Princess Cays wheelchair accessible?

I know that you have to tender to get to Princess Cays, however is the tender wheelchair accessible like the one at Half Moon Cay. My wife is full-time in a wheelchair and really enjoyed visiting HMC and we booked another cruise but Carnival switched it to Princess Cays. Anyone who has been there please let us know if she will be able to visit this new island.

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

We've only gone to Princess Cays on a Princess ship. There is no permanent tender assigned to Princess Cays. The ship uses the life boats as tenders.

Princess will not allow you to board a tender unless you can walk on or unless someone you are traveling with carries you onboard.

Ironically, Princess Cays is wheelchair accessible once you get on land. Yet, Princess does not allow those who are truly confined to a wheelchair go to the island because they won't provide an accessible tender boat.

I don't know what type of tenders Carnival uses or what their policies are. This is what Carnival would have to use as again, Princess Cays does not have their own tender boat.

I know that you have to tender to get to Princess Cays, however is the tender wheelchair accessible like the one at Half Moon Cay. My wife is full-time in a wheelchair and really enjoyed visiting HMC and we booked another cruise but Carnival switched it to Princess Cays. Anyone who has been there please let us know if she will be able to visit this new island.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Carnival Corporation that owns Princess, Holland America and Carnival Cruises lines also own Princess Cays. Carnival Corporation does not permanently dock a tender with roll-on capabilities at Princess Cays unlike HMC. Therefore the Carnival ships must tender passengers using its life boats which do not have roll-on capabilities. Because of this it's highly unlikely that any full time wheelchair passenger will be permitted to go ashore as the crew is prohibited from carrying a passenger on/off the tender.

Following is copied directly from Carnival Cruise Lines website:

the time I visited Princess Cays they rolled on and tied down at least two small custom wheelchairs with severely HC children. But I did not see any adults on WC or scooter on the tenders. EM

I read somewhere that the Royal and Regal have one tender each with a stairclimber like device to provide access. I have not used nor seen this. I have been on Regal but our cruise did not have a tender port.

the time I visited Princess Cays they rolled on and tied down at least two small custom wheelchairs with severely HC children. But I did not see any adults on WC or scooter on the tenders. EM

I find this encouraging news. If there is roll on capability then my wife can go. She is not a large woman. In fact, she is more like a slim teenager. She is light enough to be lifted on board but would refuse because she is an adult, not a child. If the tender is not ramped then she won't go.

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

I find this encouraging news. If there is roll on capability then my wife can go. She is not a large woman. In fact, she is more like a slim teenager. She is light enough to be lifted on board but would refuse because she is an adult, not a child. If the tender is not ramped then she won't go.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

As previously stated in this thread Carnival does not have tenders with roll-on capabilities, nor is there a tender with roll-on capabilities permanently docked at Princess Cays. Carnival Cruise line's Safety restrictions prohibit crew from carrying individuals onto or off the tenders and is clearly stated as such on it's website. Have been Princess Cruise Ships to Princess Cays and anyone fully wheelchair bound was not able to board the tender as the Princess' crew is also prohibited from lifting passengers on an off a tender that are fully contained in a wheelchair. Regrettably what a previous poster stated about seeing wheelchair bound children allowed to be board may not be as encouraging as you think. Reason being that these children were most likely lifted on/off the tender by persons traveling with them and not the ships crew.

At this time you need to plan that your wife will not be allowed to go ashore. Suggestion would be to wait and go down to the gangway when the crowd has greatly reduced . Though waiting for lines to go down is not a guarantee that you're wife will be allowed to board a tender, there's a better chance if the tender is not crowded . In the end the Captain has the final word.

This was on the Emerald, and the tender was roll-on, and we were seated a few steps below where the wheelchairs were secured. I wish I had taken a picture. I don't believe I have tendered on a Princess cruise since. EM

As previously stated in this thread Carnival does not have tenders with roll-on capabilities, nor is there a tender with roll-on capabilities permanently docked at Princess Cays. Carnival Cruise line's Safety restrictions prohibit crew from carrying individuals onto or off the tenders and is clearly stated as such on it's website. Have been Princess Cruise Ships to Princess Cays and anyone fully wheelchair bound was not able to board the tender as the Princess' crew is also prohibited from lifting passengers on an off a tender that are fully contained in a wheelchair. Regrettably what a previous poster stated about seeing wheelchair bound children allowed to be board may not be as encouraging as you think. Reason being that these children were most likely lifted on/off the tender by persons traveling with them and not the ships crew.

