Any disabled person been on a Mediterranean cruise?

Question

We are thinking of a Med cruise next year as a change from the usual trip to Las Americas or Benidorm. My wife has rheumatoid arthritis, she can walk for short distances and only stand for a few minutes, her mobility is limited and she would spend a lot of time in a wheelchair.

We can only find information for disabled passengers on Carribean cruises, and we want a Mediterranean cruise, maybe flying to Barcelona and taking a ship from there.

Has anyone done this with a disabled person? We would like to know how easy it is to get on and off the ship at different ports, are trips disabled friendly? Are the corridors well wide enough for a wheelchair?She has an extra wide one as she is a big lady. Any help or advice would be appreciated.

Answer 1

We took my mum on a cruise with Royal Caribbean albeit to Ireland but she is in a wheelchair.  This cruise line has special staterooms (they don't call them cabins!) which have more space and are designated disabled friendly staterooms.  The corridors are wide enough to push a wheelchair down even when the attendants have their carts outside the rooms.

There are lots of lifts and the crew/staff are extremely helpful.  We went from Southampton and were given special priority to get onboard.

I have been on a med cruise with RC and, although neither my husband nor I are disabled, there were plenty of disabled passengers.  There are some ports of call which are not suitable for wheelchairs mainly due to the fact that they are tendered not docked (ie have to get to shore via tender) but there are not many.

When we were on our cruise there was a family whose son (he was about 25 years of age) was severely disabled - he had the rollsroyce of wheelchairs (I think he had CP) and the crew couldn't do enough to help him - they even had a hoist to get him into the pool!!  He had a whale of a time!

So I would look at RCI if I was you - they go from Barcelona too! (this port is brand new and is all ramps as opposed to steps!)

Good luck and I hope you have a great time!

Answer 2

I work on Cruise ships, have worked for Ocean Village, P&O etc.

The Ocean Village 2 runs out of Palma Majorca and goes round the med (west end) Ocean Village 1 does the East end, Greece etc. Both ships are wheelchair friendly and one of the few with a ramp instead of stairs as one of their gangways. They also have a team to assist you up and down the gangways should you require them. I would suggest the Ocean Village 2 (both ships are very good) purely as her Ports of call only have one tender Port (boat trip to get ashore) were Ocean Village 1 has 2. Don't let this put you off as the teams onboard will assist you and are dealing with wheelchairs all the time. Plus these ships have a nice relaxed atmosphere and good food with lots of space in the eating places. There are lifts etc. so don't worry just go and have a good time. I'm due back on OV1 in a few days so see you there. Further info from their web site Oceanvillageholidays, then phone them.

Good Luck and enjoy yourselves.

Answer 3

I have been on several Holland America ships as well as the Queen Elizabeth 2 in the Caribbean, through the Panama Canal, the Pacific, and the Mediterranean.  On each ship and each trip there have certainly been wheelchair-bound passengers, and they seemed to have a great time and to get around very, very well!  Tendering into the few places where the ships have not been able to be at the pier have been the only problems for those folks.  A few, however, were able to get out of their chairs very briefly and were thus able to take the tenders to shore, and the ship crew members put the chairs into the tenders, got them out of the tenders, and made sure the folks were taken care of very nicely and without a lot of fuss or embarassment.   Although I personally am not mobility-disabled, I did fall down several steps, sprain two knees and one ankle and break bones in my foot on board once, and the ship's medical office took care of me and sent me on my way with a wheelchair, which gave me a bit of personal experience getting around a ship in a chair.  And it was OK!  Personally, I wouldn't hesitate to book a cruise, but you absolutely MUST have your travel agent book one of the cabins with wheelchair access!  Most of the cabins on the ships do not have doors wide enough to accommodate a chair, and there are usually not a whole lot  of accessible cabins, so you have to book those way ahead of time, and your travel agent can take care of that for you.  By the way, when I was in the Mediterranean we stopped at Lisbon, Malaga, Alexandria, Kusadasi, Athens, and Rome, and not once had to take a tender, so nobody was ever stuck on board.  The ship was round-trip from Southampton, and we flew into Heathrow.  So -- HAVE FUN!  

Answer 4

here is an article from cruisecritic.com about the mediterranean area.

http://www.cruisecritic.com/ports/articl...

here's another article on cruising for disabled.

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/22542635/

Answer 5

Princess are very good at catering/looking after the disabled.