scaquilina

I am currently sailing on Celebrity Solstice with my mother who is reliant on a walking aid due to hip and back mobility issues. At the time of booking our Aqua Class Balcony cabin, the travel agent advised that no accessible rooms were available. We requested to be added to the waitlist for an accessable cabin with the expectation that should one become available due to a booking cancellation that we would then be in line to be allocated to one based on our booking priority. After making the initial booking, we contacted both the travel agent and Celebrity on several occasions to check if any accessible cabins have become available and on each occasion were told that no such cabins are available to us and that we would be notified once any cabin did become available. On the day of boarding the ship in Sydney we checked onboard with guest services and was told that all accessable cabins are still all fully allocated and that should any be available we will be notified.

Several days later we attended the Cruise Critic social function onboard and met a lovely couple who shared with us their experience of being upgraded to an accessible Aqua Class balcony cabin without actually requiring an accessible room as they did not have any special needs as such. They admitted that they did not need nor did they expect an accessible cabin. 

This has infuriated my mother as clearly her special needs nor the needs of other disabled passenger were not considered when Celebrity offered special cabins to general passengers through the upgrading bidding process who do not have such needs. This is clearly discriminatory and we have already lodged complaints with the Captain Club desk as well as Guest Relations and nothing has been done about it to date. As it is highly unlikely that any special needs cabins will become available between now and the end of our cruise, we do expect at minimum a formal apology from Celebrity but none has been forthcoming.

Is there anyone else in this forum who has experienced this form of discrimination on Celebrity or any other cruise line?

Thanks.

Steven

Hi Everyone. I'll be on my second cruise next week, departing 31st January from Sydney on Celebrity Solstice. I'll be accompanying my elderly Mum who is a very experienced cruiser and sailed extensively with my Dad when he was alive.

I look forward to meeting other LGBT cruisers on Celebrity Solstice next week!

I'll be on Celebrity Solstice sailing to NZ from Sydney on 31st January, accompanying my elderly mum. Is there anyone else here on this cruise?