Disabled review of the Carnival Spirit

Carnival Spirit Disabled Review Sept 24 – Oct 18

Vancouver – Hawaii - Ensenada

My mom is 71, unable to walk because of a stroke, and gets around by using her electric scooter. Mom also can not see very well at all.

We began our trip in Vancouver. Vancouver is very accessible with curb cut outs and also has lots of handicapped accessible taxi vans. We stayed at the Hyatt Regency thanks to Priceline. The Hyatt was great however it only had one handicapped entrance and exit. All other exit and entrances had stairs. We reserved a handicapped acessible room and it was nice with a nice accessible bathroom.

We had no problem with embarkation. It was quite long for the agent to check us in but we didn't mind. We were able to skip all the lines because of Mom being in her scooter.. We still have trouble doing this, as we feel so guilty as it is like we are butting in line. :o

We had a cabin on the Main Deck 4. It was a handicapped accessible cabin with an obstructed view. We had a little slice of a view between two lifeboats if you looked out the window and to your left. It really wasn't much of a view at all . We were just happy to have a handicapped cabin and some natural light. By the way, I booked this handicapped cabin a year in advance and at that time was told it was the last handicapped cabin available.

On the first leg of our cruise there were very few disabled passengers that I saw. On the second leg there were so many handicapped people. I have never seen so many scooters, wheelchairs and walkers on one cruise ship in my life. Several times as I walked down passenger hall ways I saw wheelchairs and scooters parked outside regular cabins. I thought this was not allowed as it was a safety issue but I saw this down most of the hallways of the ship.

The ship was pretty accessible except for deck 10 which was very difficult to get to. The main show room had one handicapped entrance with a ramp. All other entrances had stairs. There was handicapped seating close to the front which thrilled my mom as she cant see very well. Handicapped seating is usually at the very back and mom isn't able to see a thing at that distance.

We had the usual trouble of trying to get an elevator. Able bodied people would practically crawl over mom to get in the elevator before her ever though we had been there waiting before them. I usually had to be assertive and hold the elevator door and not let anyone in until mom got in.

The handicapped public bathrooms on this ship are NOT handicapped accessible. They say they are but they are not. We tested it one night. It took 3 peoples help for mom to use the handicapped accessible restroom. There are two very heavy doors to be able to get into the bathroom. Even the stall doors were very heavy and hard to open. It is impossible to try to drive a scooter and open and hold a very heavy door at the same time. Mom would have had to do this three times. I have never seen such unaccessible handicapped bathrooms in my life. There was only one public bathroom with an automatic door, however once you got in the only handicapped stall was out of order. So this bathroom was useless to mom. This stall was out of order for most of the cruise. So, unfortunately, every time mom had to use the restroom she had to go back to the cabin. This was very inconvenient especially if we were at the front of the ship we would have to go all the way to our cabin at the back of the ship. :mad: Mom cant see very well. The only way to tell the ladies room from the men's was a very small emblem on the door. For the woman there was a small pair of red lips. That is all the door had. No Woman sign at all. This was impossible for mom to make out. I can't remember what emblem was on the men's door. But it turned out mom couldn't use the public bathrooms anyway.

Our cabin size was doable. It certainly was the smallest handicapped cabin we have ever had. Even our handicapped cabin on the Carnival Valor was larger than this cabin. Both NCL and Princess had much larger handicapped cabins. However, we made do by removing some of the furniture in the cabin and rearranging the beds. We put both beds by the wall this gave us more room in the middle of the room with the beds out of the way for mom to maneuver her scooter. The bathroom was fine and we had the usual flood after showering. I sure wish they would have automatic doors to get into the handicapped cabins.

We were given a table at the very front of the dining room. This was wonderful so mom didn't have to drive an obstical course to get to a table at the back of the dining room. Mom would always transfer to a regular seat at the table and the waiters would fight over who would get to drive mom's scooter to an out of the way place to park. After dinner a waiter would deliver mom's scooter to her. We were told large print menus were available but they never were. I would usually read the menu to mom. The one time mom asked our waiter to read the menu when I was not there, he refused and walked away. The asst waiter finallly did though.

We didn't eat in the buffet very often as it is too difficult for mom to get around. Also there was no staff to help mom carry or fill her plate. I was happy to do this as she is my mom but it would have been nice to have some help so we could eat at the same time.

We were not able to take mom's scooter off at tender ports but we didn't expect them to. The staff was very helpful getting mom down the ramps off the ship and onto the pier.

Hawaii was pretty accessible. Honolulu is excellent.. Lots of curb cut outs and the city buses are all handicapped accessible. Mom was thrilled to be able to go everywhere on her scooter. The other islands weren't quite as good as they weren't as populated or big. We didn't book any ship excursions because of mom being handicapped and the cost. I didn't see any handicapped accessible shore excursions and even if I did find one I know their idea of handicapped accessible isn't the same as ours.:confused:

Mom and I are very easy to please. We are thrilled just to have someone cook our meals and make our beds. We loved our cruise on the Carnival Spirit however, we love all our cruises. How could you not. :D

I was on the Carnival Spirit and agree wholeheartedly with you that the lack of truly handicap-accessible public bathrooms is a disgrace! I, too, ended up having to go back to our cabin every time I needed a restroom. Really awkward and challenging.

I am surprised, though, that you didn't find the cabin to be large! We were quite impressed with ours on the Spirit -- also an "obstructed view", peering through the bottom of a lifeboat - but we found it to be quite spacious (compared to other HC cabins..particularly the one we just encountered on the NCL Jewel)

I've found, by the way, that using a power wheelchair gives me much more maneuverability than a scooter, especially getting in and out of tight places, and handicap bathrooms. I used to use a scooter until I tried a power chair once..and I'll never go back.

Do you remember the cabin # on the spirit?

Sandy

Do you remember the cabin # on the spirit?

 

Sandy

Yes, we were in 4203.

We were on the Spirit in October to the Mexican Riviera. We had a handicap cabin #6281 with a balcony. That cabin had an automatic door, just swipe your card and the door opened automatically, inside the cabin had a button to push to open the door. The balcony was double the size of the standard balconies, the room was large and comfortable. The bathrrom could accomodate the power chair easily. The only time the bathroom floor flooded was when the shower curtain wasn't pulled closed. I do agree that the power chair is much better to get around than the scooter.

If I had to complain about anything it would be that it took about 20 or 30 seconds for the door to close automatically, which could really seem like a long time. The cabin stewart did warn us about dressing in the cabin area, that if he didn't know we were in the cabin it could get embarrassing for us and him when the door opened. lol

It was the most comfortable handicap cabin we have ever been in.