Accessibility info required

[gwentcruiser]

i am looking to book a river cruise for the first time. Probably the Rhine or Danube in June or September.

 

My daughter is in a wheelchair and I understand that there is a risk that our ship might moor alongside other ships making it impossible to go ashore. Does this happen a lot in practice? Missing one or two excursions wouldn't be a big problem but missing more than that would spoil the trip.

 

Any advice would be really appreciated.

[capriccio]

Welcome to cruise critic!

 

 

This question would be better asked and answered on the River Cruise forum (http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=191). Here are some recent threads about accessibility on a river cruise:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2438104

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=786530

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2020271

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2388572

 

I did a 15 day river cruise last summer using a cane and the previous summer we made friends (on another 15 day cruise) with a woman using a walker. You need to be aware that

 

 

• not all ships have elevators that go to every deck (usually not the sun deck)
  
• that cabins are very small and may not be large enough to store a wheelchair
  
• that embarking and disembarking can be problematic due to
  
  • ships raft together (frequently in the summer tourist season) and you may need to go up and/or down decks to get to your ship
    
  • docks can be very steep
    

   

  [*]Europe is full of cobblestones which make even walking difficult; using a wheelchair is even harder in many towns and cities

Research on the River Cruise forum and the Disabled Cruise Travel forum (http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=190) are good places to start.

[1025cruise]

Unfortunately, it doesn't appear that river cruising is ideal for people that are in wheelchairs. It's just the nature of the beast. It might be best to look into a different type of vacation.

[jmf123]

gwentcruiser, the Cruise Critic article 'A Guide to Accessible River Cruising' may be of assistance to you: http://www.cruisecritic.com/articles.cfm?ID=1959 :)

[Capt_BJ]

copied from Viking cruise documents ....

 

expanding ... while a 'cruise ship' may have a deck crew of 100 or more and even for tendering operations, several folks are able to help .... IME on a river cruiser the deck staff is 3 or 4! Help beyond a hand held out is not happening!