NCL Wind tendering

[gracegrace]

My family and I are planning a cruise 6/05 on NCL's Wind and was wondering if anyone could advise me about tendering wheelchair users? How many steps are there down to the tender and do they have any way of getting even a manual wheelchair into a tender? Also, what are the ports of Hilo, Kona, and Nawiliwili like near the tenders? Is that do-able with a manual chair? We've tendered my son in a manual chair, but RCL was always very helpful, even before they got a ramp system in place.

[Splinter]

Have not been on that ship, but can tell you about ports.

 

In Hilo and Nawiliwili (docked, not tendered) you are in industrial areas where it is a very long walk/push to much to see at all.

 

In Kona, the tender dock is right in town, and it is easy to push around for shopping and sights in town (although there are not ramps everywhere, so take a manual chair). This is also the case in Lahaina.

 

Hawaii is the perfect place to rent a car and drive instead of taking ship's tours. We were able to get an accessible tour in Hilo to Volcano National Park, but there are other things to see in the area too. In Kauai (our favorite island), we always rent a car and either take the drive to the north shore (beautiful drive, expect rain on the north coast) or drive up to Waimea Canyon on the south shore, or just drive to Poipu and go to the beach. Again, take a manual chair so you can easily transfer and stow the chair. In Nawiliwili the Alamo car rental agency also has an accessible lift van to take you to the airport car rental location from the ship dock (which can save you quite some time).

[gracegrace]

Thank you very much for the info on the ports and Alamo. NCL told me that they anchor at Fanning Island, Lahaina, and Honolulu, but tender at Hilo, Nawiliwili, and Kona, which means it's questionable whether we'll be able to get off the ship at half of the ports. We've only been to Maui, where we stayed at an accessible hotel and rented an accessible van. We drove all over! But, we've never visited by ship and on previous cruises, on Royal Caribbean, they did all they could to help us, even before they developed a special ramp to get down the steps to the tender. I dont want to assume that NCL is the same. The agent at NCL couldn't remember how many steps there were from the ship to the tender. Our back-up is to just check it out while we're there. Someone had suggested renting an accessible vehicle at each of the ports and that seems like a good idea, especially as you've mentioned the distance from the ship to anything at two of the ports, but we can't go anywhere if I can't get my son off the ship. He can't walk at all, weighs 150 pounds, and his muscles are weak so he's kind of difficult to carry. Do you have any experience with NCL's attitude toward disabled passengers' needs?

[Splinter]

Can you do a slide board transfer into the car? My mother weighs over 200 lb. and we do this with her, then put her manual chair in the trunk.

 

There is no cruise ship pier in Lahaina. I suspect that NCL docks on the north shore of Maui where there is a cruise ship pier and then provides shuttles (wheelchair accessible???) to Lahaina, which is about a 40 min. drive. Too bad about Hilo, as this is a pretty easy dock (why do they tender here?).

 

Have never cruise NCL. You will have to find out from others on this board (or try http://www.cruisemates.com ).

 

While you can rent accessible vans in most Hawaiian ports, they will cost you from $130-150/day. Compare this to $40 specials from companies like Alamo for a full sized car.

[gracegrace]

The info that I got was from the RCCL booking agent on the phone. I'm not really confident that she actually knows where the Wind anchors and tenders.

 

When we visited Maui, we stayed at the Paki Maui in Honokowai on the western side of the island and we were in and out of Lahaina all during the trip. We actually got onto a whale watching boat. Funny thing was that we looked at the boat at low tide and when we returned the next day for the trip, it was high tide and the ramp was at about a 60 degree angle! We rented a manual chair and a shower seat from the local medical supply place as well as an accessible van from Wheelchair Getaways. The van got held up for a couple of days, so we rented a minivan from Hertz and telescoping ramps from the medical supply and managed just fine until the accessible van arrived.

 

We have a transfer board and also transfer my son manually from 3-7 times a day for various things. It's been really helpful since he lost 46 pounds. I think we'd be inclined to rent a regular van or car in each port as it's so much cheaper, but in port isn't so much my problem. I have the "Aloha Guide to Accessibility in the State of Hawaii for persons with disabilities" that I sent for before our last trip and I picked up alot of info while we were there. I can't seem to get any info about NCL's compliance regarding tendering. I also have a number of accessible travel sites that I've been trying to get info from.

 

I'm next emailing Emerging Horizons, Open World, and Andy Vladimir (who writes a cruising column for Quest magazine) to see if anyone has any experience with NCL. It's so important to be forewarned.

Thanks so much.

 

Michelle

[DEL67]

When we were on the NCL Sky a few years ago, the crew was willing to carry my husband in his manual chair down to the tender in both Lahaina and Kona. We did not go to Fanning Island. However, I do not know if there is a difference in the tender steps between the Wind and the Sky. In addition NCL's website indicates that they are not required to do so.

 

My husband can transfer to a car so once ashore, I rented a car in all ports. We used National which provided transporation (non-accessible) to and from the dock as did several other rental agencies.