Need Opinions of HC Cabins on Other Cruiselines

[runnerandme]

I will not cruise on Princess due to their restrictive tendering policy. A friend recently went on a cruise and his wife was not allowed to tender. She is a very small woman and her husband wanted to lift her onto the tender and then go back and carry on her chair that folded and they would not let her on the tender. The securty crew said that if she could not walk onto the tender with minimal assist,she could not get on. What a surprise for them. They have been on several cruises and have never had that problem. She did not want to risk a fall by trying to walk. If they had known ahead of time, it would have been nice. The seas were calm. The arriving dock was not an issue. Princess just said that is the policy and always has been. HUH?? I realize that some ports and weather do mandate if you can tender in a wheelchair.

So while this is not really a ship accessiblity issue or cabin info, I do feel that it should be a consideration when booking a cruise if you have tender ports.

[vickila]

I just booked the Carnival Dream - a ship that is still being built. There are only 2 accessible balconies and they are both all the way forward - small rooms, small balcony. In addition, according to TA, they have twin beds that cannot be put together!!! And this is Carnival's latest ship! Hmm. Vicki:)

[norcalal]

I just booked the Carnival Dream - a ship that is still being built. There are only 2 accessible balconies and they are both all the way forward - small rooms, small balcony. In addition, according to TA, they have twin beds that cannot be put together!!! And this is Carnival's latest ship! Hmm. Vicki:)

 

 

Why?:confused:

[mcdann]

We just got off the Mariner June 7th and I must tell you I was amazed at the extent of accessibility. We were in HC cabin 7304.

 

:)

 

Does anyone know if all the Voyager Class ships are the same with HC cabins? Looking to book on Voyager of the Sea and one person in our party is in a power chair. Liked this review and hope the whole class is this way.

:confused:

[norcalal]

Does anyone know if all the Voyager Class ships are the same with HC cabins? Looking to book on Voyager of the Sea and one person in our party is in a power chair. Liked this review and hope the whole class is this way.

:confused:

 

I simply do not know, but if you have any questions about the Mariner, I would be happy to tell you what I know.

[leoandhugh]

It is unfortunate that the site access-able.com has not been kept up to date as new ships have come on line. For instance, X does not include Solstice but has Horizon and Zenith which are long gone from X; Cunard does not include the Queen Victoria, but still lists the QE2, no longer a Cunard liner. Certainly the info is valuable for ships still in service, but I wonder why the site is not being updated. Anybody got a clue?:)

[Jesscap5]

We are going on the Carnival Miracle. No idea what the cabins are like. We are getting a HC Balcony.

 

My sister is not in a wheel chair but we definitley need a large shower with a seat. Hopefully they have it.

[JHarry]

I have been on the Disney Wonder and Carnival Glory and had HA cabins on both ships and they were more than sufficient even with a large powerchair. On Disney we had a balcony room and it was HUGE, lots of space, no problems at all. On the Glory we had an oceanview room and it was plenty large enough, the bathroom was a tad on the small size but we had no problems with it. Was on HAL Volendam years ago and their HA room was tiny as was the bathroom.

[cruisin63]

To the person who posted that Carnival did not have wheelchair accessible public restrooms on their ships: You merely have to go to the Carnival website, click onto "special needs" and you can print out the deck floor plans for your particular ship, showing where the accessible restrooms are on each of the public decks. I've sailed on both Carnival and RCCL, and could see no difference in service whatsoever. All personnel were extremely accomodating, and the handicapped cabins were more than adequate.

We sailed to the Hawaiian Islands on the Carnival Spirit, and had cabin

#8234. It was wonderful, with an absolutely huge balcony. It measured not

only the width of our cabin, but backed to a cabin steward's dressing room, so it was, in fact a double balcony. Our friends traveling with us

booked the adjoining regular balcony (#8232 and 8230) and our total

length was over 74 ft. What a party barge. Bathrooms were huge and very accessible, and they furnished a ramp to the balcony. All in all

a wonderful experience. Hope this helps!

