FOPMan

No, if you regularly need a wheelchair you are responsible for either bringing one or renting one from the cruise line’s partner, which you generally need to do well in advance of your sail date. Depending upon your cruise line and departure port, it is likely that one of both special needs at sea or Scootaround have agreements with your cruise line. The ship may have a wheelchair for emergency use, but not ones to provide for regular use by a particular passenger.

The port address is1850 Eller Drive, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33316. For GPS, you can use the intersection of SE 17th Street and Eisenhower Blvd,

Bed rails are not pre installed in any stateroom. They may be rentable from Special Needs at Sea. Disney Cruise Line may have some that they can install on request in cabins on their ships.

My parents lived just north of Port Everglades for 50+ years. Downtown Fort Lauderdale traffic has definitely (if.not going on 95, you’d go through downtown to get from the port to the train station).. on some Sundays, there’s a jazz brunch that can add some traffic, and all bets are off between December and March on how long it would take.

Trains don’t have the same security parameters as planes. I’d look at the Hollywood station instead of Fort Lauderdale. It might be a few feet further away, but less traffic. 595 or Stirling Road (stop at Jaxson’s ice cream), get on 95 south to Hollywood Blvd, exit, two quick left turns.

I did earlier, but here is the text directly from HAL’s Know Before You Go site: For the safety of all guests and crew, scooters and other mobility equipment need to be securely stored and charged in the guest’s stateroom and not in hallways or elevator lobbies. Scooters left in these areas could restrict people needing to travel through these areas in an emergency, particularly other guests using mobility aids, since they would have no way of getting by a scooter left in a hallway. For this reason, Holland America Line has size and weight guidelines for scooters. https://www.hollandamerica.com/en_US/faq/know-before-you-go.html

Oof! We usually keep our passports in the cabin safe, but do take a copy ashore. This is gonna be hard to solve.

Finding reliable transportation that is capable of taking a power wheelchair user or a chair where the person using the chair cannot transfer is challenging. I have repeatedly waited over 3 hours, in different cities (Raleigh and Fort Lauderdale), for a wheelchair taxi to show up. When I made a reservation 3 or more weeks in advance and confirmed it both the day before and morning of the pickup. If you’re using a folding wheelchair or a scooter that collapses, you have many more ground transportation options. Getting a transfer from the cruise line is appealing because, at least theoretically, it should be accessible (in the US), and I don’t have to do a bunch of research or worry about the driver not showing.

Ask the cabin attendant to push the bed as far into the cabin as possible.

Thanks for sharing. I’m sorry you faced these challenges. It’s precisely concern over this that we’re reluctant to book transfers with HA from the ship to the airport and instead are using an excursion- there’s no capacity to note when booking the transfer that accessibility is needed, and I could see it being dropped. Not what we want and then have a missed flight, or a cruise, as a result.

Disney’s Know Before You Go explicitly states that devices are to be kept in your cabin or designated public areas. HAL states that devices must be kept in the cabin. See https://disneycruise.disney.go.com/faq/guests-with-disabilities/wheelchair-mobility-devices/

And if you are having issues getting your device into and out of your cabin because you are having troubles holding the door open, a doorstop or wedge might be helpful. Practice always helps, as well. https://www.amazon.com/Wedge-WEDGE-Ultimate-Door-Green/dp/B00N4M2UCM/ref=pd_aw_fbt_img_sccl_2/143-9737783-2500137?pd_rd_w=ab5Nh&content-id=amzn1.sym.b6e57bf5-2054-445a-8980-1886178987a5&pf_rd_p=b6e57bf5-2054-445a-8980-1886178987a5&pf_rd_r=NGBSB3DE9TTSVNGW8HF6&pd_rd_wg=D0B97&pd_rd_r=9048be09-7831-4402-b81c-3029cf648b3a&pd_rd_i=B00N4M2UCM&psc=1

Directly from the HAL website: For the safety of all guests and crew, scooters and other mobility equipment need to be securely stored and charged in the guest’s stateroom and not in hallways or elevator lobbies. https://www.hollandamerica.com/en_US/faq/know-before-you-go.html Wheelchairs are “other mobility equipment.” Passageways are not wide enough for two chairs to easily pass each other. Keep your equipment in your cabin.

please be kind and considerate. I use a power wheelchair and likely could not get past a folded wheelchair left outside a cabin and in the passageway. I keep my equipment in my cabin, unless I’m using it. I expect others to do the same, consistent with the ship’s policy.

You need to fit the wheelchair in your cabin, perhaps under the bed. You might call HAL and see if a larger cabin is available.

My bad! The first cruise that came up on the HAL site for Zaandam was December 2023 to January 2024, where the last stop IS HMC. I totally missed the year!

Please check your itinerary. Half Moon Cay is not Nassau. It’s HAL’s private island, though it is in The Bahamas. There is no airfield on the island- the only way off is by boat, and there is no commercial service other than the cruise ships (some island-based staff come over via ferry when needed). Safe travels!

I missed the note on the last picture, thinking she was still at the dock (which would put the camera at the Coast Guard station:/Nova lab). I do hope the person/people needing medical assistance are OK.

Leerathje, where were you when you took the pictures. It looks like maybe the Coast Guard station

You may need to consider using Uber, Lyft, or a taxi, or rent a car.

I’m a little surprised she came all the way in. I guess the person couldn’t safely be transferred to a Coast Guard vessel- I know the base across from PE well.

Holland America works with Special Needs at Sea and Scootaround as providers who can drop off/pick up equipment at the ships, and including in the cabins. It’s not an issue for them to drop off in Vancouver. It’s similar to many other cruises that are multinational, such as a cruise in the Mediterranean or from Germany to Norway.

Flight info, owners contact, weight, battery info, assemble/dissemble instruction, how to put in freewheel/lock wheels.

Passageways on cabin decks are fairly narrow. There is sufficient space to go down a passageway with a power wheelchair, however there is not sufficient room to either pass a housekeeping cart or a wheelchair going in the opposite direction. There are rarely carts in the passageways. The ship’s staff will be more than happy to move them out of your way. Usually, accessible cabins are close to lobby areas, so there’s almost never an obstruction.