Need information on disability cabins.

[Hip Synch]

Hi there, both my son (30) and I (60) have MS. He is in a wheelchair and I use a walker and we desperately need to getaway. We live in Adelaide and are considering a short cruise out of Australia (3-5 days) and would love to know which ships have the best disability cabins. We are thinking of the Jewel, Celebrity and Princess ships only because they are the ones that come up most often at the travel agents. Of course money is important as we are on Disability Pensions.

We have found that there is not much information available combining people with a disability and cruises and this is a shame. He has a girlfriend who is also his Carer who will come along and then there is me. This would be our first cruise and we are just trying to see if we like it.

My questions are:

Do the above ships have good disability cabins or is there a better ship that sails out of Sydney or Melbourne? I thought I would like to see Sydney Harbor Bridge from the ship.

Is there a disability cabin we can all use to save money or is there another way?

We need the best value for money but not the cheapest if it is not very good.

Any hints at all for people with a disability would be greatly appreciated especially if you should have any photo's of good cabins. Or know of sites with some.

Any information would be greatly appreciated. :)

Thank you

[kiwipete]

We have recently cruised on Sun Princess in a wheelchair cabin and found it to be great. Surprising amount of room and a BIG bathroom with a wheel in shower with drop down seat and grab rails etc. The Dawn Princess and the Sea Princess are exactly the same layout. We would thoroughly recommend them.

[gbenjo]

All of the "mainstream" cruise lines cater well for disabled passengers and have staterooms designed for this purpose. In my job doing check in for Royal Caribbean and Celebrity I always see, on every cruise,quite a number of passengers with varying degrees of disability and all seem to have no problem cruising.

 

If you wanted to see the Harbour Bridge from the ship you should pick a ship that leaves from the Overseas Terminal rather than White Bay. The Radiance of the Seas is a good one for this as there is an open area at the back of the Windjammer Buffet area where you can sit and eat with both the harbour bridge and opera house in front of you.

 

I would suggest you ring the cruise lines direct and explain what your special need requirements would be and they could advise you.

[mattandkelly]

We absolutely love cruising and have found it to be the best form of accessible travel for us.

 

There is a forum on here specifically for Disabled Cruising which has heaps of fantastic information on all the cruise lines and ships so I recommend having a look at it. We found it really helpful in deciding which ships we would cruise and which we wouldnt. You will find photos on this forum as well.

 

We always cruise RCCL - Radiance and Rhapsody - and find them to be excellent. Make sure you speak to their Special Needs section so they know exactly what you require. Accessible cabins do tend to sell out very quickly as there are only a limited number on each ship. My hubby is a full time electric wheelchair user. He likes Radiance slightly more than Rhapsody as he thinks the layout is easier, cabins are pretty much the same on both.

 

We always get an accessible Junior Suite as we travel with our 2 young kids and the JS gives us enough room for the 4 of us plus all the equipment we need to travel with.

 

Im sure you will all have a great time!

[Hip Synch]

Thank you everyone for your wonderful advice. I hope I have done this right as I am new to using forums. :rolleyes:

[musicorn]

We have cruised with P&O, Royal Caribbean and Princess in disabled cabins.

 

Princess and Royal both have triple and quad cabins but P&O only have twins so you would need 2 cabins with them. Radiance of the Seas have great accessible public bathrooms as well.

 

I have attached some photos. The first 2 are an inside cabin on Sun Princess and the last 3 are an Oceanview on the Radiance of the Seas and we had a family of 4 adults in this one. Hope they give you some idea.

[marquisite]

If you are considering a big ship like Voyager of the Seas, voyager-class.com is a great site for photos. They've got some photos of the disabled cabins, from Inside to Junior Suite (use the menu on the left to access other accessible cabin types).

 

There's a photo of the bathroom for one of the accessible JS's on Rhapsody of the Seas on Photobucket plus a couple of others.

 

[Hip Synch]

Thank you so much everybody for your wonderful info and photo's.

[Cruise_me_Crazy]

Hi hip synch. :) welcome! Feel free to ask about anything cruising. If we don't know we will make it up!! :D *jokes*

[macntosh]

Hi Hip Synch,

 

Here is a review of the disabled cabin (7112) we had on Radiance 2 years ago.

http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=96655

 

I also posted photos of the cabin on CC at the same time.

http://pictures.cruisecritic.com/search.php?searchid=250134

 

There is also a large number of other reviews of disabled facilities on Radiance found at:

http://www.cruisecritic.com/royal-caribbean-disabled-cruises/cst/

 

Hope it helps.

[MargoK]

Hi Hip Synch,

 

Check my blog which has photos from the Diamond Princess accessible balcony cabin and Celebrity Century accessible oceanview cabin.

 

http://www.travellingkellys.blogspot.co.nz

 

Hope this helps.

Edited January 31, 2014 by MargoK