Wheelchair Accessibility on Carnival Valor

Hi all! First time poster but long time browser. I wasn't sure if I should post this here or in the Valor sub-forum, but I figure I might be able to get more accessibility info here. I use a large power chair to get around, so I need an ADA room when booking staterooms / hotels.

I'm looking to book a room on the Valor for January on a chartered cruise (Shiprocked). Before booking, I did the research, and noticed that this ship only has 4 "fully" ADA rooms (compared to ~13 on Victory). I called the charter company, and they said they got the same map from CCL, and that they hold the ADA rooms. When I called CCL to confirm that the online ADA deck plan was up to date, they sent me in circles and I never got an answer. Unfortunately, when I called the charter company yesterday to book during my pre-book time, the last of the 4 ADA rooms had already been booked to wheelchair users.

That's when we started to dig a little and look into the "AAC" (ambulatory) rooms. Some of the rooms have 360 views on the website, and some don't (and I'm not sure how accurate the views are - they seem to be the same images for the same room categories).

My question(s) for fellow travelers - Has anyone stayed in or have experience with an "AAC" room on the Valor? Essentially, I need to be able to 1 - Get into the Stateroom, 2 - Get into the bathroom (no step), and 3 - Be able to turn my chair around in the bathroom.

We are specifically looking at room 1003 on deck 10. I found one site with a few photos of that specific room, but it looks like they were taken before the ship was remodeled in 2016.

If anyone has any information on AAC rooms (or even this particular room in general), I would be very grateful. Thank you, and apologies for the long post!

Hi all! First time poster but long time browser. I wasn't sure if I should post this here or in the Valor sub-forum, but I figure I might be able to get more accessibility info here. I use a large power chair to get around, so I need an ADA room when booking staterooms / hotels.

 

I'm looking to book a room on the Valor for January on a chartered cruise (Shiprocked). Before booking, I did the research, and noticed that this ship only has 4 "fully" ADA rooms (compared to ~13 on Victory). I called the charter company, and they said they got the same map from CCL, and that they hold the ADA rooms. When I called CCL to confirm that the online ADA deck plan was up to date, they sent me in circles and I never got an answer. Unfortunately, when I called the charter company yesterday to book during my pre-book time, the last of the 4 ADA rooms had already been booked to wheelchair users.

 

That's when we started to dig a little and look into the "AAC" (ambulatory) rooms. Some of the rooms have 360 views on the website, and some don't (and I'm not sure how accurate the views are - they seem to be the same images for the same room categories).

 

My question(s) for fellow travelers - Has anyone stayed in or have experience with an "AAC" room on the Valor? Essentially, I need to be able to 1 - Get into the Stateroom, 2 - Get into the bathroom (no step), and 3 - Be able to turn my chair around in the bathroom.

 

We are specifically looking at room 1003 on deck 10. I found one site with a few photos of that specific room, but it looks like they were taken before the ship was remodeled in 2016.

 

If anyone has any information on AAC rooms (or even this particular room in general), I would be very grateful. Thank you, and apologies for the long post!

Have not been in Carnival Valor 1002. With that said being that a settlement between the USA Dept. of Justice and Carnival Inc. on January 23, 2015 that resulted in Carnival Inc. having to reclassify its accessible cabins on Carnival, Holland America and Princess the information posted on its website or obtained directly from a Representative is correct. Carnival Inc. is still under the microscope of the USA Department of Justice due to the lawsuit previously mention.

The renovations done in 2016 were to public areas specific to Carnival's Fun 2.0 program. All AAC cabins have a standard cabin entrance door of 23" wide from door frame to door frame. After deducting 2" for the depth if the door as it does not open flush to the wall the actual clearance is only 21" . Therefore even if the bathroom might be workable your wheelchair would have to be less than 21" wide to enter the cabin. Furthermore if the entrance door had widened to 32" the configuration of the bathroom in Carnival Valor 1003 does work for anyone in wheelchair and can't be changed due to how that tier is plumbed. The issues are :

The toilet is not a raised toilet

The toilet is positioned on a short angled wall and is not positioned next to a parallel wall either to the right or left of the toilet. Therefore the toilet has no grab bars. In order for the toilet to be classified as "Fully Accessible" there is to be a grab bar directly behind the toilet with another directly parallel to the toilet on the right or left of the toilet. The grab bar behind the toilet and the one on the parallel wall should be at 90 degrees of each one. The toilet doesn't even have fold down grab bars.

The toilet is postioned directly next to the sink and varying distance from another angled wall

There is no area for a person to properly position a wheelchair or mobility scooter to facilitate a side to side toilet transfer or any safe transfer being there's no direct grab bars.

Had you done a YouTube search for a video of Carnival Valor cabin 1003 a video of Carnival liberty 1003 would have appeared showing all this.

In short, if you have anything bigger than a walker, avoid the "ambulatory" rooms at all costs! Lesson learned the hard way. :eek:

Had you done a YouTube search for a video of Carnival Valor cabin 1003 a video of Carnival liberty 1003 would have appeared showing all this.

I believe I watched this video a few times. It's hard to calculate the door sizes or if there was a step up to the bathroom.

Thank you both for your responses! I'm bummed, but this was very helpful.

got to the VTG website and it has door widths of all the aav fac and single side cabins on carnival ships, but not easy to find, you'll have to click on the individual ship listing, then click the handicap link and then click another linik on that page! finally you'll get a chart with all the accessible cabins listed and bathroom and entry doors widths of each type and the specific cabin numbers of each room and how its listed as handicap accessible