 

At this time you need to plan that your wife will not be allowed to go ashore. Suggestion would be to wait and go down to the gangway when the crowd has greatly reduced . Though waiting for lines to go down is not a guarantee that you're wife will be allowed to board a tender, there's a better chance if the tender is not crowded . In the end the Captain has the final word.

Everything that you have said I already know. The question is whether the tender is roll-on accessible or not. One person says yes & you say no. I guess we'll have to wait and see what kind of tender we have at PC. We have been to HMC twice and enjoyed it. There should be the same kind of tender at PC (same parent corporation). However, if there's not we will be disappointed but it's not the end of the world.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Unless Princess Cays has obtained a roll on tender in the last year, Princess Cays does not have any type of tender or dock. The ships which visit have to provide the tenders.

When we cruised on the Emerald Princess in 2014 and visited Princess Cays, neither Princess Cays nor the Emerald Princess had a roll on tender. Our wheelchair bound family member was refused boarding on the tender because he could not walk on the tender. At the time, there was a man who carried his wife (he was large and she was petite) onboard the tender and the ship's personnel placed her manual wheelchair on the tender. I talked with the couple after the visit to Princess Cays and he told me that he was not allowed to place his wife back into her wheelchair until the tender docked, the crew offloaded her wheelchair, and he placed her in the wheelchair. They did the reverse for the return. They advised me that at that time Princess Cay still had the beach wheelchair (located at the First Aid Station).

A similar scenerio played out during our Caribbean cruise in 2014 on the Ruby Princess. We haven't cruised on an itinerary which included Princess Cays since. On that cruise was the owner of a very large travel agency based in Florida and her wheelchair bound son was denied entry to the tender. Even she was not aware of the Princess "policy" and lack of accessible tenders at Princess Cays.

Since Essiesmom saw a roll on tender used by the Emerald Princess, it must have been in the last year (as we know disabled people who cruised in 2016 on the Emerald Princess and were denied boarding on tenders to Princess Cay) or it must have been a unique situation. Again, unless this is recent, I wouldn't count on it.

We began cruising on Princess before it was purchased by Carnival Corporation and at that time and for several years afterward, Princess used a four man lift to lift wheelchairs containing passengers onto tenders. Princess was one of the first cruiselines to implement a policy against this, before even the other Carnival Corp cruise lines, although for several years the policy was unwritten. Instead they would say tendering of wheelchairs is at the Captain's discretion and then even a couple of days before arrival at Princess Cays, the Patter would contain the requirement that passengers must walk onto the tender. Finally after numerous complaints, the statement that xxoocruiser copied was placed into written policy. Meanwhile, some of the Carnival Corporation cruise lines have taken steps to improve accessibility, such as the tendering system in place on many of Holland America's ship tenders. Roll on tenders were put in place at Half Moon Cay and some of the cruise lines began contracting with the port they were at to provide tenders which included roll on tenders (such as Grand Cayman). The last time we cruised on Princess to Grand Cayman, they still were using their own tenders instead of the port tenders (which precluded wheelchair bound passengers from going ashore). We had actually booked a shore excursion through Princess which had to be refunded. So since then we have only cruised Royal Caribbean on the Western Caribbean Itinerary.

We have made complaints to the Access Board and hopefully if enough people complain, Princess will finally do something. In the meantime, we either cruise on non-tender itineraries on Princess or cruise on other cruises lines who have taken steps to make at least getting to the ports accessible to all their passengers.

Everything that you have said I already know. The question is whether the tender is roll-on accessible or not. One person says yes & you say no. I guess we'll have to wait and see what kind of tender we have at PC. We have been to HMC twice and enjoyed it. There should be the same kind of tender at PC (same parent corporation). However, if there's not we will be disappointed but it's not the end of the world.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Though it was stated in post # 4 of this thread that the children were observed being roll-onto a tender for Princess Cays, the poster did state the ship and or cruise line .

That poster came back an clarified in post # 8 of this thread that the ship was the Emerald. The Emerald is a Princess Ship. Unless I've missed something in the posts no where in this thread has it been stated that Carnival has tenders with roll-on capabilities.

In the unlikely event that the Carnival Ship your on has roll-on capabilities it still up to the Captain as to whether or not individuals with mobility equipment will be allowed to board the tender.

Did you pose this question to Carnival Cruise line before posting in CC ? If not than it's recommended you do so.

Actually, my Emerald Princess cruise was in 2010, the summer she spent in the Caribbean. EM