Celebrity Transatlantic shore excursions

[HopefulCruiser123]

My husband and I will be aboard the Celebrity Equinox during next years Transatlantic cruise.  In the past, we just went our own way, but this time my husband would like to see if maybe signing up for some Celebrity shore excursions might make better use of our short time at these few ports.  They are:

 

The Royal Naval Dockyards, Bermuda

Ponta Delegada, Azores

Cartagena, Spain

Palma De Mallorca, Spain.

 

We are not sure which excursions might be suitable for a manual wheelchair (DH cannot stand, paraplegic).  I assume we could ask someone at Celebrity, but we are not sure who that might be and don’t really want to wait until we are onboard to make our plans.  We did not use a travel agent, just booked directly on line with Celebrity.  Does anybody here have any experience with these ports and have any recommendations?

 

Thanks.

 

 

[kokopelli-az]

Start here.   You need to let Celebrity know about your needs.   This link is for accessible excursions. 

https://www.celebritycruises.com/special-needs/accessible-shore-excursions

[HopefulCruiser123]

That was interesting.  I clicked on the three ports shown on our itinerary and there were no shore excursions shown (at all) under the accessible shore excursions.  Might this be one of the infamous Celebrity Website malfunctions that I have read about, or maybe I am doing something wrong(user error)?  If there are no accessible shore excursions provided by Celebrity, has anyone on this board done ANY wheelchair accessible shore excursion (provided by any source in or outside of Celebrity) at any of these ports?

[DUTRAVEL]

You can try emailing Celebrity at accessibleexcursions@rccl.com. Just be prepared to wait several months for a reply and the excursions will generally be very expensive.

 

For the Azores, try https://wheeltheworld.com/ (search Azores Portugal under things to do). We had a great accessible excursion to Lagoa do Fogo at a very reasonable price in November.

 

For Bermuda, we have used Keith Simmons. His email is keithsimmons@logic.bm. He has a wheelchair accessible van and offers tours from the Dockyard.

 

In Palma, we have taken the public bus which is accessible.

[ellasabe]

Hi, We did a TATL on Celebrity Silhouette 22 April 2024. We were in both Bermuda and Ponta Delgada. My husband is not in a wheelchair, but he has balance and mobility issues and cannot do stairs. I have to assist him in walking - he calls me his eyes and ears, although his sight is 20/20! - because he doesn't notice things like curbs, trip hazards, etc. And he is a very slow mover. I checked for  shipshorex in those ^ locations and couldn't find any info, either, when we sailed. So...

 

In Bermuda: the pier is flat and well-paved. About 1/3 mile to a little area with ticket booths, shops, etc. There is a free tram that picks up outside the gangway and brings pax to a shopping "mall", an old building about 1 mile from the bus. A wheelchair could be folded and stowed on it; no ramp. I also noticed smaller 'shuttle' buses that were hauling pax, but nothing from the accessible angle. Also, you could rent/hire a driver to bring you over to Hamilton, but when we asked it was REALLY pricey and quite a bit of time to get there and back, ie, not worth it to us. We are from Florida, Key West and Sarasota, and we've cruised a lot, so to us Bermuda was merely a place to get off the ship, stretch our legs, and take the free tram to shop, ie, a pharmacy. 

 

Ponta Delgada: The ship docks along a pier that leads (long walk) to a beachside concrete promenade. In order to get to street level there are very wide steps, about 15 -20 of them, spaced along the promenade. At the ends of the promenade there are winding ramps (inclines) to get to street level. We used those. Once at street level we were able to cross the street to the plaza/square, which has cobblestones (sidewalk does not). We went as far as an ATM to withdraw euros, then we hailed a cab and asked the driver to take us to the Goreanna Tea Plantation. 

 

(The taxi fares are fixed to all the tourist sites, so you only have to look at a sign to see what the fare is.)

 

At the tea plantation we were able to walk around the buildings and watch the tea leaves being processed, fascinating. Across the street is a hill with a semi-steep incline. My husband walked about 10 feet up the path, and I climbed a few hundred feet higher. 

 

The taxi driver then brought us back to Ponta Delgada and stopped at scenic views along the way. 

 

The entire trip cost 30 euros which was a bargain for 3 hours.  

 

I would suggest taking a taxi. 

 

 

Al 

[HopefulCruiser123]

Thank you ellasabe.  This is good information.  DH has a "Free Wheel" attachment for his rigid frame, manual wheelchair, so the cobblestones will be no problem.  The semi-steep hill might be challenging because the Free Wheel doesn't do anything for gravity, but this weekend we took the chair and Free Wheel into our local National Forest and descended down into the forest using a stepped pathway created by tree roots.  We "might" have bitten off more than we could chew and I had to worry "how the heck are we going to get back outta here?" While I got a really good gluteus maximus workout getting us back up the incline, we did make it and I have a little more confidence in my ability to handle the weight and under a worst case scenario.  I turned 65-years-old this past Saturday, so I don't expect to be able to handle much more than that. 

 

We did our honeymoon cruise 11 years ago on the Silhouette (Western Caribbean).  Every port except Grand Cayman (where we stayed on the ship) we hired a private taxi to give us a tour.  It's always an option, but this time around we hoped maybe there would be some good ship sponsored accessible tours.