Wheelchair experience at ports

[scotmech]

Thomson Dream, 2nd to 9th November

 

Yesterday I posted a review about our disabled room 1019 on the Dream have had an email from CC confirming this but I can't find the review anywhere.

 

This is our experience with the ports, my wife is in a wheelchair and she can walk slowly but not far

 

Day 2, Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, we stayed on the ship

 

Day 3, Santa Cruz De La Palma, La Palma, The captain announced that we can’t get into the port due to the weather so we abandoned that and headed to Funchal instead

 

Day 4, Funchal, Maderia, It was raining heavily all day, we hired a Taxi for a tour, 80 euros for 2 hours, my wife stayed in the taxi, can’t remember the names of the places we visited, I had a walk around a fishing village, the driver has umbrellas, a stop to a view from a cliff top, this is not for anyone with a fear of heights, there is a glass see through platform that juts out and overhangs the cliff top, this gave me the impression of thin ice but I walked over it and the view was spectacular very high up,

We sailed at 6.00pm the Captain came on and said we left 2 passengers as the weather was getting worse and we had over 400 miles to Agidar we could not wait any longer, next day he said the passengers were in a hotel and would stay there for 2 days then fly home to Manchester

 

Day 5, Day at Sea

 

Day 6, Agidar, Morocco, a nice sunny day, we decided to get a taxi into the town, 15 minutes away, There two types of taxis, small red cars resembling mk 1 Ford Fiesta’s that only hold three passengers and bigger white cars that hold 6? Passengers

On the quayside there were two rows of about 15 of each type we had the small red taxi, the information say’s the trip into town should cost 5 to 10 euros we gave him 10 euros and made it clear that is all he was going to get

He put our wheelchair on a small roof rack barely large enough to fit the large wheel of the chair and was only 3 inches deep, I asked about strapping it down but he insisted it would be ok, the roads in the port had lots of potholes and speed bumps I was expecting the chair to come off anytime, also my wife was in the front seat and I was in the back I tried to get her seat belt on when we started off but the belt was behind the front seats at headrest level and secured at the driver’s side obviously holding the front seats in the upright position, there was a loud transmission noise, and he overtook an artic lorry at speed on a blind bend, we were glad to get out of the car and said we would get one of the white taxi’s back to the ship, we had a walk along the beach for 2 hours and could not see any white taxi’s so had to get a red one, just the same roof rack and chair not secured, the other drivers all had to push the car to start it, I was in the front this time and my seat belt would not hold in the anchor point on the floor

Do not use the red taxis go for the white taxi’s they seem to be more modern

 

Day 7, Arrecife, Lanzarote, Nice sunny day, we just had a slow walk along the port