Canaries and Wheelchairs

[navman141]

My wife is a full time wheelchair user. We have booked a cruise with P&O for next summer to the Canaries, Madeira, Lisbon and Vigo. We have been notified by P&O that there is a strong possibility that wheelchair users may be required to stay on board at Canaries ports and Lisbon because of high tidal variations. Has anybody done a similar cruise and did you experience any problems going ashore with a wheelchair? Grateful for any help before we consider whether or not to cancel and rebook somewhere else.

[Enforcer]

Hi,

 

I have visited all of those ports many times, although using a mobility scooter not a wheelchair, never had any sort of problem related to getting it on or off the ship.

 

I have sailed with P&O before but I found that they aren't as "disable friendly" as other cruise lines, this is my experience others may say different.

 

Pete

[navman141]

Thank you for your reassuring reply Pete. We have sailed with P&O many times and have always found them well disposed to disabled passengers:)

[Chunky2219]

Depends what Canaries ports of course, but I've done about 4 of them plus Madeira, all with P&O. Done Lisbon twice and I'll be doing them all again with Cunard in 3 weeks time. All in a wheelchair, never a problem with tidal ranges.

 

Having said that, you might not get very far on wheels once off the boat. Madeira is famously hilly, I'd advise a tour. Lisbon is also very steep and to add insult to injury many of the drop kerbs are a joke - it can be hard work even getting around the recently paved areas. In fact, Last November I had to get out of the chair and lift it over a fence because there was no drop kerb I could access beside the port. Worst of all, I once got all the way across a pedestrian crossing in Grand Canaria only to find the kerb at the other side was 8" high - I turned around and went back to the ship.

 

Nevertheless, All of these places are worth making the effort to get around. Do make sure to contact the special needs people at P&O before you go and again when on ship. My experience is that they are better than with some other lines and I'm sure they'll sort you out.

 

 

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[navman141]

Thank you for that informative reply Chunky. We will probably book wheelchair accessible tours where possible. My wife uses an extremely lightweight wheelchair and as she only weighs about 8 stone soaking wet, lack of drop kerbs have yet to cause a problem.:)

[Chunky2219]

One Lisbon tip I forgot - depending on how man ships are in port you may dock within wheeling distance of the town centre or else a couple of miles further down river. But either way, if they are doing it I'd recommend the panoramic tour plus old-fashioned tram. If your wife can climb a couple of steps to get aboard her wheelchair will go by the driver and the old trams take you through very narrow and steep streets that a normal tour bus can't access. It was well worth the money.

 

 

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[Enforcer]

One Lisbon tip I forgot - depending on how man ships are in port you may dock within wheeling distance of the town centre or else a couple of miles further down river. But either way, if they are doing it I'd recommend the panoramic tour plus old-fashioned tram. If your wife can climb a couple of steps to get aboard her wheelchair will go by the driver and the old trams take you through very narrow and steep streets that a normal tour bus can't access. It was well worth the money.

 

 

.

 

Hi,

 

We were in Lisbon last week and the old cruise terminal looks like it's being changed to a freight terminal, the new passenger terminal is within walking distance from the town centre but one tip I have is that keep to the waterside footpath don't try and cut the corner as it is a building site, I speak from experience!

 

Pete

[LondonTowner]

I have taken a manual wheelchair to all those places.

 

In Madeira we booked a trip with Madeira Happy Tours. We were picked up at the port in a Mercedes car and had a private tour, even though we thought we were going to be on a coach. Was extremely good.

 

Vigo is very hilly but the HOHO bus stops very near to where the ship docks. There is also a shopping mall there too.

 

I have only been to Lisbon on land holidays and used a combination of taxis and public transport.

 

Canaries. You don't say which ports, but we did combination of hiring a car and local transport. CICAR is a reputable car hire company on all the islands. Spain is very disabled friendly these days.

[GillCC]

In my experience P +O have real issues with disabled people. I order to use the tender you have to pass a mobility test (stepping over lines on a mat) even though they have wheelchair accessible tenders. They also have steps down to the tender area and although there is a stairlift they are very reluctant for people to use it. In terms of ports the high tidal ranges mean that they ban people who rely on wheelchairs owing ashore. This was the case for us in Bilbao (however we did find out after we sailed that some wheelchair users had been allowed to go ashore - so I was really upset. In my opinion other cruise lines try their hardest to make it work whereas P + O seem to have a "you can't do it" attitude.

[LondonTowner]

I took a wheelchair on P&O last year and did have to do the mobility test to get on a tender. However, I didn't find it a problem as I do have some mobility. I agree they are not as disabled friendly as they could be, but put that down to the personality of the individual crew member.

[navman141]

Thank you for all your replies. From previous experience with P&O we have always found them to be most accommodating towards disabled passengers. As regards tender ports, we know there is no way that my wife can tender. She unable to stand let alone walk, hence the initial query. Our stops are Lanzarote, Gran Canaria, La Palma, Madeira, Lisbon and Vigo. None are marked as tender ports so hopefully we can go ashore in all ports. I was unaware that P&O had any wheelchair accessible tenders. Need to investigate that further. Once again thank you all for taking the trouble to reply😀