Handicapped cabins on Coral Princess

[warrior69]

Booked on Coral Princess for 11/28 cruise to Panama Canal. Will be traveling with my partner who will be using a rented wheelchair to get around the ship and a rollator walker in the stateroom. We've got a handicapped stateroom on 10th Deck and would appreciate feedback from anyone who's had the experience of the handicapped staterooms and other handicap-accessible facilities, as well as the attentiveness of the crew toward handicapped passengers.

Mike Mortensen

[jpcello]

Are you asking about HA cabins in general or specific to the Coral Princess. If it's a general HA cabin question, then I will share our experiences (I travel with my sister who uses a mobility scooter for travel and walks with a cane 24/7).

 

We have always booked HA cabins and always balcony. We've been on NCL, Royal and Celebrity. We're taking our first Princess cruise next month (on Regal).

 

The bathrooms in a HA cabin are fully accessible - meaning there are no lips, steps, etc. The bathroom itself is very large (so that a person in a wheelchair can maneuver). It's a roll-in shower with a shower seat that pulls down from the back wall. Plenty of grab bars in the shower and toilet area.

 

The cabin itself is fairly large for a "standard" balcony (same reason - person in a wheelchair can fully turn around, etc.). The balcony is also accessible. There is a ramp around the lip so a person can get outside.

 

Our last cruise (on NCL Breakaway) was awesome for accessibility. The cabin doors were fully automated - when you put the key in, the door opens. Inside the cabin was a button to open the door. All of the public bathrooms had automatic doors as well. Seems that the newer ships are better for accessibility.

 

Enjoy your cruise.

[LokiPoki]

Nothing to offer on cabins but our one cruise with Princess (Dawn) so far, I could not fault the attentiveness of staff/crew if I tried - from our cabin steward - who figured out very quickly that I was struggling getting in and out of the cabin (regular cabin...w/c wouldn't fit through the door without being tightly folded while I held myself up with a wall or random family member) and both giving me a door stopper and keeping an eye out every morning in case I couldn't get out the door on my own, to assistance staff who got me on/off at each tender port to dining room & bar staff, who made sure I'd a clear run through and would shift people/furniture if I didn't. There's a certain level of service that you expect I guess...but everyone we dealt with (to my mind anyway) went well above and beyond to look after me...enough so that its that taking us back to Princess next year.

 

No real problems with accessibility in the main part of the ship - only real trouble was some of the doors out onto deck, where door weight + threshold meant I couldn't possibly get out on my own - threshold steep/stepped enough to have to wheelie up = no free hand to shove the door open. Most other passengers pretty decent about things like holding doors open - a small few who needed a few lessons on good manners - I got some very nasty bruises from someone letting a door slam on me - but mostly good. Theatre too - on Dawn anyway, not sure how the layout on Coral compares - is only w/c accessible right at the back.

[olvrxyzh]

The only problem we had in a HA cabin on the Coral was with the ramp leading to the balcony; the ramp kept moving, creating a gap between the ramp and the balcony. They need to put rubber under the ramp to prevent it from sliding.