A score of ships that will be calling at Caribbean and Bahamian ports this season have cabins especially designed for wheelchair users. But just how they’re equipped can vary markedly from ship to ship, and even vessels with such cabins have only a handful of them.
It’s a good idea to check with a travel agency or cruise line to be sure that your needs can be met. Cabins known in the industry as “dedicated,” meaning they are specially designed, are best suited for wheelchair users. Generally, in such cabins, the user can roll right into the bathroom and the shower without encountering a lip, or threshold. On some vessels, there’s enough room in the cabin to make a 360-degree turn in a wheelchair.
The industry practice, incidentally, is to charge no more for these cabins than for similar ones in the same class; that’s why getting such a cabin may require a certificate of medical need. Also, most ships require that wheelchair users be accompanied.
The Cruise Lines International Association compiles a listing known as the Cruise Guide for the Wheelchair Traveler, which details the extent to which a passenger in a wheelchair can get around. The member lines are asked to indicate whether, for example, cabins have wide doors, low or no sills and whether all public areas are accessible. But conversations with several lines found some ships less promising-and others more promising-than the industry association chart suggests.
A public relations representative for Carnival Cruise Lines, for example, said each of the company’s ships in the Caribbean has 14 to 20 cabins that are “handicapped accessible”; the CLIA chart shows Carnival’s ships having low or no sills. But, as the representative for Carnival confirmed, these cabins have a lip, or threshold, of 6 1/4 inches between the main cabin area and its bath on the Celebration and Holiday and of two inches on the Ecstasy and Fantasy. The Carnival official said ramps were available to ease access.
To gauge if a sill is low, consider that the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1992 requires a ramp for a change of grade of more than half an inch. According John L. Wodatch, chief of the public access section of the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice, the act applies to all cruise ships that do business in the United States. The ships, he said, are required to make “readily achievable” changes so that people with disabilities can take part in activities and have access to public areas.
Here is a sampling of Caribbean-and Bahamas-bound ships and how many dedicated cabins they have for wheelchair users. For more information, contact a travel agent.
Celebrity Cruises: Horizon (four), Meridian (two), Zenith (four).
Costa Cruise Lines: CostaAllegra (eight), CostaClassica (six), CostaRomantica, to be launched Nov. 21 (six).
Cunard Crown Cruises: Crown Dynasty (four), Crown Jewel (four), Crown Monarch (five).
Diamond Cruise Inc.: Radisson Diamond (two).
Holland America Line: Nieuw Amsterdam (four), Noordam (four), Westerdam (six), Maasdam, to be launched Dec. 3 (six).
Norwegian Cruise Line: Seaward (four), Windward (six), Dreamward (six).
Regency Cruises: Regent Sun (two).
Royal Caribbean Cruise Line: Majesty of the Seas (four), Monarch of the Seas (four), Nordic Empress (four).
