Millinium Tours in Europe for handicapped

[jandiart]

We will be going on the Millinium on September 19th. Our cruise is from Barcelona to Venice and includes the Greek Islands. My husband uses a scooter to get around to to nerve problems in one of his legs that colapses without warning. He can walk and sometimes uses a walker with a seat. I am looking for suggestions for tours to take with him. Can he bring the scooter to the Vatican and Sistine Chapel? Do the buses have luggage compartments under the buses to hold the scooter? Are there bathrooms on board the buses. Some tours look like they have long driving times between the port and the sites. Please give me any hints that you have so that we can enjoy this cruise. Thanks, Jacki:)

[kitty9]

Unfortunately, the Sistine Chapel isn't handicapped accessible. I was there two years ago and you have to climb down quite a few stairs to access the Chapel and the stairs were very steep made of concrete. For St. Peter's, there is a "ramp" but every time I've been there (5), the ramp has always been chained locked and I could never find anyone who would open it up so I could access it. I would suggest finding a local company and taking a private tour rather than using the bus. Some buses have bathrooms and some do not, it's just the luck of the draw. The buses do have luggage compartments to store the scooter. The drive from the port to the center of both Florence and Rome can be as long as 2 hours, depending on traffic.

[dbertell]

My wife (who is in a regular wheelchair) took the Millennium cruise you mentioned (though from Venice to Barcelona) in 2004 and had a wonderful time. We had just the opposite experience from the previous poster. We were able to visit all of the Sistine Chapel and the Vatican Museum we wanted. At times you just had to ask and people were very helpful. There is a lift that takes you down to the Sistine Chapel. It kinda operates like a Rube Goldberg invention, but also looks like its been there for many years. It takes about a minute to have it lift the chair up the 8-10 stairs, but does it with no problem. We had visited the Vatican Museum with another couple and did most of it before heading to the Sistine Chapel. The main way out was from the Chapel, but we took the lift back into the Museum after that. There are plenty of elevators around (some you have to ask about....learn how to say elevator in Italian), some are freight elevators, but we had no problem. There is also a handicapped bathroom on the ground floor that looks like a janitors closet with no markings (we asked and were showed in), it wasn't even locked. We could never get confirmation on whether there would be handicapped transportation to Rome, so we arranged on our own with another couple we met online here. He picked us up at Civitavecchia promptly, drove us into Rome, took us wherever we wanted on our schedule, took us for lunch where his family eats (lovely!) and back to the ship at the end of the day. I couldn't recommend Limoinrome higher. We contacted Claudio beforehand several times and the day of the cruise, one of his drivers, Angelino picked us up in his sparkling Mercedes. In Rome we visited some piazzas I'm not sure cars were even allowed in. And Angelino was very friendly, talkative without being overbearing, and answered all our questions.

 

We arranged the same kind of thing with Spiros Tours in Athens, was great for the day. Also if you contact Celebrity special needs department, they can provide FREE OF CHARGE handicapped transfers from the airports in Barcelona and Venice. We thought to ask and they said no problem. Got the name of the lady who said that, had her put it in writing just in case, but really didn't need it. Had to wait a bit at the Venice airport (but I know how it is in Italy, I'm half italian, they get there when they get there), but in Barcelona we were one of the first at the airport with a handicapped VW type Minibus (loading from the rear up a ramp).

 

Sorry for the length, but we were lucky enough to get lots of help for our cruise before we went (our first long one with my wife in a chair).

 

Dan & Linda Bertellotti

Foster City, Ca.

[kitty9]

Boy, I wish I had known about the elevators in the Sistine Chapel when I was there. No one, even though they saw me struggling with my canes on the stairways, offered me the opportunity to use any lifts. When I go back to Rome, I will be sure to ask about the lifts and not struggle with those nasty stairs.