advice re: good wheelchairs?

[emma06]

We were on the Millenium last year with my disabled father, who is generally in a wheelchair, although he can use a walker for short distances. The ship was not a problem and the staff was extremely helpful. However, our mistake was getting off the ship in the carribean. We had a horrible time traversing those "quaint" cobblestone streets and found very little that was accessible in terms of shops/restaurants. I would like not to have a similar experience on our next cruise on the Noordam. I say we should just not even try to get off the boat, but my husband, who does most of the wheelchair work, is insisting that there must be a wheelchair that is easier than my dad's current manual wheelchair.

 

Any suggestions? Also, any thoughts about excursions that are wheelchair friendly in the Southern Carribean?

 

I would greatly appreciate any and all thoughts!

 

Emma

[leoandhugh]

you are much more likely to get a meaningful answer if you mention the islands or ports ,and not just southern caribbean. and also suggest you check the boards for the islands you will go to in case something is posted there. my experience with a wheelchair on most of the islands is to hire a taxi where the ship docks and have him show you around - some of the ship's tours will not take wheelchairs because the busses don't always have a bin to store them.:)

[Splinter]

What kind of wheelchair does he have now? What problems did you have? Does he need removable armrests and footrests? There are a lot of good basic fairly lightweight chairs out there. I would NOT recommend one with 4 small wheels. They are harder to push, and very difficult to get up over a curb or step. If you want to post more information here, or e-mail me, I could advise you (I work in the rehabilitation field).

 

Check out the "Sticky" topics at the top of this forum for some Caribbean resources. We don't have a thread just for Southern Caribbean, so look at Western and Eastern.

 

Also, if he can stand and transfer, it is pretty easy in most ports to take a folding manual wheelchair and take cabs rather than try to find wheelchair accessible tours. Leave those few that exist for people who cannot stand or walk at all.