Accessible tours/excursions in S. Caribbean?

[metawnny]

Hello,

 

My husband and I will be cruising the South Caribbean in Oct. aboard the Royal Caribbean ship Adventure of the seas. Hubby is quadriplegic and can not walk at all, stand or transfer himself into a cab/boat etc. He uses a power wheelchair. We will be stopping in St. Lucia, St. Maarten, St. Thomas, Barbados, and we board in Puerto Rico. We are desperately trying to find tours and or excursions that he can participate in. I know there is a beach in Puerto Rico with good access, but I can't seem to find accessible transportation around the island. Any suggestions and personal experiences in these areas would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Shawna

[ndsumfun]

Hello,

 

My husband and I will be cruising the South Caribbean in Oct. aboard the Royal Caribbean ship Adventure of the seas. Hubby is quadriplegic and can not walk at all, stand or transfer himself into a cab/boat etc. He uses a power wheelchair. We will be stopping in St. Lucia, St. Maarten, St. Thomas, Barbados, and we board in Puerto Rico. We are desperately trying to find tours and or excursions that he can participate in. I know there is a beach in Puerto Rico with good access, but I can't seem to find accessible transportation around the island. Any suggestions and personal experiences in these areas would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Shawna

 

Hey Shawna,

 

Gosh, I am so sorry to say but the Caribbean is VERY poorly equipped for someone in a wheelchair. I know that San Juan is required to meet ADA requirements so you "should" be able to get a wc accessible van there. When we were there last month I asked the little taxi stand for something accessible & the girl seemed dumb founded! She did finally get us a car but hubby could transfer. The only place I can think of that you would be able to actually tour with would be St. Thomas. I've included the link below. There is one other option you could check into. I had contacted a company in Barbados & she had given me the name of a man that uses a wc accessible van. I am not sure exactly what he does as we did not contact him but it would definitely be worth a try for you. His name is Mr. Colvin Yarde. The phone number is 246.239.3979.

 

I wished I could be of more help. I did ALL kinds of research before we went & I did not find anything that would fit your needs I could barely find anyone to help with the manual chair with transfer abilities.

 

http://www.accessvi.com/

 

>

[CaptData]

St Thomas does have w/c accessible van/tour. Like San Jaun, PR, St Thomas is ADA required. You can just drive the w/c off the ship to the mall right at the dock and go shopping there.

[metawnny]

Here is another thought...are they beaches near the pier that I could take him down and get him into the water. Even just being able to sit on the sand and sip a cold drink would be a nice day for him. We were able to get into the water via a boat in Hawaii and the crew helped to put him in and out of the water for snorkeling. Any ideas on a boat that would be willing to do that in the Caribbean? Thanks for the other ideas and I will call the guy in Barbados next week and let everyone know what I find out.

[ndsumfun]

Shawna,

 

I don't know if you could find anyone to do that. I asked a couple of people about that also. They all advise you have to have someone help you other than their employees.

 

The only beach that I know of that is accessible is the one in San Juan.

 

I had seen this posted on another board......might be worth checking into

 

Default St Maarten

We went to St Maarten and St Thomas in 2005. If you want to go to a beach in St Maarten and can transfer, book the Little Divi Bay Beach excursion. There are side walks right to the beach area. The restroom was a little small but ok with chair. If you have a regular wheelchair, you can probably pull it backwards through the sand if you want to get out on the beach a bit. Have fun.

 

 

The only problem we faced was the HEAT! It is very very hot!!!

__________________

[metawnny]

Guess I'll have to haul along my own crew of muscle bound guys to carry my husband around. How do you advertise for that :)

.....Or maybe I can sucker a group of family and friends to come along and help me lift him.....I'll have to think about that.

[ndsumfun]

Guess I'll have to haul along my own crew of muscle bound guys to carry my husband around. How do you advertise for that :)

.....Or maybe I can sucker a group of family and friends to come along and help me lift him.....I'll have to think about that.

 

Yes, when we cruised with my parents it was like a BIG weight lifted off my shoulders because my dad was there to help me!

 

Here is my e-mail addy......please e-mail me maybe one day we could plan a cruise together!!! keller2@bellsouth.net

[metawnny]

Hey, that's an idea. We need to get a group together where the AB's of the group could all pull together and help the chair users. That way we could all participate in excursions. We are inked up on the RCCL in Oct for the S. Carribean and in July 08 for Alaska on RCCL. Anyone want to come along. :)

[ndsumfun]

Hey, that's an idea. We need to get a group together where the AB's of the group could all pull together and help the chair users. That way we could all participate in excursions. We are inked up on the RCCL in Oct for the S. Carribean and in July 08 for Alaska on RCCL. Anyone want to come along. :)

 

It would be GREAT if we could. We just got back from our cruise for the year. We MAY take a small one but can't say for sure. Next year is out also as we have booked the Crown Princess for April 08!!! darned!

[MotoRacer598]

Hey, that's an idea. We need to get a group together where the AB's of the group could all pull together and help the chair users. That way we could all participate in excursions. We are inked up on the RCCL in Oct for the S. Carribean and in July 08 for Alaska on RCCL. Anyone want to come along. :)

 

I might do the alaskan cruise next year. I'm a quad and I usually have my bro,dad and friends with me on every cruise. I'm doing E. carrib in Sept on carnival. We did panama and costa rica last year I went on normal excursions because of all the help i have in my group. I'll check with everyone and see if they want to do the alaskan cruise I know we want to do alaska next

[ndsumfun]

I might do the alaskan cruise next year. I'm a quad and I usually have my bro,dad and friends with me on every cruise. I'm doing E. carrib in Sept on carnival. We did panama and costa rica last year I went on normal excursions because of all the help i have in my group. I'll check with everyone and see if they want to do the alaskan cruise I know we want to do alaska next

 

Hey Steve, which cruise are you going on in September?

