Experience with Holland America for wheelchair users?

Question

I've already booked a Holland America cruise for myself and my parents, both of which require a wheelchair for distance. I've now read some horror stories of HAL and their poor service for wheelchair users.

What I need to hear is, have any wheelchair users had any GOOD experiences with Holland America?

Answer 1

I would suggest you go to CruiseCritic.com, click on "Boards" and then go to "Holland America".  You can then do a search for "wheelchair access" or somesuch and/or the name of your ship, to see whether anyone else has posted on this topic.  If not, you can post your question there and experienced cruisers will answer you.  You will have to join CC to post [and I think to search, too] but it's free.  CC is a great source of info about all aspects of cruising.

Answer 2

I am not in a wheelchair, but I did work on Holland America for a number of years.

The wheelchair acces on the HAL ships is fine, the horror stories you may have heard would have been from the older ships that admittedly had poor wheelchair access.  However, the older ships have all gone.  There are no areas of the newer ships that have restricted access, even the sports deck and the staff will do everything possible to make it easy for you.  

The only tricky part to navigate is some of the gangways (depending on the port), however they have 'devices' specifically for transferring wheelchair users to the shore and staff to operate them.