|
Ports wheelchair accessible
I love to travel but now cannot walk and must use a wheelchair. Last month my son and I decided to try cruising by taking a Royal Caribbean Lines Mediterranean cruise on the Vision of the Seas. While delighted with my wheelchair stateroom and the crew, visits to ports requiring tenders were not permitted. This is despite the Royal’s sales representative’s telephone assurances while booking my wheelchair cabin, that, “There are many wheelchair accessible shore excursions” he didn’t tell me wheelchairs cannot be tendered. On board I found there was only one wheelchair accessible excursion on the ship’s list of the eighty nine shore activities! Fair warning, the ports at Cannes, Mykonos, and Santroini are tendered. Although Barcelona has wheelchair accessible buses, in the Athen’s port of Piraeus, and the Crete port of Souda we needed taxi cabs to carry my folded wheelchair.
|
So sorry to hear this. I hope it didn't ruin your trip?
For the next time, I would book some excursions with local tour agents. So you can have a personalized tour for your needs. |
@Jessica - that advice is of no help if the OP can't get off the boat!
@daymel - that's infuriating! You might find this site helpful - https://emerginghorizons.com/ Also there are options for researching the ports ahead of time. Try Rick Steves' books on cruising for Europe, or ask on https://www.cruisecritic.com/ |
Sorry to hear this. Frankly as the RCI rep did not inform you about the tendering issue and he of course knew you were wheel chair bound then I think you are due some compensation for a future cruise. I would pursue this with upper level management. You did specify your condition and the rep should have known to check for port access. My own experience dealing with RCI personnel for post cruise issues was a duality. Terrible from lower level personnel meaning an attitude of shut up and go away but excellent when pushing it up. However that is up to you. As for private excursions which are usually cheaper (a tour offered by RCI for our upcoming Doha stop is more than double vs. the same tour booked privately) just be sure they have wc access of course. Normally the cruise itinerary will note what ports are tendered. However sometimes due to port congestion you may have to tender when you were supposed to dock but not often. Good luck Larry |
We also found that even if the ports are not tendered RCI does not always do a very good job of getting a wheelchair back to the room. They just left my roommate inside the boat, near the entrance to the ramp.
There can be some ports where tides make the ramp too steep for access, also. |
Originally Posted by thursdaysd
(Post 16997164)
@Jessica - that advice is of no help if the OP can't get off the boat!
@daymel - that's infuriating! You might find this site helpful - https://emerginghorizons.com/ Also there are options for researching the ports ahead of time. Try Rick Steves' books on cruising for Europe, or ask on https://www.cruisecritic.com/ |
| All times are GMT -8. The time now is 08:21 PM. |