Accessible Excursions

[Firepath]

The accessible excursions are mostly sold out but if I read correctly persons who don’t need a lift may have to take the regular bus. Do many people book these excursions just for convenience? I will have a wheelchair and absolutely cannot walk. I don’t think my family wants to lift me.

 

[Bloodgem]

Every cruise line has dedicated special needs department for disabled guests. Email this department with the details of your cruise; i.e. date of cruise;  ship and your reservation number and they will email you a list of suitable wheelchair friendly excursions, if there is any. 

 

[FOPMan]

Occasionally, someone will erroneously make a reservation for an accessible version of a tour rather than an accessible version, but that is probably the exception more than the rule.

 

The truth is that there is usually very limited availability. Many large buses can. accommodate between 2 and ;4 wheelchairs (and, practically, no more than 2 power chairs).

 

Most wheelchair-accessible tour vans can accommodate only a handful of passenger.

 

Add into that a dearth of choices and competition can get fairly stiff for the options available. Very few accessible tours often exist, depending on the itinerary.

[Kiran]

Options vary so much depending on whether person is able to walk a few feet or climb up a few steps of a bus to where they are needing a heavy power wheelchair 

 

as my mom was mostly mobile but tired easily, for years we have been able to pack a collapsible wheelchair or mini scooter (Travelscoot) and just be able to move around port and town itself with mom in scooter and me walking so that in puerto vallarta she could scoot to church and attend mass

 

Or  we get off ship and go to taxi line and find a taxi or mini van that can carry collapsible wheelchair ir travel-scoot in the back

 

Bonaire had a trolley excursion that was very near ship, so i pushed mim to trolley

she transferred to trolley and wheelchair rested up in cab

 

Curacao we hired a taxi and a woman drove us around for two hours for $80 in her minivan taxi

including 30 minutes where mom rode travel scoot around market

 

I have also arranged a car service for our small party, so $500 for a half day but our custom itinerary 

Driver from Bait’s taxi was so courteous and kind to my mom, assisting her up steps and such

we ended up cutting time short as mom was too tired to see all she wished

found car service in port discussion forums on cruise critic

mom has a Drive, a heavy, cumbersome collapsible wheelchair found at Goodwill

 

On this cruise i was noticing all the lighter, smaller options now available

 

 

Best Wishes for finding options that work out

 

also: Watch out for Tender ports when considering different cruise, where transfer to and from tender boat required to get to shore

tender boats make things more complicated and time consuming

[PaulC29]

convenience, price, activities included Could book for any number of reasons. I use a manual chair can't walk at all and was on an "accessible" tour once that had 5 couples + myself... while in the mini bus all 5 couples admitted they took that excursion for price or simply didn't want to be with 30+ people in the bigger "normal" bus that did the same things plus a beach stop which we skipped since it wasn't accessible.  Without the five couples the tour would have been cancelled and pay the same company more for a private tour if I still wanted to go.

Would contact the excursions dept and accessibility dept as soon as possible see what they can do -  Had one port years ago that the accessible tour filled up quick - called and they were able to add us in as it was filled with people that couldn't do a bunch of steps but the "wheelchair" spot in the vehicle wasn't taken.  

[kokopelli-az]

It sounds like you're definitely going to need an accessible tour with a lift.   As others have said, you definitely need to contact your cruise line's access department (most have access departments that also deal specifically with excursions; some lines even have separate accessible excursion brochures). 

 

Your cruise line needs to know about your mobility challenges in any event and will send a form for you to complete.  

 

What cruise line are you going on?

[Firepath]

1 hour ago, kokopelli-az said:

It sounds like you're definitely going to need an accessible tour with a lift.   As others have said, you definitely need to contact your cruise line's access department (most have access departments that also deal specifically with excursions; some lines even have separate accessible excursion brochures). 

 

Your cruise line needs to know about your mobility challenges in any event and will send a form for you to complete.  

 

What cruise line are you going on?

Crown Princess and we leave in a week, so no time. I did complete the Mobility form. I have all accessible excursions. Doesn’t that mean they are Accessible? 

[FOPMan]

No, the form has little to do with whether an excursion is accessible.
 

 if you didn’t book an excursion that specifies that it is accessible, there us a good likelihood that it is not accessible. If you booked an excursion that is listed as accessible, then it should be accessible.

 

Since you are on the CP, is it safe to say you’re cruising to Alaska?  One accessible excursion is the train at Skagway,, although it can’t go it’s regular full route this year.

 

There are a limited number of wheelchair-accessible positions.
 

Do you have an accessible cruise cabin?

[kokopelli-az]

2 hours ago, Firepath said:

Crown Princess and we leave in a week, so no time. I did complete the Mobility form. I have all accessible excursions. Doesn’t that mean they are Accessible? 

 

Check the tour description.   If they say they are wheelchair accessible and have a lift you should be ok.   If you'll be in  Alaska (ie the united States') you will have more accessible tours than in other  countries.     

Have a great cruise!    

[iuki]

On 5/20/2022 at 2:38 PM, kokopelli-az said:

 

Check the tour description.   If they say they are wheelchair accessible and have a lift you should be ok.   If you'll be in  Alaska (ie the united States') you will have more accessible tours than in other  countries.     

Have a great cruise!    

The White Pass train ride in Skagway totally accommodates scooters and wheelchairs.  They have a lift that lifts you on the scooter or wheelchair on to railway car.  There was a young man that, according to his dad, weighed with the scooter approximately 500-550 lb.  The train ride was 3 hrs long.

[FOPMan]

You will need to book (reserve) an accessible seat. The train sometimes has more demand than they can supply.

[btc1951]

How can you tell when you book an excursion that it is accessible? We're booked on NCL Escape in November for a Caribbean cruise, and we only selected two excursions, and chose those specifically with activity level 1. "Tours with this activity level involve walking over relatively level terrain, possibly some cobblestone, gravel, or a few steps. Comfortable shoes are recommended." Nothing whatsoever is mentioned about accessibility. So how does one know?

[FOPMan]

The excursions guide at least used to indicate if an excursion was wheelchair accessible.

 

it is not “safe” to expect a tour that is not indicated as wheelchair accessible to have a path available that does not include steps or a staircase, nor that any bus/shuttle/transportation is wheelchair accessible. Sometimes, excursion catalogs will specifically identify a wheelchair accessible excursion as a separate excursion, especially if there are a limited number of accessible spaces available (such as the number of wheelchair spaces on a bus).

[GRBlizz]

We pretty much always have to book our excursions directly, or go on our own if the port has accessible public transport or has interesting walkable areas. If you use a folding wheelchair and can walk a little including steps into a bus (which can be steep) you may be able to take a ship's tour. Otherwise, unless it specifically says wheelchair accessible, it's a no go.