Wheelchair Cabins – Accessible, but not available.

I have written about the subject of wheelchair accessible cabins (or lack of them) before, but more recently the subject has reared it’s ugly head again. Just as an example, the Cunard Line Queen Mary 2 has 1310 cabins on board, 30 of which are wheelchair accessible, that’s just over 2% of all cabins.

While 2% is in line with wheelchair user statistics among the general population I would have thought a product as conducive to this market as ex UK cruising would offer more don’t you?

The subject has come to my attention again following a recent conversation with a regular client of mine who has been tempted by the amazing technological advances and incredible facilities the new Quantum Class ships have to offer. Anyone who hasn’t heard about the ‘new for 2015’ Royal Caribbean Anthem of the Seas being based out of Southampton next year must have been locked away in a small box for the last few months.

My client, who is a wheelchair user, impressed with the new Anthem of the Seas options from Southampton contacted me to arrange a very expensive trip for her whole family, as in her words “I’m not getting any younger and I’ve decided to spend their inheritance”.

The holiday was of course dependent on the availability of wheelchair accessible cabins, and quite rightly she decided to book now for the end of September 2015 in order to guarantee the cabin of her choice. Well guess what, 14 months in advance wheelchair accessible balcony cabins on the itinerary she was looking at are fully booked.

Well that’s £10,000 plus 2 weeks on board spending money from six guests Royal Caribbean won’t be getting next year. While I understand there is only a finite amount of any particular cabin type on board, it seems to me there is something amiss when you can’t book a wheelchair accessible cabin even 14 months in advance. I appreciate the costs involved are higher for cruise lines to build adapted cabins but surely it would make sense to provide more? Would a few extra really make that much of a difference to the staggering $940 million it cost to build the Anthem as it is? It’s not like they will go empty if not filled with wheelchair users so adding extra isn’t going to significantly affect capacity.

Are you a wheelchair user? Have you had to scrap your cruise plans even a year or so in advance due to the lack of suitable availability? Do you feel misrepresented, do you think cruise lines should be obliged to offer more accessible cabins?

I’d be very interested to hear your thoughts on this subject.

Bye for now.