Mattress height issues?

[Oceanwench]

DH and I sail exclusively on HAL, but that might be changing.

 

We are booked on the newest ship, the Eurodam, for the fall. But HAL's Access & Compliance people are telling him that they have only the high, pillow-top mattresses onboard.

On past HAL cruises, we have had them remove the pillowtop mattress in our cabin and replace it with one of the older, thinner [and thus lower] mattresses.

 

DH is in a power wheelchair and cannot walk - has to slide and pivot to get into bed. He has MS and is very weak on his left side.

There is no way he could get up onto a pillow-top mattress.

 

I have posted about this on the HAL board, but thought I would come here to ask if anyone else has a similar issue and what they have done.

 

Do other cruise lines have lower mattresses, or do they accommodate a person who needs one?

[gotmilk]

I know what you mean about HA mattresses. I usually have to give a little helping hand to DH. RCI has the right height and he can transfer by himself. We are getting ready to do Westerdam in Feb. and I dread the mattress situation. I sometimes like to turn in earlier than DH as he likes to stay in the casino until 1 am.

[travelteam]

Carevacations rents hospital beds just for this purpose. Friends rented one and found it made the world of difference to be able to get in/out of the bed yourself safely. Give them a call or visit them online. We rent electric scooter from them each cruise we take.

[katisdale]

Would HAL be willing to put the mattress on the floor for you? Would that work?

[WEELYNCRUZER]

I have been on 23 cruises and I'm confined to a wheelchair.I have toured HAL'S 2 newest ships.They were and still are the least wheelchair friendly.Not only the high beds but the small accessible cabins. No electric doors to get in and out of the pool decks,high lift overs ect. RCCL has gone the extra mile for accessibility. Happy cruising

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[Oceanwench]

Thanks for all the feedback/suggestions.

DH is still in communication with HAL.

Things move slowly - especially as the Eurodam has yet to be launched.

 

DH finds HAL to be very accessible other than the beds.

[Splinter]

Just talked to someone in a chair who just got off the Noordam and was able to get HAL's special needs department to arrange for an old height bed for his cabin when they were contacted with sufficient notice prior to the cruise.

 

We love HAL...one of our favorite cruise lines, and find that they are more than accomodating for your needs. We have had wonderful assistance from their special needs dept. over the years. My mother uses a power chair (although we always take the manual chair too) and cannot walk or stand at all. They move the furniture around the room, remove furniture, etc. and we have used their tender lift many times. They have provided a roll-in bed for me which still left plenty of room in the fully-accessible cabins we have had (Ryndam and Statendam primarily). You do have to be an informed consumer when booking cabins though. Some of their accessible cabins are really for frail elderly or impaired walkers, are smaller, and don't have a roll-in shower. It that is all you need, then book that. If you need full access, be sure you ONLY book a cabin with a roll in shower. While their bathroom is not as big as soom for their fully accessible cabins, we found no problems using them with our lift or rolling shower/commode chair.

 

We could not use a mattress on the floor (or platform bed) because we need a bed that will accomodate space for a mobile lift underneath, and we also need the space for storage of suitcases. Many others do as well.

 

We much prefer their showrooms which are much more accessible in general than other cruise lines as well.

 

By the way, the bed we had on our last RCCL cruise was too LOW, and we had to have the cabin steward add another layer of mattress to make it wheelchair height.