cruising with a major disability

[reesegirl]

Has anyone cruised with someone who needs dialysis? I know the Dr.'s on board are limited and probably the facilities also. We would like to take a 7 day cruise but may not be able to because of the disability. Anyone know of any ships on any lines that provide dialysis service while at sea? Insurance and extra cost could probably be worked out.

 

TIA

[MaritimeCruisers]

This is one area dialysis patients can be accommodated. See the following website.

 

http://www.dialysisatsea.com/

[LittleBit]

have you visited the Disabled Cruise Travel section of this board? many great folks over there that can help you out

[NRWO]

They do not provide the equipment but you can bring your own on.

 

From website:

 

Dialysis

Carnival does not supervise dialysis machines or medications onboard. We do allow Peritoneal (self Dialysis). Guests must travel with all medical supplies and medications and self-Administer in cabin stateroom.

[MaritimeCruisers]

I know some of our local dialysis unit staff have gone on cruises to work in the dialysis unit for two weeks at a time. They recruit dialysis nurses and nephrologists to work on the cruises. They have Hemodialysis machines, and also do Peritoneal.

[luvmy2kids]

My dad needs dialysis three days a week. He really wanted to go on a cruise with us since he had never been. If you go with dialysis at sea, you pay for your cruise and you also pay separately for each dialysis treatment. I think it was about $500 each treatment. They only offer certain cruises so check their websites. Their cruises are 7 days or more.

 

Financially, that was not an option for us since we are not so financially stable that we could pay for the cruise and the dialysis three times at $500 per time.

 

So I looked into a 5 day cruise. We ended up going on the Fantasy 5 day. We live in Florida so we could drive to the port that same day. Dad had his dialysis at his center on monday morning at 7:00 and then we drove directly to the port. Carnival had me set up dialysis at every port since they are not liable if they miss a port. We were Monday - Saturday cruise. I had set up an appt. for dialysis on Wednesday at Grand Turk and Friday at Nassau. In case we missed the port at grand turk, we had the back up appt. at Nassau. Grand TUrk was no problem. Nurses were super nice and treated my dad like a king. It was $350 there and you must bring your own meds. I did research and found the government hospital at Grand Turk. The Nassau center i found at global dialysis. Saturday we returned and dad had his appt. at his regular center.

 

It is hard work but can be done. Call each center individually and find out what records they need. Our dialysis center sent all medical records ahead of time. All dad had to do was bring his meds. Make sure you find out if they take credit card or just cash. You will need a letter from the patient's doctor saying its ok to travel. My dad's doctor approved it after he saw the dialysis schedule.

 

Also keep in mind the proximity of the port to the dialysis center because you will need to get back to the ship on time. Carnival was very kind in helping me. I gave them the schedule of dialysis and when we called the in port carnival services, they picked up my dad at the hospital and gave them a ride back to the port so they didn't even have to take a taxi!

 

It takes a lot of planning, but its a disability that should not keep you from cruising. I wanted to give my dad this gift since i don't know if that's the only cruise he'll ever be able to take.

 

If you have questions, you can email me....send me a message and i'll email you. globaldialysis.com has a list of dialysis centers and contact info for centers all over the world....good luck!