Can We Talk About Bathrooms?

[amybd]

I'm thinking of going on a last minute holiday cruise and have a mobility disability. I can walk about 10-20 feel using 2 canes and use a small folding wheelchair for everything else. I'm sure I can get around in a small cruise cabin with the canes and I have done fine in a non accessible hotel room as long as I get a chair for the shower. I have a foot drop on both sides though, so I kind of have to drag my feet along to walk and the thing I'm not sure I can do safely in a regular cabin is step over a threshold in to the bathroom (thresholds in to the cabin and on to a balcony are fine, I'm sure I can get my husband or son to help when I need to do that, but I'd like to be able to go to the bathroom on my own). Are there any ships that have no, or a very low, or even sloped threshold for regular bathrooms? Some of the cruise lines say they have "Ambulatory Accessible" cabins, but they only talk about grab bars and shower seats, do they still have a threshold in to the bathroom? Is there any way to easily search for accessible cabins (other than looking through every room category on every ship)?

 

I'm flexible about where the cruise goes (but can't handle more than about a 5 hour flight from LAX), and I have a 16 year old, so there needs to be something for him to do on the ship.

 

I know, I know, I should have booked this 2 years ago, but this year has been beyond any of my expectations and I'm just happy to be alive and thinking about taking a vacation at this point. Thanks!!

[kokopelli-az]

23 hours ago, amybd said:

Are there any ships that have no, or a very low, or even sloped threshold for regular bathrooms? Some of the cruise lines say they have "Ambulatory Accessible" cabins, but they only talk about grab bars and shower seats, do they still have a threshold in to the bathroom?

 

Is there any way to easily search for accessible cabins (other than looking through every room category on every ship)?

 

 

If you are considering a non-accessible stateroom, contact the cruise line's accessible department and ask them this question.  It will depend on which cruise line, which stateroom, etc.  The accessible department contact information is on each cruise line's website. 

 

For Celebrity, for on-line searching it is easy to narrow your cruise search of available staterooms to accessible rooms.   On Celebrity's website, after you have brought up your list of available cruises, look for the button that says "filters" then go to "features".  There you can request accessible staterooms and your list will be filtered to sailings that have available accessible staterooms.

 

Royal Caribbean also has a way to filter your cruise search down to accessible rooms but it's more cumbersome on their website. 

 

I know for Norwegian you have to actually call to find out which sailings have accessible staterooms. 

 

It might be easier to just have a travel agent do this research for you. 

[Schoifmom]

For Carnival, you would require a full accessible cabin.  The ambulatory accessible cabins can (but don't always) have a step up into the bathroom.  Some of these ambulatory accessible cabins do not, but they will claim that they all have the step up.  Because of that, unfortunately, it would be a roll of the dice for you on Carnival.  You can filter to see full accessible cabins on the website now, which is a plus.

[raindropsalways]

What my traveling companion did to resolve the problem was make a “step stool”. Her stool was about 8” x 10” x 2” high. The two inch high was adequate to get her over the threshold. She was small, thus the 8” width provided a little extra for the length of her feet and the 10” allowed ample space for both feet. She made it, sanded it and put a coat of lacquer to prevent splinters. We just left it in front of the bathroom door.

 

Have a wonderful cruise,

Betty

[payitforward]

A number of accessible balcony cabins recently opened up on Oasis of the Seas on February 24th if that is of interest to you.