Hard of Hearing- New Ships

All these new ships .... any improvement with the Assistive Listening Devices? Any chance I can hear the comedian or the audience participation shows?

Hi FAD:

I am deaf with bilateral cochlear implants. My most recent cruise was on HAL's Koningsdam on May 21st and I was very disappointed that they had not improved the ALD for the showrooms. In fact, it was the exact same equipment that was available to me on my Carnival Miracle cruise in February. (Miracle was launched in 2003.) The cable I use for my implants did not fit.

The showroom was not looped. You'd think that in this day and age, such a simple thing could be accomplished with little financial drain.

The captions on the TV in our cabin were horrible - Intermittent and then sometimes they'd "flash" for a second. It was useless and I gave up.

The old light flasher door knocker thingy was replaced by something that a person who was hard of hearing might notice if someone rang the bell on the door. It did not have the dependable strobe light, but instead had a small, red LED light and made a small sound. So for someone who is deaf when not wearing processors (that's me!), the system was a complete flop. I unplugged it and put it on the back of the couch. I informed the cabin steward that he would be best off to not try to come in the room in the early mornings 'cause he might get an eyeful. (I do not wear my processors when I shower and only put them on after I am dressed, and I'm fat, so he stayed away. :D)

So on HAL, at least, nothing has changed, not even on their newest ship. At one point there were 3 officers in my cabin looking at the new door flasher light thingy and they all shook their heads. I reminded them that the system was fine for someone with slight hearing loss, but that a swift couple of knocks on the door would be louder. There was some real head scratching going on.

My next cruise is in January on the Caribbean Princess. I was not even deaf the last time I cruised on Princess, so this will be a new experience for me.

As an FYI - I lost my hearing in the blink of an eye for no reason that the world of modern medicine can figure out on September 20, 2012. I am so very grateful for my cochlear implants, but am still getting used to the idea of being deaf and am still learning about what may or may not be out there to assist me. CI hearing is so very different than natural hearing.

My husband is very helpful to me and I am so lucky that I have him to be my "ears" during certain times. I've been on 6 cruises since my hearing loss and activation of CIs and the grade that the cruise industry gets from me on assisting the hearing impaired is a big, fat "F".

I am still so happy to cruise, though... I just get a seat up front for shows, if I there are any available.

Cheers!