[dopey1200]

I was just on the Carnival Glory last week & my parents had a wheelchair accessible cabin. The bathroom was huge, almost as big as our entire cabin! The shower was designed to roll a wheelchair in & there was a fold down seat. The regular public restrooms are not accessible but there were a few special restrooms marked with wheelchair symbol throughout the ship. I don't recall the locations of them, but I'm sure I saw more than one. Here are a few photos of the bathroom in the cabin.

 

 

[uppitycats]

To the person who posted that Carnival did not have wheelchair accessible public restrooms on their ships: You merely have to go to the Carnival website, click onto "special needs" and you can print out the deck floor plans for your particular ship, showing where the accessible restrooms are on each of the public decks. I've sailed on both Carnival and RCCL, and could see no difference in service whatsoever. All personnel were extremely accomodating, and the handicapped cabins were more than adequate.

We sailed to the Hawaiian Islands on the Carnival Spirit, and had cabin

#8234. It was wonderful, with an absolutely huge balcony. It measured not

only the width of our cabin, but backed to a cabin steward's dressing room, so it was, in fact a double balcony. Our friends traveling with us

booked the adjoining regular balcony (#8232 and 8230) and our total

length was over 74 ft. What a party barge. Bathrooms were huge and very accessible, and they furnished a ramp to the balcony. All in all

a wonderful experience. Hope this helps!

 

Well, I was indeed on the Spirit. As I said in my first message, the cabin was wonderful, and the bathroom in the cabin great. But I could not find any accessible PUBLIC bathroom on the ship. Either the doors were so heavy that they could not be managed, or so narrow that someon in a chair could not get in to them (and I've been in a chair for over 20 years, now, so it's not that I'm new to this!).

 

Perhaps they've modified them since I was on -- we weren't on the maiden voyage of the Spirit, but one or two after she was launched, so it's been a few years ago now.

[Umbarger]

Well, I was indeed on the Spirit. As I said in my first message, the cabin was wonderful, and the bathroom in the cabin great. But I could not find any accessible PUBLIC bathroom on the ship. Either the doors were so heavy that they could not be managed, or so narrow that someon in a chair could not get in to them (and I've been in a chair for over 20 years, now, so it's not that I'm new to this!).

 

Perhaps they've modified them since I was on -- we weren't on the maiden voyage of the Spirit, but one or two after she was launched, so it's been a few years ago now.

 

I agree.

 

I was on the Carnival Spirit in September/October 2008. The so called Handicapped public restrooms at that time were NOT handicapped accessable. The doorways were too narrow to accomodate a wheelchair or scooter. Also there were two very heavy doors to get into the bathroom and could not be opened easily.

 

There was one public handicapped accessable bathroom on the whole ship with a automatic door, however, the handicapped stall in that restroom was out of order the entire 24 days of our cruise. So this bathroom was also useless.

 

The handicapped bathrooms in the cabin were great. Plenty of room. Whenever we were out and about the ship mom would have to return to the cabin to use the restroom. Extremely inconvienent if she was watching a show or in the dining room.

 

I wrote a letter to Carnival advising them of this problem. I got the standard sorry letter but I doubt very much anything was done about it.

[GRBlizz]

We just returned from a week on Celebrity Infinity. We had accessible cabin 7212, which is an aft balcony. Supposed to be a fabulous accessible cabin. And don't get me wrong, it was nice. But we had two big problems:

 

1) the balcony is not ramped and the lip was too high to "bump" the chair over. He is able to walk a step or two with effort, so he did get out there. But I was in and out several times a day, especially on the two sea days of scenic cruising, and he could not do that.

 

2) There is a "ramp/hump" into the bathroom that is very pronounced, and made it hard for DH to get into the bathroom on his own and often blocked his way as he tried to wheel from the door to the bed area. In our previous two accessible cabins (one OV, one a suite), the bathroom was completely level.

 

Next time we cruise, I will enquire about these two features ahead of time.