Dialysis at Sea - RCI

[hollihedge]

Hi all

 

Does anyone have any experience of having dialysis at sea on board any of the RCI ships? We are shortly taking my Dad on a New England and Canada cruise and he will be having his HD on board.

 

Many thanks,

Gill

[cb at sea]

If you'll go to the "cruising with disability" forums, there are many discussions for dialysis at sea!

[hollihedge]

Thank you

[Clarea]

Hi all

 

Does anyone have any experience of having dialysis at sea on board any of the RCI ships? We are shortly taking my Dad on a New England and Canada cruise and he will be having his HD on board.

 

Many thanks,

Gill

Also try contacting the Special Needs department at [noparse]special_needs@rccl.com[/noparse].

[pharaoh]

My mom will be using Dialysis at Sea for our Allure cruise in November. If your sailing is before that, please come back and tell us how it went!

[CaptData]

He is using HD Home Dialysis not Dialysis At Sea which is like going to your local unit for treatment.

 

Home dialysis is the box with a ton of supplies that you must bring yourself. They need to contact Special Services department and get everything set up themselves.

 

I'm going with Dialysis At sea May 2016. So Since you are going first I would like a report back on how it went. Thank you.

[hollihedge]

Thanks all. We sail on 7 Oct on Serenade of the Seas so I will definitely report back how it went. Dad is having haemodialysis on board via Dialysis at Sea (via a UK travel agent). I am hoping everything will go OK.

[karmacats]

Hi all

 

Does anyone have any experience of having dialysis at sea on board any of the RCI ships? We are shortly taking my Dad on a New England and Canada cruise and he will be having his HD on board.

 

Many thanks,

Gill

 

Just did a dialysis at sea cruise with my mom on Liberty OTS on Aug 8. it was great. she was soooo thrilled to be able to cruise, and the experience was seamless.

 

on the first day there was a short (maybe 20 min) orientation meeting in one of the conference rooms after sailaway, which families/traveling companions were also invited to attend. there we met the nephrologist and the 3 dialysis nurses; all of the nurses worked at various davita clinics, and my mom also attends a davita clinic at home, so she felt confident they would be good, which they did turn out to be. one of the nurses had something like 20 or 25 years of experience, and had done dialysis at sea cruises a number of times.

 

after the meeting, they took us as a group to the medical center to see where the dialysis would be, and because if you're in the super-early session the med center technically isn't open yet so they wanted to show us the side door the early folks would have to use. the med center itself is right off of the rear elevators, so very easy to get to (i can't remember which floor, but way down near the bottom, maybe even floor 1). the dialysis itself was done in beds, with two beds in each room. each bed had pillows, blankets, etc - my mom usually brings her own blanket but didn't need it on the ship. on liberty the rooms had tvs, but i don't know about all of the ships; also, the tv in my mom's room was broken, which was pretty much her only complaint, though she had the 6 a.m. session so she mostly slept anyway. she said the dialysis sessions went very smoothly, and to be honest she often has a lot of trouble at home (very low bp etc), so i was glad to hear it.

 

my mom loved it so much we booked another cruise with her while we were onboard (we had taken a list of the 2016 dialysis at sea cruises with us). we were able to book it onboard and get her the onboard booking benefits (on-board credit and lower deposit), list dialysis at sea as her travel agent, and then contact dialysis at sea once we got home to get their price and pay their bigger deposit.

 

on both cruises (the one last month and the one we're doing next year) we found the dialysis at sea price to be about $1000 more than royal's, plus $650 per dialysis session. just a heads up that they bill for a minimum of 3 sessions, so $1950, even if you're on a short cruise with only 2 sessions - probably won't affect the OP since you're on a longer cruise, but in case anyone reading this is considering a short cruise, i wanted to mention it. i found the person i spoke to most often at dialysis at sea (brandie) was very open about the pricing, so even though it was high, and i was kind of annoyed about paying for 3 sessions when we only got 2, nothing was a surprise. she said they had to make bringing on the machines, maintenance, etc worth it, and just didn't recoup the costs unless they charged for a minimum of 3 sessions, so we dealt with it. :)

 

from what i understand (and this is from talking to a dialysis nurse i was chatting with in a hot tub years ago, so not straight from dialysis at sea) the extra fare you pay goes to paying for the fare for the nephrologist and dialysis nurses. so the drs and nurses basically get a free cruise in exchange for working every other day, which is how they entice them to work on vacation. :)

 

all in all, we were very pleased with the whole process, my mom thought it was great, and as i stated we're doing it again next year, this time on a longer cruise. :) if you have any particular questions, just let me know!

[kimala]

Hubby and I were on the Freedom of the seas about two years ago. There was a LARGE group of bikers about 2000 who were on our cruise over Halloween. They do this every year and they raise money for dialysis. They also bring the machines and I believe Drs who operate them on board. The charity pays for the cruise fare for several dialysis patients who otherwise could not afford a vacation. Here is a link I was able to find ,

 

http://debbiesdialysisfund.org

 

They are called the High Seas Rally. Really a nice group of people. They are probably booked for this year but If you contact them now you may be able to reserve something for next year.

