Summit/Cape Liberty Boarding with a Disability

I will be traveling on Summit in August with my father who has a disabilty. He rented a wheelchair, which is supposed to be waiting for him in his room on boarding, but he is concerned about navigating at the port. Can anyone relay their experience? Is there ample room to sit and wait for assistance getting on the ship? How is check in handled? He will have very limited mobility at the port. Is it a zoo early in the day? Is he better off waiting until later to arrive and board? Any advice is appreciated.

I will be traveling on Summit in August with my father who has a disabilty. He rented a wheelchair, which is supposed to be waiting for him in his room on boarding, but he is concerned about navigating at the port. Can anyone relay their experience? Is there ample room to sit and wait for assistance getting on the ship? How is check in handled? He will have very limited mobility at the port. Is it a zoo early in the day? Is he better off waiting until later to arrive and board? Any advice is appreciated.

I'm sure there will be no problems, the terminal is practically new and most likely built to the latest standards.

My husband is a double amputee and can only walk very short distances. We sailed on Summit out of Cape Liberty a few years ago and are sailing again in August. We have also sailed on other itineraries over the years.

First, contact the Special Needs Department and let them know you need wheelchair assistance at the pier. Our TA always sends us a form to mail or fax in but phone calls also work.

(Www.celebritycruises.com/specialneedsform; for info: celebritycruises.com/access. Email: special_needs@celebrity.com. 886.592.7225 or 954.628.9708.)

If you have sailed celebrity before you could also try calling Captains Club and politely and naively asking them. They can be helpful.

All this will make sure your record in noted.

When you arrive at the port let the porter know you need wheelchair help and he will call for a chair and a pusher who will whisk you through. This may take some time depending on how crowded it is. We bring our own transport wheelchair to avoid the wait. Once you get through security you will see a line for handicapped checkin. We sail in suites so our experience is a bit different at this point, but your pusher will then take you onto the ship.

My husband rents a scooter to use on the ship. The Dockyard in Bermuda has the cutouts in the sidewalks but my husband still found it difficult to get around and over bumps. It may be a little easier with a wheelchair as you can tip it to get over bumps. My husband ended up going back to the ship, but the positive thing there is that you have the ship to yourself when everyone else is out.

Also try searching on the disability forum on this site for more info.

We usually get to the port before lunch and it can be crowded. Some on these forums suggest getting to port after lunch to avoid the crowds. Again try searching for info as I have no experience with latter check in.

I'm happy to answer any other questions you may have. Cruising is a wonderful way for persons with limited mobility to travel.

I am disabled and have sailed out of Cape Liberty several times. I have found it advantageous to be dropped off at the door to the terminal and either limped in myself or when possible had a family member help me...once or twice my wife helped me in and left the car outside for a few minutes. They didn't like it but she told them that she was just helping me inside. Just inside the doors off to the left is a row of chairs where the disabled person can wait.for wheelchair assistance. After my wife has parked the car and joined me (10-15 min later) she would find the person coordinating the wheelchair assistance and made sure they knew we were waiting. btw, we usually arrived at the pier around 1030ish, before it got too crowded. Eventually, the wheelchair pushers were done getting people off the ship and had their break or whatever and started getting the new people needing assistance onto the ship. At this point it becomes easy! The pusher will shepherd you through the line to check in (there may be a special handicapped check-in line - I don't remember, but either way, it is not a long wait. I also can't remember if this is a two step process to get onto the ship (some ports have people that move you in the terminal and ship personnel who take you from the terminal onto the ship). If it is a two step process, there may be a short wait at the end of the terminal to wait for the ship staff. This sounds maybe a bit complicated, but really it's not. I always consider myself over the hump when I am seated in the terminal. There may be some waiting but I have never been substantially delayed getting on the ship. Once you get the ship staff pushing you on the ship they will drop you off at the buffet or some other place, if you want. Another issue to anticipate is that you will perhaps need assistance to get from the buffet (or wherever) to your cabin. there is no further shipboard assistance! But the able-bodied person can go to the cabin when they are opened and get the wheelchair or scooter waiting there and bring it back to the disabled person. Then get an adult beverage and you can really start enjoying the cruise! Hope this helps.

