Mobility Scooter on a Rhine River Cruise

[CPT Trips]

I have a smartscoot for long distances. I am able to walk and climb stairs. My wife spoke to tauck. We are not deterred

 

 

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Sounds like you won't be facing one of the most significant obstacles involved with river cruising. That's a big plus.

[xmaser]

Two years ago on the Elbe, the Viking Theodor Fontane had a passenger with a large powered scooter. The passenger was from England so seemed to have no problems getting to Germany. Don't know where you are traveling from but you need to solve transportation issues with the airlines.

The scooter was parked in the very small reception area for charging. It really interfered with use of the space. It could not go into the rooms because of multilevel design of ship and no elevator. (There were chair lifts to the different levels.)

The crew members carried the scooter from the ship to the dock and also usually loaded it into the bus. This was a special accommodation I have not seen in any other of several river cruises. I assume/hope that the crew were well tipped for this.

We were never rafted so that was not an issue there. Rafting on the Rhone, Danube, Rhine, and Main is common.

Please understand that I am an advocate of the ADA principles and practices and am happy that more people have access to more of the world. Note that ADA is not in effect in Europe. Also, the loading of the scooter into the bus took 15 to 20 minutes of tour time from 30+ passengers. When I travel in Europe a few minutes are precious. I gladly share space but resent loosing that much tour time almost daily.

Travelers with disabilities deserve respect and access. Mobile travelers also deserve respect and should not be expected to repeatedly reduce their travel experiences.

River cruises are not a good idea for users of scooters.

[TravelerThom]

... I have my own battery operated scooter that I have used very successfully on Many ocean cruises.... does anyone know how well a scooter would do on a river ship? How would the scooter be transported off of the ship? I have been told that many of the disembarkation procedures are that we would have to transfer from one ship to another ship and then down a ramp? My DH is able-bodied as long as he wouldn't have to sling the scooter over his sholder..... Any shared knowledge is appreciated!

I hope you as the OP have found this thread informative. My planning for any trip is to expect the worst and hope for the best. I have been on over 20 river trips, and most of them have involved rafting (boats tied up side by side). This is not bad when the decks of adjacent boats are the same level above water, as generally you are then allowed to go from one boat lobby to the next with only a minor change of height (there is usually a one or two inch lip at the edge of each deck). However, let me describe a far worse case: I showed up 16 Mar 2015 at the Quai Andre Citroen in Paris to board the Vantage River Venture. My boat was rafted outside of a UniWorld boat, and their lobbies were offset about half a story. After maneuvering the gangway (fairly level) to UniWorld, there was a climb up to the sundeck. There is a reason boat stairs are called ladders – this was 10 or so steps at a pretty steep angle. Many boats have motorized glide-chairs to get to the sundeck, but I have never seen them on both sides of the boat, only one. The side we were climbing did not have a motorized chair. After passing over the UniWorld sundeck, there was a gangway leading to the Vantage sundeck, then a descent down the ship ladder to the main deck of our boat. The River Venture, like most boats has ONE elevator that goes between SOME of the decks (never to the sundeck). The River Venture elevator was out of operation for 7 of the 10 days we were on the boat (everyday a technician would show up but not be able to fix it; they finally had to get a technician from Germany). When our boat got to Honfleur, once again we were rafted outside of a boat with mismatched deck levels, so getting off and on the boat was a repeat of day one. I love river cruising, but you need to be prepared for what might happen. It is possible that you will never raft (although in Central Europe [Rhine-Main-Danube] this is unlikely), and if you do raft it is possible that you will not be subjected to sundeck transits, but you need to be aware that these situations occur with considerable frequency.

 

I posted my assumption that the person who thinks there will be no problems has never been on a river boat; although he responded dismissing what I and others were posting, he certainly did not refute the assumption that this is his first time. If my assumption is correct, consider that the only person on this thread who is claiming that planning will overcome reality has probably never been on a river boat. It was claimed that Tauck has approved bringing a motorized scooter despite their written policy to the contrary; I am actually not too surprised by this as Tauck is probably just covering themselves, but do consider that it is not the responsibility of the river boat company to get the scooter on and off the boat (which might include the afore mentioned ladders).

 

If you have read everything and still wish to go with full understanding of worst case possibilities I certainly am not going to say don’t. Whatever you decide I wish you happy travels.

 

Thom

[TravelerThom]

Somebody came on these forums in the last couple of months who had mobility issues and ranted against the cruise company because they weren't really able to do any of the excursions and had to hang around the ship all day, not having a good time at all.

Overcoming obstacles has to be tempered with reality.

If one is on the main River Cruising Forum and searches for "wheelchair" there are many threads on this subject. As an example http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2438104 is a discussion by someone who thought they had asked the right questions only to find out otherwise (that thread was about Viking, but would pretty much apply to any and every river cruise line).