Cruising taken out of my hands…

Ok they do say you learn something new every day in this job and part of our job is to help people plan and organise cruises and that includes passengers travelling with disabilities or special needs.

Cruise travelers with disabilities have concerns that other cruisers might never consider. Can they open their stateroom door and smoothly roll a wheelchair in? Can they easily take a shower? Is it possible to get off the ship in port or hear the evening show?
Cruise lines have already thought through these questions. They’ve provided the proper accommodations to give passengers a little extra peace of mind and a relaxing holiday. They have taken extra steps to make disabled cruising as stress-free as possible.
With a combination of advanced planning and the special features available on most of the ships, a physical disability should not prevent you from cruising. In fact, a cruise might just be one of the best vacations you’ll ever experience.
What I have learnt this week is a little more about those passengers that need Dialysis.Although the cruise lines don’t really offer the facilities
they leave it to the passengers to pre arrange their own equipment . There is a specialist company called ‘Dialysis at sea ‘ who organise the medical equipment to be taken onboard the cruise ships for most of the leading cruise companies.Making it possible for those passengers to still travel . Although MSC has taken this one step further and they now only allow passengers who need dialysis to book their cruises through a specialist agency. Actually MSC have two commercial agreement with the following agencies: Agenzia Viaggi Più (Italian – [email protected]) and Gerard pons Voyage (France – http://www.dialyses-et-croisieres.tm.fr/).
These agencies organize cruises for people who need this kind of treatment on board and embark the machineries, a specialist doctor or nurse and all material needed to carry out hemodialysis process.
This meant that for the first time ever I had to tell a customer I cant actually book your cruise for you , however at least they will have peace of mind that their every need will be taken care of and the great news is that nothing should stop people from travelling.