Carnival Valor - Suites Cabin Door Width - Scooter Access

Hi, I am looking for some help here. We are considering Valor next year (or maybe Glory - both will be doing 5 night cruises next year during our spring break schedule, one from Galveston and the other from New Orleans).

I realize these two ships are the same class with virtually identical layouts. I also realize they both have exactly one fully accessible suite, room 7228, and one fully accessible balcony, room 6208.

We are planning to bring our own 24 inch wide electric shop scooter chair for my 75 year old mom to get around the ship. She does not need it to get around the room and she does not need a fully accessible bath or roll in shower, though a handheld sprayer in the shower is very helpful.

Of course the scooter has to be stored in the room. We can take it apart every night for her and get it in the door that way if absolutely needed; however she tends to live on a later schedule that we do, so it is not ideal for her to have to rely on us doing that each night and sequestering her after a certain hour (basically our bedtime and we will not be sharing the room with her).

Except for the wide entry door, a large suite would be better for her this time and she is ready for a splurge - The Grand Suite or Captain's Suite give a lot of floor space and she will most likely spend a lot of hours on the balcony.

I am trying to determine if suite entry doors are in fact wider than regular cabins, though all official sources say they are the standard 22 inches. . . it seems to me as I have passed them in hallways on prior cruises, they sometimes are wider. I have also seen some people say that Carnival rents scooters only 21 inches wide, that can get into any cabin door. If so perhaps we should do that rather than dragging our chair all the way down there and struggling to get it in and out of the room (driving to port).

So for all you suites guests, have you noticed your door being wider, and

For all you scooter renting guests, does the rental scooter fit into the standard door?

With the aging of the baby boomers I am surprised this information seems a bit hard to come by. Over on the special needs threads, everyone advises checking the information via official sources only, but let's face it. Real life is full of hacks and actual end user customers often find better solutions on their own than the ones provided by vendors. I know I could call Carnival and speak directly to someone, but frankly I trust you smarties here more, knowing someone has been in the same situation, where the person at the call center might just be looking at the same sheet of official specs I can find online.

I am guessing Carnival being more geared toward families is not looking to attract a ton of limited mobility folks, those who are not fully disabled but don't want to walk miles and miles across the ship every day going from restaurant to casino to trivia game to show, back to the room for naps and back out again, etc.

So-called regular cabins or suites with just enough door width to allow scooter storage might help them fill up the ships during off seasons, however, and to do what we are trying to do, take grandma on our next spring break cruise.

Scooters, especially if 24" wide, will not likely fit in a standard door. Accessible cabins have wider doors, so I would suggest booking her in the accessible cabin (balcony or suite). You can rent a scooter, not from Carnival, but from their approved vendor. They will deliver to and pick up from the stateroom (very convenient). Your mom could drive her own scooter to the regular room, you could take it apart for storage, and then she could motivate around on the rented scooter for the duration of the cruise. Verify the door width with Carnival, though, before you go through all that (speaking from experience!).

One thing I noted when taking pictures of cabins on Carnival ships is that suites do not have wider doors than regular cabins. You could always tell a suite on HAL because the door was wider. Not so on Carnival. Leave her big scooter at home and rent one for the cruise. The companies that rent for the cruise lines (Carnival does not have scooters for rent) know the requirements to fit into the cabin. EM

an accessible cabin has a width of 32 and others at 22. measure your scooter to see how wide it is. to see if it will pass through the 22 inch door.

I am floored that these two ships only have 2 HC balconies

an accessible cabin has a width of 32 and others at 22. measure your scooter to see how wide it is. to see if it will pass through the 22 inch door.

 

 

 

I am floored that these two ships only have 2 HC balconies

I agree. There are several of what they call ambulatory accessible cabins with the 22 inch doors. As Americans age they could be missing a lot of business.

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