Is This Accessible?

Part of going away on our cruise, is I am sure the chance to visit some wonderful new destinations. Usually we only have a day so we plan our excursions on how to see the best “bit” of where we are going. It might be part of a organised trip or doing our own thing. What happens though if you are a wheelchair user? Well, you need to have a accessible excursion which is normally arranged by the cruise line you are going with. This way you know you won’t have any hassle and still get to where you want.

The usual “rule of thumb” when booking any excursions is once you send your medical/accessible form into the cruise line, they will contact you approx 12 weeks before you are due to depart with a list of what they can do for you.  Unfortunately in recent weeks I have had a problem with booking excursions for one of my lovely clients, who is a full time wheelchair user.  This has certainly opened my eyes to the problems that wheelchair users encounter.

When booking the cruise, we are advised by the cruise line (who I will not mention) they would get a accessible shore excursion brochure/leaflet closer to time. The cruise was booked at the end of February, this was notified early April.  Beginning of July after chasing again, we were told they do not offer any excursions as there was “limited interest” so they were replacing this with a “bespoke option.” I won’t bore you with any of the other details but eventually we got the options which were so expensive, way over the normal costs. Needless to say my clients are now resigned to doing something for themselves which I am very sorry about.

In all my years I really have not experienced this before and it has surprised me. As I have just mentioned my clients are now going to do their own thing, which I do hope will not cause them any grief as I want them to enjoy this cruise as much as anyone else – what a shame they have had all of this hassle and grief – and this is before they even go!

I would like to hear your thoughts on this, have you ever experienced this?

Till next time x