Staterooms for the Disabled

[RJChatsworth]

It is alleged that some able bodied people book cabins for the disabled because the cabins are bigger. Considering there are few disabled cabins this seems an extraordinarily selfish thing to do if it is true.

 

Cunard tells me that sometimes upgrades are given to able bodied passengers into disabled cabins when the conditions are you can't turn it down. This really gives me the creeps as I wouldn't, as an able bodied person, want to be seen coming out of one or to occupy one when disabled people in lower category disabled staterooms were denied the upgrade due to my World Club or whatever status in Cunard.

 

Do others feel the same?

[Underwatr]

If the alternative is that the stateroom goes unsold?

[capnpugwash]

It is alleged that some able bodied people book cabins for the disabled because the cabins are bigger. Considering there are few disabled cabins this seems an extraordinarily selfish thing to do if it is true.

 

Cunard tells me that sometimes upgrades are given to able bodied passengers into disabled cabins when the conditions are you can't turn it down. This really gives me the creeps as I wouldn't, as an able bodied person, want to be seen coming out of one or to occupy one when disabled people in lower category disabled staterooms were denied the upgrade due to my World Club or whatever status in Cunard.

 

Do others feel the same?

 

Afaik it is not possible to book a disabled cabin unless you are disabled, similarly it is not possible to travel on Cunard with a wheelchair without booking a disabled cabin. So if the disabled passenger is happily ensconced in the cabin which he booked, is it anyone's business that another passenger receives an upgrade to a cabin that would otherwise remain empty. I've been in a few disabled cabins and I don't think that I would be rejoicing with the low level rails in the wardrobes and other useful adaptations for the use of disabled passengers.

[Kamloops50]

It is alleged that some able bodied people book cabins for the disabled because the cabins are bigger. Considering there are few disabled cabins this seems an extraordinarily selfish thing to do if it is true.

 

Cunard tells me that sometimes upgrades are given to able bodied passengers into disabled cabins when the conditions are you can't turn it down. This really gives me the creeps as I wouldn't, as an able bodied person, want to be seen coming out of one or to occupy one when disabled people in lower category disabled staterooms were denied the upgrade due to my World Club or whatever status in Cunard.

 

Do others feel the same?

 

If no one books a disabled cabin, I personally don't see why the cruise line can't put whoever they want in that cabin as long as making them money.

[pmb1]

On our very first QM2 cruise in 2004 we were "upgraded" from regular PG cabin 10050 to wheelchair accessible Q5 cabin 9034. It was really no upgrade because the large bathroom with the huge wheelchair friendly shower replaces the regular bathroom and the walk-in closet and the dressing table (which has become my wife's favorite QG amenity). Fortunately, on the second day we swapped cabins with the lady in Q5 cabin 9043 who couldn't manage the regular tub. She was smart enough to describe her problem to the Chief Purser and he promptly suggested the swap.

[Lanky Lad]

I have been upgraded to a cabin for the disabled, even though I am able bodied. It never crossed my mind that others might "judge" me for being there.

[eatsallinsects]

I have been upgraded to a cabin for the disabled, even though I am able bodied. It never crossed my mind that others might "judge" me for being there.

**************************

Same here!

[Scrapnana]

I would like to think that if an accessible stateroom went unsold that Cunard (or any cruise line) would offer it first to others in a lower grade accessible staterooms (maybe wishful thinking on my part). There are some who might not wish to be "upgraded" for any number of reasons. If nobody who really needs the stateroom wants it, I don't have a problem with the cruise line giving someone an upgrade or an upsell.

[fantasy51]

I agree with Scrapnana.

 

First priority goes to the disabled. Give them plenty of time to book.

Second priority is to upgrade someone who is disabled.

If a stateroom is still left, then at the last minute, upgrade someone else.

[broadwater]

What is Cunard's definition of disabled? My mother in law has a blue badge and we use a wheelchair for shore excursions but she can walk around her cabin. The bath is impossible though. I am surprised Cunard don't have more separate showers. Oceania may suit us better, their bathrooms in their inexpensive suites (by comparison) are the best we have experienced. We are attracted to one of the Cunard itineraries however.

[zider]

Afaik it is not possible to book a disabled cabin unless you are disabled, similarly it is not possible to travel on Cunard with a wheelchair without booking a disabled cabin. So if the disabled passenger is happily ensconced in the cabin which he booked, is it anyone's business that another passenger receives an upgrade to a cabin that would otherwise remain empty. I've been in a few disabled cabins and I don't think that I would be rejoicing with the low level rails in the wardrobes and other useful adaptations for the use of disabled passengers.

Sorry Captain i disagree with you You do not have to book a Disabled cabin on Cunard if you use a wheelchair!! But you must inform them of the fact that you are taking a wheelchair onboard

 

Cunard then will send you a form to fill in so that you can give them sizes of the chair as long as the chair can go through a normal sized door either complete or collapsed you are cleared to board.

 

All they ask is that you don't leave it the cabin causing a obstruction.

