ZellaLamb

We will be in Amsterdam in July. I would love to see your research! We are taking the Baltics cruise on the silluette.

Thank you!

Kate

We are going on a Baltic cruise in July so this question was very timely for me! Any other tips would be appreciated.

Carol,

I took the chair on a cruise in September and have flown with it about 5 times already. In general, it worked really well. It has great clearance and power for the gangways and folds up really easily. Some of the drawbacks are that it is very low to the ground, which I don't understand, and you really need to give yourself time to get used to the controls, which are very powerful and the front wheels may sometimes take you somewhere you don't expect when going down a steep hill. You may need to fold it up to get into your room. The turning radius is such that it is hard to get a good, straight in shot to your door way if the hall is narrow. I had an accessible room. One thing that was kind of nice was that I didn't have to park my scooter in the dining room as I could just drive straight up to the table.

Kate

If you only want to go to the port, take the scooter and walk with her. Unless you are going on a tour, there isn't much to see outside of the port area, which has lots of shops and a restaurants and a pool area.

My experience in Costa Maya when we tried to take a taxi from the port was not good. We were trying to get to the next little village and none of the drivers would even consider taking us, even though my husband showed them how small the scooter folded up. So, we set off on wheels/foot down the road. The village was a mile down and we spent an awesome day at a beach with buckets of beer at our feet. Getting back was no problem as all the taxis there were eager to take us. It was only the taxis at the port who were a problem.

What ship are you sailing on? The last two times that I was in Cayman, we either docked at the pier or we had a roll on Tender. No problems with my scooter. It is kind of a crap shoot but on the other hand, there really aren't any great tours to pre-book and you can play it by ear.

I do know that on Celebrity and Royal they have been very careful for me. When you let them know ahead of time, they let you know if there is any chance of cross contamination. As for bringing food items on board, I had a refrigerator to keep things cold. You might need to request it. For excursions, some ports are better than others. Where are you going?

I've just returned from the repositioning cruise of the Summit from Bayonne to San Juan. It was a very nice cruise with a relaxing 3 days at sea. The Summit is an older ship and does not have the same wheelchair access features as the new ones but the cabin was perfect and the crew went out of their way to be helpful.

HOWEVER -- I have an issue with the pool access. I was excited to see that they now have pool lifts on board (which they didn't the last time we sailed with this ship). When we boarded, I asked the pool butler if the lift worked into the inside (spa) pool. He assured me that the lifts worked and that, while it couldn't put me into the pool, just the hot tub, it would get me up to the pool level.

When I was ready to use it, I asked for it and after an hour of going back and forth, it turned out that there was a controller missing, which had to be ordered. This was not acceptable. I had given plenty of warning that I was going to use it and was assured that I could. My expectations were high and then were dashed. All of the accessible equipment should be maintained and checked before each cruise. I spoke to the officer in charge, who apologized and sent us a bottle of wine and chocolates. That was nice but I would prefer an assurance that the needs of the disabled are taken as seriously as the other passengers. This is not the first time that I have had a problem on a celebrity ship.

Darcie, I've currently got a Pride Go Go Elite Traveler Plus. I chose this one because it had a little higher clearance and more battery power but is still light weight enough for my husband to take apart and put anywhere.

However, you might consider an alternative. I have a new travel wheelchair made by Wheelchair88 dot com. It folds up large suitcase size and is powered by lithium ion batteries. I got the XL1000 (the heavier duty one) because I wanted the power to jump small curbs and do the rough terrain of some of the European cruises. It weighs 50 pounds. I've just returned from a week on the Celebrity Summit and can tell you that it had no problems with the gangways or with the occasional higher doorstep. It almost has too much power and you need to be aware of that. Let me know if you would like a full review.

Kate

Thanks for your replies. I've been to the area in St. Martin that you can just wheel to but our friends were hoping for a nicer beach. Has anyone been to Orient Beach? I have no desire to see the airplanes at Maho.

Also, no thoughts about Tortola? I remember taking a cab around the island and seeing some beach communities that might work but that was quite a while ago.

The beach ramp in Puerto Rico is gone? Oh no. I was counting on that one for my day in the water. I was happy to just sit in a bar and look at the beach for the other islands. Sigh.

I will be on the Celebrity Summit and none of their pools are accessible so I might not be getting in the water after all.

In both Rome and Livorno we used romeinlimo.com We had wonderful tours in a Mercedes mini van and the drivers were really helpful with my scooter. They are fairly expensive but charge by the vehicle, not the person.

When in Rome, they arranged for a special guide to take us through the disabled entrance so we were able to skip those long lines.

