First cruise with DS going on Carnival Elation

[sldmh07]

I need some info and advice. We are going on the first family cruise for us. There are 8 in total going. My husband and myself and our three kids 12, 9, 7. My mother and father in law as well as my teenage SIL. My youngest son has CP and uses a wheelchair and my mother in law uses one as well. We booked 2 rooms 4 in one h/c room and 4 the other h/c room. We are getting either a modified or handicap room. When we booked we asked for a h/c room that would hold 4 (the CCL asked which size room we needed). We paid for our rooms and now I received a call from CCL today saying all the h/c rooms are just for 2 on the Elation. (on the Empress Deck which also raises our military price by $56. So we have to get another room for my husband, SIL, and my other two kids. We will have to pay the difference of $699 since the first two in a room are more expensive and the way it was the first time showed SIL and my kids as the 3rd and 4th person in the rooms. I am so ticked becase with my husband in the military and getting ready to leave for a long deployment we budgeted this cruise and cut out a lot of extra's in our lives in order to do this trip and now they are throwing a HUGH monkey wrench in my budget.

 

Has anyone been on the Elation in the h/c rooms? Are there any h/c rooms for more then 2? Do they have excursions that are h/c accessable in Cabo or Ensendada? CCL does not have a lot of answers. They say wait until you get on ship and go to the desk to see what is availbe for my son and MIL. We live close to San Diego and CCL was the cheapest and most convienent to go on for the number of days of leave my husband can take otherwise we could have went on a different cruise line.

 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I hope what all I typed made sense. I am kind of ticked off right now so if it is not clear feel free to ask questions.

 

Lori

[george2000]

We took our first cruise in December and were on the Elation. My DH has MS and we were in Cabin E56 which is handicapped. All handicapped cabins are on the Empress Deck which even though more expensive is very convenient to most of the other decks. The cabin we were in would only hold 2 people. We were in an interior cabin. The cabin was pretty small. i'm not sure how accessible the bathroom would be for someone totally confined to a WC. However, our cabin may have only been a modified cabin, not totally WC accessible. The bathroom was not large enough for him to transfer from his WC to the commode. My DH can take a few steps with a walker so he usually used that to get to the bathroom. We are going on another cruise in March on a sister ship and we have requested a bedside commode this time. The shower was pretty small, but there wasn't a lip and it had a pull-down bench in it. We sailed to the Bahamas and I can't you anything about your ports. It is a very steep ramp to get on and off the ships, but Carnival was pretty quick to assist you. Most of the boat was accessible. The only bathroom outside of cabin that was accessible was the unisex one inside the resturant on the lido deck. We had a great time. Let me know if you have any other questions. I'll be happy to answer them.

[Valentine's Mom]

We we just on the Elation in January and although I wasn't in a H/C room this time I did talk to a lady who used a electric W/C. She had a lot of trouble using her chair inside her room. She did travel with a companion who had to lift her out of her chair onto the bed and so forth. This ship was made befor all of the new "laws" came into effect and most of the "accessabilities" are all after thoughts and work for some but not all. If you can at all change to a newer ship I'm sure that you would find things a lot easier. Although it is a beautiful ship I don't think it was ever intended for someone who needs a wheelchair full time. Even the diningroom was a tight fit.

[welyncruza]

I have been on 2 carnival ships and they are terrible for wheelchairs.Even their newest ones need help. I wouldn't take a free cruise on ccl.You would be much happier on rccl or even princess. RCCL has accessible rooms that sleep 4 good luck

[welyncruza]

I have been on 2 carnival ships and they are terrible for wheelchairs.Even their newest ones need help. I wouldn't take a free cruise on ccl.You would be much happier on rccl or even princess. RCCL has accessible rooms that sleep 4 good luck

[Splinter]

There are no tours that have accessible lift vans in either Cabo (which is a tender port) or Ensenada. You can transfer into a cab (but in Cabo they are nearly all vans) and do your own tours, but you need to take a folding manual wheelchair for that. We never go on Carnival, so I don't know if they will lift an occupied manual wheelchair on/off a tender or not.

 

In Ensenada, you could take a cab into town or to La Bufadora (a blow hole down the coast). Unless you want to tour wineries, there is not a whole lot much else to do there in a few hours.

 

It is difficult on most cruise lines to find an accessible cabin that sleeps more than two. You have to do your research ahead of time to find them.

[KL&KR]

Lori--our first two cruises were on Carnival Elation, and like others above, we just won't cruise Carnival again (we've gone to Princess but are curious about others). HOWEVER, despite the too-small cabin necessitating an inch-by-inch 23-point turn on my partner's Lark Scooter to get in or out, and the wall-scraping narrowness of the door, and the miserable sardine-can sized bathroom, we still have great memories of the rest of the cruise. I don't think the w/c will be able to go ashore in Cabo, but doublecheck with the staff. Be sure to check about where you're seated for dinner when you get on board, and make sure it's accessible! Hopefully with a w/c rather than a scooter, you'll do a little better than we did--just concentrate on the fun stuff, and try to let Carnival's less-then-wonderful attitude toward h/c folks roll off your back. (And the staff are often 1000 % better than the company). Have a good time!

Kristen and Kathy

[DEL67]

We have been on the Elation twice, both in handicap rooms and, no, they do not sleep 4. In addition, being an older ship the cabins are not as well equipped as on newer ones. The bathrooms are small, but they do have roll-in showers and roll-under sinks. Note: There are two outside handicap cabins at the rear of the ship that have been renovated and have bigger bathrooms. The rest of the ship is accessible.

 

To my knowledge, there are no accessible tours in Cabo or Ensenada. In addition, Cabo is a tender port which is more diffucult for wheelchairs. Once ashore however, there is a walk by the bay which is pretty and you can use it to walk into town.

 

Note: Although Carnival handicap rooms are not as large as on some other lines,, we felt that they were adequate and well equipped, especially on their newer ships. And the staff tried harder to be helpful than any of the other cruise lines.