CateV04

Hey y'all,

I was hoping someone here might be able to get me a quick answer - I was looking at some of the deals next fall for the MSC Armonia, but am having a hard time finding information on their disabled cabins, or ease of access for regular cabins for a disabled cruiser. Here's the two issues:

We sail with our teenage daughter, who typically sleeps in a pullman or on a sofa. Does anyone know if the Armonia's handicapped cabins have pullmans or sofas for a third passenger in the same cabin?

My husband is partially mobile, using a wheelchair mainly for distance, but has issues with narrow doorways and stepping over high (over 2") door thresholds. In the regular cabins (where we're more likely to find a pullman), can anyone estimate the doorway width (more than 24"?) or if there's a high ledge between the bedroom and bathroom? 

I really appreciate any help y'all can provide! Cross-posted to the MSC board.

Hey y'all,

I was hoping someone here might be able to get me a quick answer - I was looking at some of the deals next fall for the Armonia, but am having a hard time finding information on their disabled cabins, or ease of access for regular cabins for a disabled cruiser. Here's the two issues:

We sail with our teenage daughter, who typically sleeps in a pullman or on a sofa. Does anyone know if the Armonia's handicapped cabins have pullmans or sofas for a third passenger in the same cabin?

My husband is partially mobile, using a wheelchair mainly for distance, but has issues with narrow doorways and stepping over high (over 2") door thresholds. In the regular cabins (where we're more likely to find a pullman), can anyone estimate the doorway width (more than 24"?) or if there's a high ledge between the bedroom and bathroom? 

I really appreciate any help y'all can provide! Cross-posting to Disabled Cruise Travel

"Also there was a boy in the back screaming at the top of his lungs.  Screaming "what are you doing to me"?  Like they were sawing his foot off."

Soooo . . . . I'm guessing you don't know what was actually wrong with the boy. My daughter, if she gets in contact with the amount of artificial red food dye found in a few drops of the stuff they sell for dying eggs, goes into full-on hysterics that you'd expect to see in a psych ward or horror movie. Last time it happened was six years ago when she was 8, and all of 70 pounds soaking wet, and despite the fact that I did heavy farm and construction work at the time and was regularly found carrying well over 100#, could barely restrain her to keep her from running into walls and injuring herself. It's a bad reaction. I'm guessing this was probably something similar, or we would all have heard about the lawsuit by now. If it was a teen or young adult, could have been drugs. At any age, could have been a psych disorder. Don't judge the quality of the care based on the reaction of the patients unless you know the background, I'm sure the medical staff had their hands seriously full at that point. The girl may have already been given dramamine and the parents were waiting to see whether it would kick in or if it would require further care before they left. And as a first responder with 24 years under my belt, always pack a basic (or more than basic) first aid kit and make sure everyone in your party knows where it is 🙂

We used the mid-level plan on Victory and didn't have too many problems - it was a touch slower than our country internet, but that tends to be pretty slow by most people's standards, so YMMV.

On 3/6/2018 at 11:32 AM, CastleQueen said:

Don't suppose you recall if it was louder? I'm looking at the 10224 side for my disabled husband, daughter and I next year. Thanks!

 

Sorry just saw this! This was the only picture I took 😕

 

 

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My daughter and I have taken them through for other travel with no issues other than the curious "what's that?" from security.

I brought my knitting and crocheting along and had plenty of opportunities to work on both, and DH brought a sketchbook as well as some illumination/calligraphy blanks and a coloring book with to work on. 

We had a fabulous time on the Carnival Victory (Room 1001) back in December and would happily go again. DH is unable to walk long distances, especially in the cooler parts of the year, so was in a manual wheelchair almost the entire time with no issues. We never had a problem getting an elevator, though a few of them were interesting to navigate (some of the elevators don't go all the way down to the main dining room, so we just hopped down to 6 and worked our way across from there). It was very easy to get to all the fun parts of the ship from there, and it had a drop-down berth for our 13-year-old daughter, who though the entire thing a grand adventure 🙂 There was GOBS of room to maneuver in the stateroom, people around the ship were very helpful and we really had no problems whatsoever.

We went all over Cozumel with a folding chair back in December with no issues, including a butt ton of running around in less developed areas. There was the occasional oddball lightpost or sign to work around, but it worked okay overall. It did take a bit of oomph to get the chair up curbs in areas where they weren't any ramps, but it worked out pretty well in the end. My husband is in a similar state to your mom, if that helps.

When we cruised on Carnival, we brought original prescriptions of all controlled substance medications, including narcotics, but for other medications just took a photo of the bottle on my phone to make sure that we had all the pertinent information if it was needed. For the record, nothing was checked at all and we had no problems with prescriptions whatsoever. Was actually a bit amused to see tramadol offered OTC in Cozumel, as it's an Rx here in the states.

I actually had a similar question, whether DH & I can share one - no way we're going through 15 coffees in a 3-night cruise 

On 12/18/2018 at 7:29 PM, emdia43 said:

Both are reported as being on Medicare, so not  healthy. The report says they are on disability, so it's foolhardy to travel outside the US without travel insurance, IMO.

You can be on disability on Medicare for any number of issues, it doesn't necessarily mean you're not "healthy". My husband meets both of those conditions but would otherwise be considered relatively healthy (variable physical ability makes it hard to hold down a job, sometimes he's okay, sometimes he's in a wheelchair).

Thank you!

I feel for you - I'm a remote-working content and copywriter. If nothing else, research locations with free WiFi at your ports of call as a possible backup plan and try to do as much of your work offline as possible. I've also heard rumors that service is fastest late at night, early in the morning and when everyone is at the hot shows or other events that tie up most of the folks on board. Off the WiFi thing won't work in port for security issues, take a look at whether T-Mobile has data in the area - they've got great free international coverage in several countries and as a prepaid service, doesn't stick you with a big contract.

106 days for our first cruise - 4-day western Caribbean on the Victory. Can't wait!

I'd like to know that myself - we're cruising the same route in December and are trying to figure out what to expect.