In Livorno, we went on a special wine country tour. I've seen Pisa several times and, IMHO, the post cards are better than the real thing.

Have a great time and you might try going to the roll call for that cruise and see who else is using which tours. We've been able to join others that are going in a van and just throw the scooter in the back.

I am taking the Celebrity Summit on it's repositioning cruise from Bayonne to San Juan next week. I'll be using my new collapsible electric wheelchair (Wheelchair88) that folds up really small. Our friends really want to spend the port time in St. Martin and Tortola at the beach. Does anyone know anything about the beaches there? I can climb up into a taxi but can not walk on the sand.

Also, I was once at a beautiful wheelchair accessible beach in Puerto Rico but can't remember what it was called or where it was. Any ideas?

Thank you!

Kate

I've done it, and will be doing it again in two weeks. If you have back issues, you may want to avoid the cobblestones because you will get quite a bit of bumping. What kind of scooter do you have? Is it heavy duty? If not, you should have someone with you to steady the scooter on the bad bumps. I say go for it!

I have a special carry bag with ice packs in it for my meds. The syringe and needles and drugs are all in there. Looks like a little lunch bag. Inside the bag is a letter from my doctor. I travel a lot and only once has that bag ever caused any questions. The TSA guy asked me if there were needles in there and I said yes. He dropped it like a hot potato and whisked it on through. The bag also keeps the meds cold for a good 24 hours.

Your cabin steward will provide you with a cute little sharps container and there will be sharps boxes in the handicapped restrooms. If your cabin doesn't have a fridge, your steward will store your meds for you and bring them when you need them.

Ditto on the bathrooms but I would just ask the steward for a container. They are really small. I kind of wish that I had one for traveling in general.

Well, we have looked at all the other options and there really aren't any that match this itinerary. We went ahead and booked an accessible balcony cabin for the 2017 South America grand voyage. I am a little apprehensive about the accessibility on this trip but my husband reallyreally wanted to do this.

Now, I am looking for tips and encouragement!

Thank you all,

Kate

zellalamb

Thank you!

I've been there in a scooter. We were staying in the Riviera Maya region and we had rented a car. The scooter came apart and went in the trunk. My memory is that the most difficult part of the adventure was getting from the car park to the pyramid grounds. The path was very bumpy with large rocks. I know that a couple of times I had to get off the scooter while my husband worked it around the obstacles. It's possible that we didn't even need to be on that path! Once in the grounds, the scooter went most places and I was quite happy to watch my husband climb the pyramid while I stayed safely on the ground.

I encourage you to do this. I have no idea how far Progresso is but I'm sure that you can make it work.

I've been to a lot of inaccessible places and I'm so glad that I made the effort while I could. I did help to have a very strong husband. :-)

Kate

Wow, I would love to speak to you directly about your experience. It sounds like you and I are in a similar boat, so to speak. Can I email you? My email is zellalamb@gmail.com.

Hmmm. Now I'd love to hear from someone that has actually seen one of the handicapped cabins. We do enjoy a small ship for longer trips as you really get to know everyone.

K

Yes, the itinerary is perfect for us and my husband really had his heart set on it. But, if I can't be independent and comfortable for that long a trip, I will get very crabby. Sigh. I will see if I can piece together some other ships to make a similar trip.

Thank you Darcie. Great suggestions.

Kate

My husband and I are starting to look into his " retirement cruise". He really wants to go on a 2 month cruise around the tip of South America in January 2017. The one ship that I know that does that is HA Prisendam but I've been advised that it wouldn't be a good fit for me. I use a scooter to get around.

Has anyone else done one of these long cruises and can you suggest other alternative options? We've mostly sailed on RC, HA and Celebrity.

Thank you in advance.

Kate

Thank you so much for your quick responses. Looks like this won't be the ship we are going on.

I'm going to start another thread asking for suggestions as to alternatives.

We are considering booking a two month cruise around South America for January 2017. The cruise we are looking at is on the Holland America Prinsendam. Has anyone here been on this ship? How accessible is it? I use a scooter to get around.

My first thought is that your friend should have a wheelchair with her. These ships are really large and it is exhausting trying to navigate them with limited mobility. She would really enjoy the trip much more if she weren't always worried about how far a walk something is and how long she will have to stand. There are lots of situations where standing around is what is happening.

Now, to answer your question, yes, there is a special line for the disabled and they will take you onboard in a wheelchair. I've never sailed on Norwegian but I assume that the wheelchair waiting area is close to the entrance. It is on other lines.