Cruise Line Lawsuit??

[Safari Steve]

I read an article in the paper last week about 'Access Now" or some such group suing DCL for not being accessible enough. The article told about the different considerations that DCL had made, and that they (DCL) have sort of spear-headed cruise-ship accessiblilty. Then I got to the most intriguing part of the whole thing. The spokesperson for the group was quoted as saying that (s)he had never actually been on a Disney Cruise Line boat, but "didn't have to enter an impossible atmosphere" to have grounds for a lawsuit. Isn't that irresponsible? What about the other cruise lines that have been operating for much longer? This is the same group who sued last year over accesibility at WDW. Has anyone here been on a Disney Cruise with a disABILITY? How accesible/difficult was it? Do you think that the group has a valid point that 18 state rooms should be entirely wheelchair accessible (rather than the 16 currently on each of the two ships)? Or is this just an organization that has SDF (sue disney fever)? This has been weighing on my mind for a while now, and any input would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks a bunch.

Kungaloosh!!

 

[lisapooh]

Steve,
You know I am one to fight of rights for the disabled but I really wondedr about this suit. Each ship already has 16 accessible state rooms. They've never been on the boats and they aleady know that it is an impossible atmosphere. Good grief! SOunds like sue Disney itis

 

[SueM in MN]

We have had several posters who have been on cruises and generally found the ships to be quite accessible. The only problems that I have seen have been complaints about accessibility of port trips. I don't think anyone can blame Disney if the ports don't have accessible facilities. Some of the posters here did make constructive criticism to Disny about that and things are changing.
I think it is irresponsible to sue over something that you haven't even looked at to se if it is a "impossible atmosphere". If anyone wants to sue, they should be sueing companies that are not making any effort to change. I think it is much more productive to try to make suggestions to improve things than to sue.

 

[LindaDVC]

Our first trip (98)we encountered several obstacles. We reported all of them to disney and on our second sail ('00) all had been corrected.

Our biggest complaint was Disney did not know if any of the excursions would be accessible.
CMs we talked to kept giving us different answers. We found accessible excursions when we docked (husband could not get on the tender). I hope they help plan accessible excursions in the future however the ship was lovely. I'd love to sail again.

Linda

 

[mhopset]

I think it would be hard to try and design something for the disabled and not BE disabled. What companys need to realize is-- they need to put and able bodied person in an ECV or a wheelchair, let them spend the day in it, then evalute the situation. Our company did this a few years ago and put the managers in wheelchairs, had blindfolds, ear plugs, some had one arm tied behind their backs. Believe me a lot of "attitudes" were changed that day. I do wish they would do it again. Their are a few managers I would like to see try to manauver a wheelchair or ECV around for a day.

 

[Wheelsie]

I dont doubt there IS acces...but darn if I cant get ANY TA in St Louis to give me a handi cruise book....every cruise lin'e book says for handi stuff askk your TA for their book for disabled guests...or some such nonsense...Cant find a TA in town that knows where I can get one or that even is aware they exist (dont they read their own travel materials???)

 

[Alaska]

We have a son with a neuromuscular disorder that causes him significant physical impairment. We cruised with Disney in 1999 and found the ship to be fairly accessible. We enjoyed the cruise so much we plan to take another cruise this fall.

Unfortunately, misplaced lawsuits undermine legitimate complaints about lack of accessibility. It is too bad that someone would undertake to champion a fight when they apparently did not actually know of any specific problems.

One of the most difficult things we encountered on the cruise was trying to get on to the elevators on the ship. Our son's chair is fairly large and we have to travel in a group to carry all of his medical equipment (e.g. ventilator, suction machine, feeding pump, etc). Sometimes we were late getting to dinner or the shows because we had to let elevator after elevator pass. We remarked to each other that perhaps an elevator should be designated for use by physically challenged folks. At that point, we would have even been happy to use a service elevator, even though the main elevators are so pretty and our son had such a good time looking out while we went up and down. However, after the newness of the cruise wore off and everyone relaxed, people started to notice that we were having to wait and they would get off the elevator and take the stairs. Very thoughtful. Also, we found that the wheelchair areas in the back of the theater filled up. However, the Disney folks then made it a point to bring us up front and even reserved seats for us, which we did not ask them to do. Nice touch.

We are having some trouble figuring out which if any of the excursions will be accessible for us. I must admit that I think Disney has a lot of clout and could probably convince some of the excursions to make accomodations if Disney really wanted to pursue the issue. Perhaps they are already doing so. One thing we noticed is that the room next to our "handicapped accessible" room was situated so that a person in a wheelchair would have to make a 90 degree turn to get into the room. We were happy we were not in that room because we would not have been able to get our son's chair in through the door because the turn was too tight. When I made our reservations this time, I inquired about the room (to make sure we were not being placed there). I was told by the CM that those rooms were no longer designated "handicapped accessible" so Disney is clearly paying attention to what works and what does not worked for wheeled folks.

 

[LindaDVC]

We solved the elevator problem by always going EARLY to dinner. In fact Dan often headed down while I finished getting ready since the elevators would be so crowded. I typically used the stairs after he got on since not room for the whole family!

A "wheelchair" only elevator would be wonderful.

Disney told me after our suggestions on our Oct 2000 cruise that they would be making a handicapped brochure. I hope they did!

Linda

 

[Alaska]

One "complaint" that we had about the cruise concerns the "beach whelchairs" on Castaway Cay. Our son is not an early riser and it takes us awhile to get all of his medical equipment together. As a result, we were not the first ones off the boat at Castaway Cay and all the beach wheelchairs were taken. It seems as though folks who reserve a wheelchair accessible room should be guaranteed a beach wheelchair (it is my understanding that there are more than enough beach wheelchairs to go with all of the wheelchair accessible rooms but they are also given out to folks who do not regularly use wheelchairs). I can understand that getting around on the san may be difficult for folks who do not use regularly use wheelchairs, but it is impossible for those who cannot walk. Luckily our son was only 5 years old and we were able to carry him down to the beach. However, he now weighs 75 pounds and we are concerned that if we do not get a beach wheelchair we will not be able to get him down to the water at Castaway Cay.

At the time we took the cruise we thought it was our one and only, so I did not talk to Disney about our difficulties due to the lack of a beach wheelchair. But I plan to contact them to discuss the problem before our next cruise. Perhaps no one has mentioned this to DCL before.

 

[LindaDVC]

IF we are dreaming I would llike to have a wheelchair area that has a non sand surface and umbrellas or a tent. Dan chooses not to transfer and be dependant in a manual sand chair. I know a lot of his reasoning is to save my back !!
If they had a place for wheelchair users -- it would make it easier to share the sand chairs too.

Has any one been in contact with Disney . I wonder if they are making any progress with increasing accessibility on the tenders and excursions! I hope so!

Linda