Wheelchair lift into pool?.....

[Luv4dacruise]

I am cruising with my mother on the Jewel of the Seas in September and was going through the threads and read something about a wheelchair lift into a pool?......Have only really cruised on older ships (pre-millennium) and have never heard of such a thing. Can anyone tell me if the Jewel has one of these, and are they easy tu use?.......Or if you need to get a pool attendent to help you with it?.......Any other handicapped knowledge on the Jewel would be greatly appreciated too, Thx:)

[sanspike]

I have never used the one on Jewel, but all RCCL ships seem to have the same one. Can't say the same for Carnival. Anyway I have used one similar and they are very easy. You will need someone around the pool to set it up. All you have to be able to do is transfers from your chair to the lift seat and they will lower you into the pool. When you are ready to get out you will set back in the seat in the pool and they will lift you out and you will transfer back to your chair.

 

Sanspike

[Luv4dacruise]

Thx Sanspike :)

[montgomeryfamily]

I just want to alert you to two potential problems. Sometimes the lifts are out of service with some type of mechanical problem. So although they are usually avaiable, sometimes they are not. Secondly, we found that often when you went to the pool area, there wasn't someone there who knew how to operate the lifts. They had to call someone else and you had to wait until they showed up.

 

So if you go down to the pool expecting to be able to immediatly go in, it might not be the case. You might want to call the purser's desk and try to make an arrangement that someone be there at a specific time who can operate the lift--maybe 30 minutes or so before you are planning to go. We called before we changed and by the time we were ready, usually someone was there, but even then, we've had to call again sometimes.

[kyriecat]

I don't know about Jewel, but Rhapsody last year only had a lift for the main pool. There was not one for the Solarium (adults only) pool. My mom was not comfortable being in the main pool because there were so many children splashing.

[montgomeryfamily]

We've never been on the Jewel either, but we have noticed the same thing on the RCI ships that we have been on (both voyager class and the smaller ships) that kyriecat observed--there is only one lift and it is on the main pool.

[JOJOHD]

So if you could post what you thought of the accomodations I would very much appreciate! From others on this board it seems like that ship is wonderfully accessible- When we were on the Mariner last year we contacted some pool staff and someone was there in 5 minutes to get the pool lift going. I can't say enough about the service we had on the Mariner. I am hoping the Jewel lives up to their standards! Take care and have a wonderful time!!!

[Judie]

In Jan '05 we asked one of the RCCL pool staff how we would go about using the pool lift, and she said, "I don't think it is working." I asked to speak to someone who would know when it would be available. Another staffer, I think from maintenance, came to the pool within minutes to talk to us. It turned out the arm had been removed to prevent kids playing with it and damaging it. He was very nice and said we could page him anytime during the day or evening and he would be glad to come to the pool to activate the lift. We have had similar experiences on various RCCL cruises.