Handicap Accessible Cruises: Now vs. Then

Many years ago I had the privilege of going on an Alaska cruise with my friend Jennifer,and her seeing eye dog Kringle. I think we were among the early pioneers of handicappedcruisers! Little did we know that the ADA was not extended to foreign-flagged cruise shipsuntil after 2005. When I first approached Jennifer about the cruise she wasn't sure that we could pull it off. You have to understand that I am the one who thinks that even though Jennifer is blind and wheelchair bound, she can do everything I can do... (even drive my car, but that is a whole different story).

So, without hesitation I booked the cruise without giving a thought to the laundry list of details that had to be worked out. As it turned out, the dog was the least of our worries. Once we had all the necessary paperwork, Kringle was good to go. We packed Kringles food, some toys and a big piece of astro turf to be used on the balcony as a potty place. The crew was amazing, they were thrilled to have a dog onboard, and signed up to walk him every 3 hours. (on the poop deck perhaps??) Kringle was allowed access to all public parts of the ship, and by the second,day he knew his way back to our cabin. Being in a wheelchair caused a whole different set of issues that we had not thought of. We did not realize that the high sills on the doorways made it almost impossible for a wheelchair to enter without considerable help, there were no wheelchair ramps available, our room seemed like a mile from the elevators, there were no rails in the bathroom, just to name a few of our problems.

We didn't even think about dining, and should have asked for a table near the doorway so we would not have to navigate our way through the maze of dining tables. The Maitre D was kind enough to change our table for us. We had no issues with wheelchair access to most of the ships venues (theater, clubs, casino, sun decks etc).

Fortunately we could dock at all of our ports instead of tendering (this is done when the ship is too big to enter the port so it anchors off shore, and you take a small boat into port, without ramps it would be difficult to get a wheelchair bound person on to the small boat). Shore excursions were perfect because the towns we visited were small, and most of what we wanted to see was within walking (or wheeling) distance. All in all the trip was fantastic, and we look forward to doing it again.

A lot has changed since our trip, cruise lines have taken great measures to accommodate disabled people. Royal Caribbean even has Beach Wheelchairs available at their private island CoCoCay!!! NCL has 27 cabins on each ship that are wheelchair friendly. Some cruise lines even offer "dippers" to lower handicapped swimmers into the pools. Some of the newest ships have added features such as accessible furniture and closets, low sinks and wheel-in showers, and most cruise lines identify wheelchair-accessible tours in their brochures. So, what are you waiting for, it's a fine day for cruising!!!