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44minimum

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Posts posted by 44minimum

  1. I was there two years ago on a Royal Caribbean ship and I had been informed from the little Royal Caribbean people on two or three different occasions that this was a tender port and that you must be able to walk onto the tender boat. I use a power wheelchair full time, so we did not even bother trying to make plans for Belize. I was just going to stay on the ship. The morning we stopped at Belize, the cabin steward told me that there was a roll on tender boat and that I should go ashore. He turned out to be absolutely correct. I drove my wheelchair right up onto the tender boat, and when we reached the dock drove right down the ramp and onto the dock. We didn't really do much except for a little bit of shopping right there at the dock area, I was with an older lady who had a high dollar camera. There were a bunch of teenagers hanging around the area where you go through the gate and out into the proper city and she didn't want to lose her camera, so we played it safe and stayed at the dock area. But yeah, they do have at least one tender boat that you can just drive right onto. The seas were calm while I was there and it may very well be a different story if the water is choppy and the tender boat is bouncing up and down a lot. That would make for a tricky ride, and it might even end up in some misery for you.

  2. We're kind of tossing around the idea of a Royal Caribbean cruise that would visit Falmouth Jamaica, Grand Cayman and Cozumel. I use a power chair full-time and am wondering about the accessibility at Falmouth. We would probably want to just stay in town for a while and check out things and I know there are a wheelchair accessible vans you can rent to go off and do your own excursions. Are things around town accessible? How about trolleys and tour buses with wheelchair lifts? And I have read that the residents really harass you, offering their guidance services, trying to get you to take their buddies taxi on some overpriced excursion, things like that. Can anyone verify this?

     

    Grand Cayman I know is a tender port and everyone says that they will not or probably will not take a power chair onto a tender boat. I was on a Royal Caribbean cruise a couple of years ago that stopped at Belize and it was supposed to be a tender port also, but they had one tender boat with a ramp that I just drove my power chair up and onto the tender boat, then drove off the ramp and down onto the dock. No problem at all. So I guess my question is, do they take power chairs on to tender boats at Grand Cayman, or do some of the cruise lines do that and others don't, or what? I would like to hear from anyone that has visited Grand Cayman on a Royal Caribbean cruise.

  3. I visited Roatan in April 2013 just for the day, and I wish I could've been three or four days. Beautiful place. I use a power chair full-time and we rented a wheelchair accessible van for the day (the only one available on the island, I was told). It would be nice if there were other choices for transportation. I wanted to see the whole island, so we drove from one end to the other, then we stopped at a restaurant and ate. It was very accessible, but I can't remember the name of it. The road was pretty bad, fewer potholes would be nice. The shopping area at the dock for Royal Caribbean was very accessible, but we really didn't have enough time to stop at very many other places to shop. The West End (I think it is called) had the streets torn up because they were putting in some kind of water lines or electrical lines or something, and our driver would not take us there. I think the best thing you might do is to come up with some sort of an online, printable guide that lists all of the features and attractions on the island, and also tells you if they are fully accessible, sort of accessible, or strictly off-limits for wheelchair users. Something like that that could be printed off and carried around would have saved me an awful lot of time searching the Internet. We did go to Victor Botton's so that some of our party could do the zip lines and then we played with the monkeys. Overall it was a neat day, just not long enough.

  4. I use a power chair full-time and at Cozumel, we rented a van for the entire day. We had it for 5 or 6 hours and the cost was $180, he took us wherever we wanted to go. It had a wheelchair lift at the rear. And we planned it out ahead of time, reserving it a month or so in advance. It's a little expensive for a rental car for one day, but you get a driver, and I figured that I would probably never be back in Cozumel, so I wanted to drive around and see the place. Same thing in Roatan, a handicap van was expensive, but I doubt I will ever be back there either, so I wanted to see the entire island. And I'm not sorry that I splurged and did.

  5. Sounds good. Like I said, I cannot get out of my electric chair and walk any so I was just planning on staying aboard the ship in Belize. But on Roatan and in cozumel I will take all the information I can get about a minivan with a ramp or a full size van with a lift and also just the general accessibility of the sidewalks, shops, Et cetera. Thanks

  6. I already posted this in the first time cruisers section but I will put it here also in the hopes of getting even more responses.

     

    I'll be going on my first cruise ever in the spring of 2012 on the Mariner Of The Seas to the Western Caribbean, Cozumel, Belize and Roatan. I'm in an electric wheelchair full time, cannot get out of it and walk a few steps and I understand that in Cozumel and Roatan the ship will pull right up next to the dock and I can just drive my chair down the plank onto the dock and go have fun. At Belize there is a tender involved and I will just stay aboard the ship that day. How wheelchair accessible is Cozumel and Roatan? Will I have trouble finding a minivan or full size van taxi with a lift to get around? Is there a web site somewhere that will list these that are available to rent? I would like to go of some kind of shore excursion if I can find some that will accommodate me.

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