[capnpugwash]

Sorry Captain i disagree with you You do not have to book a Disabled cabin on Cunard if you use a wheelchair!! But you must inform them of the fact that you are taking a wheelchair onboard

 

Cunard then will send you a form to fill in so that you can give them sizes of the chair as long as the chair can go through a normal sized door either complete or collapsed you are cleared to board.

 

All they ask is that you don't leave it the cabin causing a obstruction.

 

Thanks for that, I recall a lot of discussion a year or so ago about not leaving chairs in corridors and I thought that part of the discussion was that Cunard were insisting that any wheelchair users booked disability equipped cabins and that this was unfair as there aren't that many on board. :)

[BlueRiband]

The huge blow up last year was over mobility scooters. Cunard requires that an HC adapted stateroom, or PG suite or above, has to be booked if one brings a mobility scooter on board. Manual wheelchair users are not thus bound.

 

From Cunard's FAQ:

Can I book an adapted stateroom if I have a disability that does not require the use of a wheelchair or mobility scooter?

 

Yes, you may occupy an accessible stateroom if you require the use of its facilities, for example the wet room. However, please note the furniture within the stateroom is lower and further apart and is designed for a wheelchair user. Please note that guests who do not have disabilities should not reserve these staterooms.

 

If an accessible stateroom is booked without good reason and is required by another guest, we reserve the right to request that you move to a standard stateroom; at your cost if necessary.

 

On QM2 the HC staterooms don't come with larger balconies or greater floor space compared to standard cabins in the same grade so there is really no incentive for an abled bodied person to book them. If Cunard upgraded me from a PG to a Q7 I'd take it but I would not book Q7.

Edited November 10, 2013 by BlueRiband

[capnpugwash]

The huge blow up last year was over mobility scooters. Cunard requires that an HC adapted stateroom, or PG suite or above, has to be booked if one brings a mobility scooter on board. Manual wheelchair users are not thus bound.

 

From Cunard's FAQ:

Can I book an adapted stateroom if I have a disability that does not require the use of a wheelchair or mobility scooter?

 

Yes, you may occupy an accessible stateroom if you require the use of its facilities, for example the wet room. However, please note the furniture within the stateroom is lower and further apart and is designed for a wheelchair user. Please note that guests who do not have disabilities should not reserve these staterooms.

 

If an accessible stateroom is booked without good reason and is required by another guest, we reserve the right to request that you move to a standard stateroom; at your cost if necessary.

 

That doesn't seem very fair to me when some of the smaller motorised scooters are eminently portable and can easily be accommodated in a regular stateroom.

[BlueRiband]

That doesn't seem very fair to me when some of the smaller motorised scooters are eminently portable and can easily be accommodated in a regular stateroom.

 

Yes, that was a big argument in last year's "mobiity scooter" thread. Some said they have long used a collapsible scooter in a standard stateroom and don't see why this is now a problem:

 

Q - My scooter will collapse and I have never had any problems storing it in standard cabins before. Why can't I book a standard cabin from 2013?

A - There are too many different makes and sizes of mobility scooter for us to be able to make exceptions for different models. A collapsible scooter is also not a guarantee that the owner will collapse it and store it safely on every occasion, so we have to apply a consistent policy across the board to assure the safety of our ships and all on board.

 

Link to the full scooter policy here.

[capnpugwash]

Yes, that was a big argument in last year's "mobiity scooter" thread. Some said they have long used a collapsible scooter in a standard stateroom and don't see why this is now a problem:

 

Q - My scooter will collapse and I have never had any problems storing it in standard cabins before. Why can't I book a standard cabin from 2013?

A - There are too many different makes and sizes of mobility scooter for us to be able to make exceptions for different models. A collapsible scooter is also not a guarantee that the owner will collapse it and store it safely on every occasion, so we have to apply a consistent policy across the board to assure the safety of our ships and all on board.

 

Link to the full scooter policy here.

 

They wouldn't need to apply a consistent policy if Cunard shoreside had enough sense to work out what measurements mean. They just take the easy way out!

[Chunky2219]

Disabled cruiser here. Been there, done that.

 

Firstly, when you make a booking, you can have your booking marked as no upgrades. Therefore, if anyone is troubled by the bigger bathroom or the potential stigma of having to limp a little when exiting the cabin, the problem is eminently solvable. Personally, if I had the chance I'd lap up the extra floor space.

 

Secondly, when you book an accessible cabin you have to fill in a form with all the details. I guess that Cunard would weed out anyone booking soley for the real estate. As you might expect with Cunard, the information doesn't seem to be kept on file so you need to file the same form in every time.

 

Thirdly, the Cap'n is almost right. This time last year Cunard and P&O announced that if you have a scooter you need an accessible cabin or a suite. In the small print it also said wheelchair, but it was suspected on the disabled part of the forum that you would get away with a folding chair. Mine doesn't fold, so even in a P&O mini-suite I would have to sit on the floor in the corridor to take the wheels off. Been there, done that too.

 

Recently, they've announced a small selection of branded scooters that you can have in a normal cabin. So scooter users still have access to late booking prices but they might need to buy a new scooter.

