Specialneedsat sea vs Cloudsofgood

[Sunshine3601]

My DH had a recent back injury and we are booked for a JS on Oasis sailing 8.28.  We have never had the need to rent a scooter and sounds like specialneedsatsea has great reviews.   Has anyone rented from cloudsofgood?

[kokopelli-az]

I have never heard of cloudsofgood but have rented from speciialneedsatsea several times.   Special Needs was always great but switched over to Scootaround, which is equally good.   Compare the prices of both.   If you check out Scootaround, use the discount code USCRUISE  for a discount.   You might have to call to use it if booking on line with it doesn't work.   

 

Do you have an accessible room?    Most scooters require a wider doorway.    

[Sunshine3601]

Specialneeds had much better pricing than scootaround.   But it will reprice with code you provided.   Thank you.

We have a junior suite so hopefully it fits because our sailing in 2 weeks is near sold out and we are really looking forward to our JS.   

Looks like you need to buy insurance etc with scootaround that seems to be included in the specialneeds price.   Do you typically purchase the insurance or any other extras?

[kokopelli-az]

On 8/14/2022 at 8:19 PM, Sunshine3601 said:

 

Looks like you need to buy insurance etc with scootaround that seems to be included in the specialneeds price.   Do you typically purchase the insurance or any other extras?

You do not need to buy insurance with either company.   But they would love it if you would.     We never buy insurance.   It covers very little.     Have the company you rent from remove it if you don't want it 

 

Also, contact your cruise line's access department and advise them you will be bringing a scooter.     You will need to complete a form.   

[Sunshine3601]

1 hour ago, kokopelli-az said:

You do not need to buy insurance with either company.   But they would love it if you would.     We never buy insurance.   It covers very little.     Have the company you rent from remove it if you don't want it 

 

Also, contact your cruise line's access department and advise them you will be bringing a scooter.     You will need to complete a form.   

Thank you for your help.    I have decided to rent from specialneedsatsea as they were about $65 less and they automatically include insurance in the rental at no extra cost.     Yes, I did complete the required form with RCL.   

[kokopelli-az]

1 hour ago, Sunshine3601 said:

  I have decided to rent from specialneedsatsea as they were about $65 less and they automatically include insurance in the rental at no extra cost. 

You're paying for it but my experience has been if you rent over the phone they don't itemize it out for you.

I've rented from them by phone and just was told an amount that was owing, but when I asked about the insurance they told me how much had been added to the price  for it.    It was then I asked them to remove it.   

If renting on line, you can see the insurance amount and decide to keep it or not.

[fann1sh]

kokopelli-az, I had a nightmare experience with Scootaround and will never use them again.  RCCL may be different, but HAL can repair or replace specialneedsatsea scooters if they fail, and shrugged at my problm

 

SO DID SCOOTAROUND!  No reply to any queries.

 

I now check with the cruise line to see if they have a "special relationship" with any provider. 

[kokopelli-az]

29 minutes ago, fann1sh said:

kokopelli-az, I had a nightmare experience with Scootaround and will never use them again.  RCCL may be different, but HAL can repair or replace specialneedsatsea scooters if they fail, and shrugged at my problm

 

SO DID SCOOTAROUND!  No reply to any queries.

 

I now check with the cruise line to see if they have a "special relationship" with any provider. 

Sorry you had a bad experience with Scootaround.   Or any provider for that matter.     The last thing you need to happen is an issue with your mobility equipment or provider.     

 

One thing we have discovered is that the cruise lines (and we have rented scooters from Scootaround and SpecialNeeds on several lines) is they have spare or backup scooters on the ships.   

 

On 3-4 occasions when we had an issue with our scooter while at sea, we went to guest services and advised them.  These were somewhat minor problems but we thought we'd better report the concern so it would be documented and the rental company didn't think we caused the problem.  Anyway, a new replacement scooter would then show up at our stateroom.   So some/many of the ships have extra scooters available on board to exchange for one that's having a problem.  

[metravelling]

I have used SPECIAL MEEDSatSea 6x. Once the front basket and battery were missing CELEBRITY CHECKED Everything and everywhere. Company couldn’t deliver a new one and Ship had no spares. Fortunately a friend had a scooter and loaned it to us at night for charging. Ship rigged a nice Tote to the front. Special needs at sea gave me a Free scooter on my next cruise. They were pleasant to deal with. Haven’t tried

SCOOTAROUND but so far they have been impossible to reach by phone and THEY HAVE NOT CALLED BACK AS PROMISED. Online they are $266 vs$195

on Special Needs for 7 nt cruises.  I will give them one more try. 

[kokopelli-az]

16 hours ago, metravelling said:

Haven’t tried SCOOTAROUND but so far they have been impossible to reach by phone and THEY HAVE NOT CALLED BACK AS PROMISED. Online they are $266 vs$195

on Special Needs for 7 nt cruises.  I will give them one more try. 

We've never had any problem getting Scootaround to call us back.    But when comparing the prices between the two companies, double-check to see if Scootaround is charging you for insurance which might be the reason for the price difference.   You can remove the insurance from the quote if you don't want it.  

Also you might try using the 15% discount code USCRUISE for Scootaround (it is from the United Spinal Association).   If it doesn't work using it on line, you will have to call them and they will apply it manually.