From inside the port checkin area to onto the ship, does anyone recall how steep the incline of the ramps are, and how long the walk? Wondering if my mom would need a wheelchair assist (she usually objects). Thank you.

From inside the port checkin area to onto the ship, does anyone recall how steep the incline of the ramps are, and how long the walk? Wondering if my mom would need a wheelchair assist (she usually objects). Thank you.

An escalator brings you up to the correct level for the gangway. There is a walk but no incline.

Thank you all for the replies. My father is amputee, so can do limited walking but not any distance. He will primarily rely on his wheelchair once onboard the ship.

So, based on the responses, someone will get him on the ship at the port, but he may not have access to his wheelchair for some time after that? This will be a problem for him. What time do rooms usually open? Has anyone had success getting on the ship and being brought directly to their room to transfer to their rented wheelchair? On other lines, he has has been able to be brought to his room straightaway to get his wheelchair. He won't be happy if he is "stranded" elsewhere on the ship.

Arrive later, say 2 pm, and he will have immediate access to the room.

Rooms generally open at 1:00 or 1:30 in our experience. We have never asked if we could get the rented wheelchair/scooter early but it's worth asking.

We now always take a folding travel wheelchair so we are not dependent on waiting for someone to bring a chair to us at the beginning or end of a cruise. At the end of the cruise you are supposed to leave the rental in the room and wait in a designated area to meet up with pushers. On good days we put the carryon on the wheelchair and my husband pushes for support. On other days he holds the carrying on his lap and I push.

We got our travel chair 10 years ago with my husband's first amputation. Initially he used it to get around the house but now I keep it in the trunk of the car for when he needs help getting into a restaurant or Doctor appointment. We also use it for plane travel and check it at the plane entrance. It is only 18 pounds and folds to fairly small dimensions. We got ours at a local surgical supply store but they are available at allegro.com for as little as $130. It was well worth the cost for us as my husband always has some place to sit and we don't have to wait for a pusher if it is busy.

Have a great cruise!

Thanks for the additional responses. My dad has a transport chair, but for whatever reason doesn't want to bring it. I think we'll aim to get to the port around 11 am and just take it as it comes. He will see if he can get the "pusher" to take him directly to the room rather than deposit him in the buffet or elsewhere. He has had luck with this on NCL, so we are hoping that Celebrity will be the same. If not, he can spend some quality time sitting with his granddaughter while I go get his chair for him. One way or another, we'll get on the ship and have a good week. Logistics of getting on and off can be rough, but everything in between will hopefully make it worth it!

There is no access to the rooms until the announcement is made that the rooms are open. What worked on other lines probably wont work on Celebrity. the chair might not evenbe there until closer to the appointed time. I say go later when you are certain the room will be open.

I'm recently off the Summit at Port Liberty and was cruising with my mother who is wheelchair dependent. Since we had brought our wheelchair I transferred my mother into the wheelchair at the drop off point. I needed to leave my car to bring her into the terminal in order to have someone from Celebrity wait with her while I parked the car in the garage. Our check in was quick and I pushed the wc to the elevator, up to the main boarding area and then to the boarding ramp. I found the ramp to be rather steep, but suppose this depends on where the tides are at the time of boarding. Someone from the ship came down the ramp and offered to help with the transport. In fact, we were offered assistance each time we left or boarded the ship until we were off the ship on the last day. We boarded around 10:30 and our room was not ready until 1:00. Our room was located right next to the center set of elevators so we stopped at our floor and were allowed to pickup the scooter before the rooms were open. I'm not sure if this was typical or because we could actually see the scooter from where we were standing. One problem we experienced was tendering to/from Newport. We needed and received help getting my mother onto the tender on the way into Newport. On the way back we experienced more turbulence and it was downright scary getting my mother off the tender and back onto the ship, due to the rocking of the tender and it's banging against the ship.