.

17th & 18th cruises - Crown Princess B2B, 03 - 10 Dec & 10 - 17 Dec 2011, 14 Days, South & western Caribbean

 

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We are sailing Dec. 12 and just booked through Care Vacations. They recommended 4-6 weeks.

 

I know a lot of people have said Special Needs at Sea was cheaper but when I inquired they were the same price. I chose Care Vacations because of the customer service I received. They were pleasant and answered all my questions. Emailing the documents went smoothly. I won't know until Dec if they live up to my expectations. On the other hand,

 

The person at Special Needs acted like all he wanted to do was get me off the phone. He answered my questions about the scooter by saying, you will know the type when you see it. When asked if it would be fully charged he said maybe, maybe not. This attitude turned me off and I hung up.

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  • 1 year later...
Since I will be making my own arrangements to take it to the port the next day...

 

Don't know if you're still around this forum or whether someone else might like to pipe in here...

:confused:

How do you transport your own wheelchair/scooter from the airport to the cruise ship??? Many thanks!

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Don't know if you're still around this forum or whether someone else might like to pipe in here...

:confused:

How do you transport your own wheelchair/scooter from the airport to the cruise ship??? Many thanks!

 

 

If it's a USA Airport you can normally just ask at the Taxi stand for them to call for an wheelchair accessible taxi. If it's an international airport you'll most likely have pre-arrange for a a private wheekchair accessible van.

 

I have a Pride Go Go scooter which breaks down into 4 parts and very easily fits into the trunk of a car and generally do not require a wheelchair accessible taxi.

Edited by xxoocruiser
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Don't know if you're still around this forum or whether someone else might like to pipe in here...

:confused:

How do you transport your own wheelchair/scooter from the airport to the cruise ship??? Many thanks!

 

With my husbands power chair, we have a Braun lift installed in our van...We usually cruise out of ports we can drive to...so much easier.

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  • 3 years later...
Hi Ken,

 

DW uses a scooter and when we don't take hers, it's a pain to fly with, we rent from either one of the vendors mentioned with great results. To beat on the drum, PLEASE contact your cruise line's special needs department for a handicapped room as well as letting them know there will be a scooter delivered to the cabin.

 

Another tip, if I may. If you board before cabin access is permitted, ask the stewards if you can go to the cabin JUST to retrieve the scooter. And please just do that as they are probably not done cleaning, but they may appreciate the room you make by removing the scooter.

 

We could not cruise, at least the wife couldn't, without the help of a scooter. Enjoy your cruise

 

I know your comment was many years ago but I am wondering how my husband is going to get from the check in area up to the cabin. We are going on Princess. Can an attendant bring him up with the ship wheelchair? Thanks.

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I know your comment was many years ago but I am wondering how my husband is going to get from the check in area up to the cabin. We are going on Princess. Can an attendant bring him up with the ship wheelchair? Thanks.

 

The cruise line provides wheelchair assistance on embarkation day and disembarkation day. After entering the port terminal look for a cruise line representative and request that you need wheelchair assistance to board. Assistance is on a first come first served basis The attendant is only allowed to take you to a public area of the ship and not directly to the cabin. Someone traveling with you can than go retrieve the scooter from the cabin but know that though the rental agreement states that it will be delivered by 2:00 PM that does not always happened. Reason being that ship's supplies get loaded first and than the scooters.

 

On disembarkation day the location for wheelchair assistance will be printed in the daily news letter left in you cabin the night before. The scooter is to be left in the cabin.

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I know your comment was many years ago but I am wondering how my husband is going to get from the check in area up to the cabin. We are going on Princess. Can an attendant bring him up with the ship wheelchair? Thanks.

 

My wife has always been pushed thru check in and to our cabin. Not always by the same person. Last time was last November.

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