Wheelchairs on cruise ships?

[DisneyHumbug]

Thanks to all you wonderful people, we had an awesome trip to WDW at Christmas with my Dad. Now we are planning a cruise, but none of us have ever been on one and we were wondering how difficult is it to maneuver a wheelchair around a cruise ship? Any thoughts? TIA.

 

[Leia's Mom]

I took my mom on a Royal Carribean cruise two years ago. We leave for a Disney cruise in the near future, so I can give you details on it later. However, my experience on Royal Carribean was that it was so terribly easy that it wasn't funny. The wheelchair accessible room was huge (in comparison to the non accessible rooms). She had no trouble getting around. There were a couple of lips in some hallways that were a bit challenging. Also, it was sometimes tough to find room in the elevators. However, other than that, it went amazingly well.

Excursions, however, are a different matter entirely. My mother cannot walk at all, and trying to get around the non ADA islands was a nightmare. On our next cruise, we will be staying on the boat for most of the stops.

If you have any specific questions, I'll do my best to answer. . . Good luck!

 

[FreshTressa]

I completely agree! The ship is easy....everything is laid out beautifully to accomodate wheelchairs and other aids.

But the excursions are another thing altogether. I don't know where you will be stopping, but most of the port we went to, you would have to stay on the main road. I don't think they are required to follow the same laws when building in the caribbean. In Grand Caymen, there were stairs into most of the shops and no ramps, making it very difficult to get anywhere. Costa maya went okay since almost everything was in a flat area. Cozumel was okay with about half of things accessible.

Good luck and have a great time!

 

[Michigan]

I will be taking my 2 DD's both in wheelchairs on the Star Princess to Alaska in July. After we return I'll post about the ship for anyone else wanting to cruise on the Star.

 

[SueM in MN]

I know there are other DIS posters who have gone on cruises with wheelchairs (sadly, not us), so hopefully, you will get more advice. The main things I have read are that the off-ship excursions are often not accessible (except the one s that are actually maintained by the cruise ship company - like Castaway Cay). Also, people mention the elevators a lot; that they are fairly small, crowded and you may have to wait for several before one is empty enough to get in.

 

[SueM in MN]

I found a link for you to official Disney info about cruising with a wheelchair:
http://disneycruise.disney.go.com/d...oupingindex?id=GuestsWithDisabiltiesFAQGrping
If this doesn't work (sometimes the Disney site does not let me copy and paste), just go to www.disney.com and type wheelchair and cruiseinto the search bar.

 

[DisneyHumbug]

Wow! Thanks for all the info....now back to the planning!

 

[D L and K's Mom]

We did the Disney Cruise 2 years ago with DS in a wheelchair. We didnt have any real problems EXCEPT the elevator!!! They were so crowded with people just going up or down one floor. We had a long wait anytime we went out just waiting for a space on the elevator. I was really surprised that people didnt walk down the stairs. We had to allow at least 1/2 hour anytime we went somewhere so we could have DS and DD use the elevator. DD and I would meet them on the floor we were going to and many times it took them forever to get there!!!! If I were you I would also request a table near the aisle for dinner. It gave DS's chair more room at the dining table. These were the only problems we ran into. At Castaway CAy make sure you get one of the sand chairs. They were great. They just rolled over the sand nice and easy. Have a great trip!!!