 

God bless.

[Janet524]

DH was on dialysis for 3 years and we took several Dialysis at Sea cruises on RC as well as Celebrity.

 

The care he received from the D@S staff was far superior to what he received at home at his regular dialysis center. The ratio is 2 patients to each dialysis nurse. There is a nephrologist on board to oversee the entire operation and the nurses/technicians are first rate.

 

I would not hesitate to recommend them. If you have specific questions, I would be happy respond. You can e-mail at jldep@widomaker.com.

[Judie]

My husband has been on hemodialysis for 2 1/2 years. We love cruising and were afraid those days were over. Not so! We were thrilled to find Dialysis at Sea, and so far have taken two cruises through them. Our experience was just as previous poster wrote. The nurses were wonderful!! We only met the nephrologist once or twice, but that was fine. My husband's nephrologist, nurses and social worker were SO glad we went. Too many people feel their cruising days are over, but not so. I'd recommend Dialysis at Sea highly!

[kalliekae]

I am so happy the op posted this thread and the wonderful responses to it. Unfortunately, dialysis for a family member is in our future and we love to cruise. I had searched the "cruising with disability" forum, but frankly none of the posts were as up to date as this thread. It's great to know that cruising will continue for us and others who are on dialysis.

[pharaoh]

Karmacats and others, thank you so much for sharing your experiences! My mom and I have both been nervous about our upcoming cruise, especially since it is much more expensive than we were ever anticipating, but this valuable info puts me much more at ease. I'm going to read her your comments to boost her confidence about the whole thing. :)

 

So excited! We cruise in just about 55 days.

 

Oh I forgot one question -- when do you find out what session you're in? Do you choose in advance or do they assign you or what? Thanks!

Edited September 14, 2015 by pharaoh

[Janet524]

Karmacats and others, thank you so much for sharing your experiences! My mom and I have both been nervous about our upcoming cruise, especially since it is much more expensive than we were ever anticipating, but this valuable info puts me much more at ease. I'm going to read her your comments to boost her confidence about the whole thing. :)

 

So excited! We cruise in just about 55 days.

 

Oh I forgot one question -- when do you find out what session you're in? Do you choose in advance or do they assign you or what? Thanks!

 

I believe that we requested our session time when we booked the cruise with D@S. You might want to call them to find out what times are available. They may have already assigned you a time.

 

FYI, DH and I have carried a separate medical travel insurance policy for almost 20 years. During the time he was taking dialysis (2010 to 2013) part of the cost was covered by our policy. I'm not talking about the insurance thru the cruise line, but a separate policy. If you have a policy like this, look into what they may cover. Not all cover hemodialysis, but some do.

 

Enjoy your cruise. You can be sure the care provided by D@S will be excellent.

[TigerLady]

Thank you for the information.. My son started dialysis a year ago, and he misses cruising.. I will show him this, and maybe we can get something worked out. THANK YOU, for the info..

[karmacats]

Karmacats and others, thank you so much for sharing your experiences! My mom and I have both been nervous about our upcoming cruise, especially since it is much more expensive than we were ever anticipating, but this valuable info puts me much more at ease. I'm going to read her your comments to boost her confidence about the whole thing. :)

 

So excited! We cruise in just about 55 days.

 

Oh I forgot one question -- when do you find out what session you're in? Do you choose in advance or do they assign you or what? Thanks!

 

I'm glad the info has been helpful. We also could find very few recent reviews or first-hand accounts; i may write something up for the disabilities board just so the info is there, too (since dialysis at sea works with celebrity and hal as well as royal, so not everyone may be looking at the royal boards).

 

i agree with janet524 - just give them a call and ask. we were not assigned a time immediately when we booked the first cruise, but they called us a couple months later to choose a time. they do it based on when you booked - the first person to book through them gets first choice of dialysis times, second person to book gets second choice, etc. when we booked the second cruise, because they knew my mom preferred the early slot, and i guess they didn't have many people booked yet, they assigned it to her right away. In any event, they will let you know waaay before you get onboard. :)

 

i can't remember for sure, but i think the times for the first cruise were 6 a.m. and 10 a.m. on sea days. they had enough rooms that most people made it to the first session; i think they only had 2 people going at 10. for the second cruise, early time will also be 6 a.m. on sea days.

Edited September 14, 2015 by karmacats

[hollihedge]

Thank you so much Karmacats and all for these very helpful postings. It is 3 weeks today when we set sail!!

 

My Dad is so looking forward to this cruise as he always used to cruise with my mum. We have had a terrible year as my mum died suddenly 6 months ago and he has been so looking forward to seeing all the beautiful towns and the Fall colours etc etc. He has just come out of hospital after 8 days but the medical insurance are willing to cover him (it is costing a small fortune as we are flying from the UK to the US), but that does not matter.

 

He usually dialyses on Diaverum and Fresenius machines so hopefully this will be OK.

 

I will let everyone know how we get on!!!!!

 

Very best wishes to you all!!!

[judymag]

I'm a nurse and 2 of my patients have done it and loved it

[preschool teacher]

Good luck and have fun....my hubby has had a kidney transplant....wish you the best