Disabled Ventura Tips

[pkfamily]

Hi,

I thought my blog might be of interest to disabled travellers going on Ventura. It gives pictures and reviews of the strengths and shortcomings of Ventura and what P&O need to work on. This is only part 1 :) Please feel free to share and help other disabled passengers!

…blogspot.co.uk/2017/09/ventura-blog-part-1-…

Thanks,

Georgina :)

[silversurf]

Very useful. Thank you.

[Selbourne]

My wife is a wheelchair user and cruising is the only overseas holiday that she will entertain now as they are so wheelchair friendly. All our cruises have been with P&O, although we have visited a few ships from other companies.

 

I agree with your observations.

 

The things that we like about P&O ships (from a wheelchair users perspective) are;

 

- Car drop off and luggage collection - hassle free and means that you can focus on the wheelchair user.

 

- Assisted embarkation (although this is sadly abused by some passengers who do not need it but see it as a way to queue jump).

 

- Access to almost all areas of the ship when in the wheelchair - thanks to most doors being automated.

 

- Public rooms and restaurants all wheelchair friendly.

 

- Ship staff all extremely helpful and considerate to the needs of disabled passengers.

 

- Accessible cabins.

 

The things that we don't like or find frustrating;

 

- Access to Promende deck - we had the same issue as you when on Aurora recently. All 6 doors out to the deck are manual and heavy with high thresholds. Impossible to access without a strong pusher and quite difficult for them. When we mentioned this at reception, we were told that there was an automated door out from the sports bar. However, there was a solid metal manual door behind this that was closed the whole cruise and a printed notice on the glass door saying 'No Access'!

 

- Lifts - too small and can take a while to get one, as able bodied passengers seem to lose the ability to use their legs when on a cruise ship, even though the distance between floors is usually very little and stairs are great ways to help shed the 'cruise pounds' (I only use lifts when pushing my wife).

 

- Attitudes of some other Passengers - in addition to the lift problem, I have often overheard negative comments from able bodied passengers about the number of wheelchair and scooter users on the ship. I'm afraid I lost it once when a man said to his wife, as we passed them, "there's bloody wheelchairs everywhere on this ship". I stopped suddenly, turned and said to him "and I sincerely hope that neither you nor your wife will ever have cause to use one".

 

- Tender Ports - If you cannot step across an 18" gap unaided, you cannot get off the ship at a tender port when on a P&O cruise. Some other cruise operators do not have this stipulation and make more of an effort to get disabled passengers ashore.

 

- Servicing trolleys - can make it very difficult to pass along corridors to get to cabins, especially if they are poorly loaded. At best you have about half an inch clearance to get past.

[Bazz100]

Hi pkfamily, read your blog and concur with your comments.

 

My wife is a full time wheelchair user following a brain heamorrhage in 2007. I am her full time carer.

 

We cruised on Ventura earlier this year, our first on P&O, all our other cruises have been on Princess. We were happy to book Ventura as she is a sister to Princess Grand Class ships and we had cruised on Star and Emerald so knew the layout would be pretty much the same and the cabins identical.

 

Your comments about the thresholds where the watertight doors are of particular relevance in my wife's case because they had to remove part of her skull at the rear base and part of the C1 vertibra. These together with the cutting of the muscles and subsequent scaring has left her with a suseptability to jarring which if sever can cause her to be laid up in bed for 24 hours. I have to be very careful when pushing her as to the surface and any inperfections, cobbled areas are no go for us I am afraid. So these threshholds are taken with great care, much to the consternation of fellow passengers who may be following close behind when we suddenly slow down to navigate the bump.

 

Our next cruise is on Arcadia in January when we will be sailing from Southampton to Sydney, 44 days. We were unable to book a accessible cabin (there are so few and sell out so quickly) so we have booked a Deluxe Balcony on E deck at the stern. My wife will be able to use the wheelchair within the cabin but it probably will not pass through the door so we will have to manage the transition from chair to bed and vice versa when coming and going. Fortunately these cabins have baths and we have requested a bath board and the baths have a shower rose on a hose rather than a fixed head so we can manage her ablutions.

 

Having also done a little research I was pleased to find out there will be enough room under our bed to store our suitcases (just over 14 inches, our cases are just over 12). I know we had room for this on all our Princess cruises and on Ventura and had read that on some P&O ships there is very little space under the beds. With this being a regular cabin the last thing I wanted was to have the free space cluttered up with luggage.

 

Our next two cruises after Arcadia are back on Princess and we have booked accessible cabins so back on familiar ground, well deck actually. I would not book a regular cabin on Princess because as you found out on Ventura, the bathroom is totally unsuitable for someone who has difficulty standing and the shower is, quite frankly a joke, even for able bodied people being so small.

 

Selbourne, agreed with your comments too, particularly the lifts and the attitude of some pax towards wheelchair users. If one more smart ass tells my wife how lucky she is the have a seat and be pushed around I will probably thump them. Like you I agree they should hope they are never so unfortunate as to be put in that position.

 

We will keep on cruising as long as our bodies and money hold out because I think above all else, in the main, the cruise lines have got it sorted when it comes to wheelchair users.