 

Please, no-one be uncomfortable about being assigned an accessible cabin, especially if you score one of the very few QG versions. No-one is going to know unless they are sad enough to ask your cabin number and look you up on a deck plan. There might be some malcontent like me in a wheelchair who will know the game and take a crafty look in the cabin when passing, but as I learned long ago, you can't judge a book by its cover and arm chair medics are ten a penny. Just remember to limp a little until you reach the lifts.

 

.

Edited November 10, 2013 by Chunky2219
typo

[Underwatr]

On QM2 the HC staterooms don't come with larger balconies or greater floor space compared to standard cabins in the same grade so there is really no incentive for an abled bodied person to book them. If Cunard upgraded me from a PG to a Q7 I'd take it but I would not book Q7.

At the other extreme from your example, we once saw a QM2 inside stateroom considerably larger than other insides and were told that it was an accessible stateroom.

[pmb1]

QM2's on-line deck plan indicates 32 wheelchair accessible cabins:

 

10001,10034,10053

 

9025,9034

 

8124,8126,8127,8128,8129,8130

 

6001,6002.6009,6010,6037,6040,6047,6050

 

5013,5019,5057,5130,5176,5223,5248,5250,5267,5269

 

4016,4019,4042

 

Curiously, ask.cunard.com omits 10001 from its list.

[eatsallinsects]

The actual number of passengers any cabin can accommodate will depend on the individual cabin itself as some are limited to a maximum of one, two, three of four.

***********************************************

This was on the Cunard Help page!

What cabins and what ships have cabins which are "limited to a maximum of one"?

A glitch on their part?

[vissi877]

Hi RJChatsworth,

 

I travelled on QM2 in April last year on a world cruise sector and I booked a Q7 cabin as a guarantee rate and was allocated a Q7 cabin on deck 9. I discovered afterwards that all Q7s are wheelchair accessible and I am able-bodied so believe me, I did everything I could to change cabins. It was literally impossible to do so as the entire ship was booked out on that sector so I had no choice but to take it.

 

I'm sure if there was someone else booked to travel on that sector who required a wheelchair accessible cabin they would have been allocated mine, as Cunard was aware I was able bodied and I had requested to change rooms. The alternative would have been that cabin stayed empty and I stayed home.

[Underwatr]

What cabins and what ships have cabins which are "limited to a maximum of one"?

A glitch on their part?

Possibly a leftover from QE2. Edited November 11, 2013 by Underwatr

[Olliesmum]

Sorry Captain i disagree with you You do not have to book a Disabled cabin on Cunard if you use a wheelchair!! But you must inform them of the fact that you are taking a wheelchair onboard

 

All they ask is that you don't leave it the cabin causing a obstruction.

 

My son is wheelchair user but can also walk short distances. We always book a AB stateroom as he doesn't need rails etc. The wheelchair is kept folded up in the corner.

 

A story- We were on the Queen Victoria when The Duchess of Cornwall paid a visit in Liverpool. We moved from the outside deck to go to our stateroom to find the lifts were "out of bounds" during her visit for security reasons. We were quite happy to wait a bit but Camilla's security officer insisted my son override security to use the lift, she radioed ahead to her colleagues we were on our way and we were given a security escort We felt dead important.

[keithm]

It is alleged that some able bodied people book cabins for the disabled because the cabins are bigger. Considering there are few disabled cabins this seems an extraordinarily selfish thing to do if it is true.

 

Cunard tells me that sometimes upgrades are given to able bodied passengers into disabled cabins when the conditions are you can't turn it down. This really gives me the creeps as I wouldn't, as an able bodied person, want to be seen coming out of one or to occupy one when disabled people in lower category disabled staterooms were denied the upgrade due to my World Club or whatever status in Cunard.

 

Do others feel the same?

We got a disabled stateroom on QV in 2012. It was larger than a P Grill suite. We aren't disabled(though my spouse has a transplant)We got it because there were not enough disabled on board for that trip. I feel that as long as there's more available disabled cabins v/s disabled pax, then there should be no problem. When booking another cruise on board the booking person said Cunard makes sure there's enough availabe rooms for disabled pax & will move non disabled out into another room(with no upgrade!)

[keithm]

The huge blow up last year was over mobility scooters. Cunard requires that an HC adapted stateroom, or PG suite or above, has to be booked if one brings a mobility scooter on board. Manual wheelchair users are not thus bound.

 

From Cunard's FAQ:

Can I book an adapted stateroom if I have a disability that does not require the use of a wheelchair or mobility scooter?

 

Yes, you may occupy an accessible stateroom if you require the use of its facilities, for example the wet room. However, please note the furniture within the stateroom is lower and further apart and is designed for a wheelchair user. Please note that guests who do not have disabilities should not reserve these staterooms.

 

If an accessible stateroom is booked without good reason and is required by another guest, we reserve the right to request that you move to a standard stateroom; at your cost if necessary.

 

On QM2 the HC staterooms don't come with larger balconies or greater floor space compared to standard cabins in the same grade so there is really no incentive for an abled bodied person to book them. If Cunard upgraded me from a PG to a Q7 I'd take it but I would not book Q7.

On QV/QE that's not true. We had been given a HC steroom & it was larger than any standard room. It was larger than the P-1 that we were offered in an upgrade(full pay upgrade,which we declined)