 

I found some unbelievable rates on airfare & thinking about taking another cruise in September myself.

[metawnny]

Hey Steve,

 

The cruise we are doing in Alaska is on RCCL on July 12, 2008 Serenade of the seas. We are also working on our friends and family to try and get them to join in...more hands to help lift. My husband is a quad also but we keep pretty active and he basically wants to join in on anything that he can. He was very active prior to his accident (flipped his dune buggy), and still loves to be on the go. Let me know if you guys are able to do that cruise, maybe we could get a nice little group of AB's together to help out and then everyone could do the excursions. Have a great day.

[Barb_and_Sean]

Shawna,

There's a possibility we might be doing that Alaska trip too! Would be fun if we can figure it out... it's that or Princess and we haven't decided which one would be a better fit yet... have you already booked your room on the Serenade?

[metawnny]

Shawna,

There's a possibility we might be doing that Alaska trip too! Would be fun if we can figure it out... it's that or Princess and we haven't decided which one would be a better fit yet... have you already booked your room on the Serenade?

 

I think this Alaska cruise is going to turn out to be quite a blast. Yes we booked our room already, we got a cat E-3 Balcony on deck seven. I say the more the merrier, so lets all go and have a ball. :p

[MotoRacer598]

Hey Steve, which cruise are you going on in September?

 

I found some unbelievable rates on airfare & thinking about taking another cruise in September myself.

 

We are doing the E. carrib Sept 1st sailing out of Miami on the Carnival Triumph

 

Shawna- My family is talking about the alaskan cruise now we are checking to see what we can get it for. I'm also very active i play quad rugby alot and was injured racing motorcycles

[metawnny]

Hey Steve,

 

I have never heard of quad rugby, but it sounds fun. Hope you can get a group together for next year. Let me know when you guys get it decided.

 

Happy almost friday to everyone!

[Splinter]

If you have not heard of or seen Quad Rugby, you need to see the movie "Murderball", which will let you learn not only about the game (the original name was murderball when it was invented in Canada) but also about the intense rivalry between the USA and Canadian team prior to last Paralympics. It won the Audience Choice Award at Sundance in 2005.

 

Here is the Netflix link:

http://www.netflix.com/Movie/Murderball/70021128?trkid=189530&strkid=1195198269_0_0

[ndsumfun]

that was a GREAT documentary!

[MotoRacer598]

that was a GREAT documentary!

 

Yes it was!! I had just gotten hurt a few months before it came out and I got hooked on the game as soon as I saw it. I'm actually going to be in Birmingham in july for a tryout on a new national team for up and coming players.

 

Shawna I'll let you know what I find out on the cruise

 

Yay it's FRIDAY!!

[ndsumfun]

cool beans! (that you'll be here) You must be coming to Lakeshore????

 

 

Your injury is quite recent then huh? If you don't mind me asking, how old are you?

 

My husband wanted to play rugby but since he had full use of his arms & hands they wouldn't let him play :(

 

 

Shawna, I looked at the Alaskan cruise.......Gosh, it's expensive!!! I might have to save a little longer on that one! I really wished we could go with you all though! I think it would be cool for us to be able to hang out seeing as we all have at least 1 thing in common! :rolleyes:

[metawnny]

NDSumFun....I hear you on the price thing for Alaska. The only better deals I found were for Carnival (which I hear is not as accessible) or on Celebrity, but I hear they are having pod problems and I don't want to take a risk on getting to all my ports. I have never been on an RCCL cruise but I have read great reviews for their ships and for their staff. I am soooo looking forward to it. Maybe we can do a different cruise together in the future. Their is always another cruise I want to go on :)

[ndsumfun]

Sounds good to me! You will definitely LOVE Royal! At least I hopeso!

 

I've sailed with them twice & just LOVE them! The accessibility is awesome & their cabins are very spacious!

 

First time Carnival cruise for DH........it was not a very good experience. The room was t-tiny compared to what we were used to & there were many areas he could not access......plus the ship was so chopped up we ended up going up & down the elevators in order to get to where we needed to be :mad:

 

The ship is older so maybe the newer Carnival ships are better. While we like Royal better we aren't afraid of going on Carnival again in the future......because really a cruise is what you make of it......& if I can get a good deal & it's Carnival.....i'll have to go with it!

[MotoRacer598]

cool beans! (that you'll be here) You must be coming to Lakeshore????

 

 

Your injury is quite recent then huh? If you don't mind me asking, how old are you?

 

My husband wanted to play rugby but since he had full use of his arms & hands they wouldn't let him play :(

 

 

 

Yup i'll be at Lakeshore. I have been hurt almost 2 years. I was hurt racing motorcycles. I'm 28. That sucks he couldn't play I love it and rugbys been my best rehab!:D

[ndsumfun]

That is so cool! My dh is 35. He had a car wreck when he was 23. I am glad you are doing well. I can only imagine what an adjustment it has been for you.

 

As for the rugby.......who made your rugby chair? Would it possibly be Eagle out of Snellville, GA? That is where hubby "had" to get his chair from!

[MotoRacer598]

my chair is a Top End they are local here and was cheaper then everyone else. I am ordering a new chair now its built in canada.

 

It's def been a adjustment but the chair hasn't slowed me down one bit!!:eek: