I am thankful that the Magic is getting a couple more HA cabins. I'm hoping these are not all the way forward or all the way aft (like most of the other HA cabins on that ship).
You never know who is accompanying someone on a cruise that could change their cabin needs. When I travel with my mother, we need a HA cabin (so far, she's been on every
DCL cruise with me) but when I travel without her (which I did on several Carnival cruises) I don't need a HA cabin. If you ever looked at my cruise history of cabins, you'd see a mix of HA and non-HA cabins.
Similarly I have a friend undergoing treatments. Some weeks she's immobile some weeks she's near normal and some weeks she needs a cane to walk.
She didn't think to book an HA last cruise hoping not to need it. A week out she needed it but wasn't able to swap. During the cruise she was (thankfully) more mobile than she'd anticipated.
So there are people who have varying needs.
I am also hoping they are not all forward/aft either. Managing a wheelchair down the long hallways is not nearly as easy as having the cabins more accessible to the elevator areas as I have booked for clients on other ships/cruiselines.
Yes, very valid points about varying needs and I completely understand that. I book cruises for people all the time where yes, one of the persons needs it so obviously their caregiver (usually a family member) is with them. However, the married couple we witnessed I referenced previously didn't seem to fit either those scenarios through postings online and seeing them in person on the cruise repeatedly.
It was a married couple - very open about their many cruises together through their postings, pictures, and PMs (not a scenario of traveling with one partner needing a HA cabin and then the next cruise not traveling with the same partner - the same two people on the cruises). This wasn't a cabin changed closer to sailing but rather one shared well in advance. I'm a glass-half-full kinda girl and always try to believe the best in people, so maybe I am completely mistaken and they had an obscure medical reason they knew of that they would have for that one specific cruise well in advance, but not the others before/after they shared in their upcoming bookings.
If I could sit down right now and book four upcoming cruises for my spouse, children and I, and let the one in Dec 2014 be a HA cabin but the cruises before/after that not be HA, that would be incredible knowledge to have to know that one of us will be needing assistance that one specific cruise but not the other three cruises I am booking before/after. I just have not been blessed with that insight to know my family's medical ailments that far in advance - and we have definitely had our share which is why we travel while we can now - but what a wonderful ability to be able to plan in advance like that for specifically which cruises one will be needing handicap amenities... as well as to be able to prepare mentally for those challenges in advance.
Calling an oncology surgeon was not something anyone gave us advance notice of, or various other surgeries, or my surgery 3 weeks ago, but some advance notice would be good to know, especially over a year in advance like this couple had apparently.
Plus that knowledge would save some money on travel insurance
Maybe y'all are right and everyone who does book HA cabins in advance like that truly do need them (we already know DCL will assign them after PIF dates to gty, but I am referring to the cruises booked over a year in advance or even on opening day - yet the other cruises for same people before/after are not HA). Hopefully nobody is cheating the system. At least I hope they have the honesty and integrity not to. Honesty and integrity make the world a better place IMHO