Alaska with a Wheelchair

[misguy]

We just came back from Alaska on the Norwegian Jewel, and my wife travels with a wheelchair, though she can walk some, she is not good for long distances, and she also has difficulty sitting in an upright position for extended periods, so her chair has an adjustable back.  I can say now that we were very pleased with our experience in the ports she got off.  She didn't go ashore at Icy Straight Point, that was the only tender port we had and she didn't want to deal with tendering, and since my granddaughter and I were going fishing she didn't want to do that either.

 

Skagway was easy to get around, and we rented a car and drove into the Yukon territory.  We did a ship's excursion in Ketchikan that included a very nice and very accessible board walk into the rainforest.  We went to Mendenhall and even the trail out to Nugget Falls was easily accesible for most of the walk.  In Seward, we did a Kenai Fjords excursion, visited the SeaLife center, and walked/rolled accross town.

 

We took the train from Anchorage to Seward, and they even have an elevator to get a wheelchair from the lower level up to the dome car.  All in all, we planned well and had no issues.  I will have pictures and videos coming.

 

[zanydoc]

Thank you for the report! Very helpful.Did you rent a wheelchair for the cruise? 

[puppycanducruise]

Looking forward to reading more.

Glad you enjoyed your cruise.

[misguy]

No my wife use a wheelchair any time go somewhere she has to sit for extended times, or do a lot of walking.  She purchased her chair several years agoe.  Also, for those that care, we were able to use a family balcony on the Jewel that was not accessible, there was room to get the chair in and store it.  There were three of us in the cabin, my grandaughter, my wife and I.  I was worried because we took an upgrade to go from and inside accessible to a regular balcony.  The bathroom was more challenging, because it was smaller and didn't have the rails that an accessible cabin would have had, be we were fine.

[dcherry]

Did you research ahead or do anything in particular to make sure the excursions would be accessible?