Dawn in Feb in Wheelchair

[QuickieGlenn]

Me & the wife are planning a cruise on the Dawn in FEb. I am in a wheelchair and have some concerns about the ship and the weather from NY in Feb.

Any info would be helpful

[DEL67]

Do you have an HC cabin? If so, you should be okay. We have never been on the Dawn, but we have been on other, slightly older NCL ships and have found few accessibility issues. The cabins are good sized and the bathroom well equipped. In fact, we really liked our cabin on the NCL Sky (now the Pride of Aloha.) Even though it was an inside one, it was very large with a lot of space to maneuver and the bathroom was in the back of the cabin allowing my husband to enter straight-on, again making it easier to maneuver.

 

I am afraid I can not reassure about weather in NYC in Feb. You could encounter anything from mild, sunny weather to a blizzard. I would be sure to fly or drive in a at least day early if you are from out of town.

[Arlened236]

Hi Glen. My husband and I just booked the last HC cabin on the Dawn for Feb 18, 2006. This will be our 9th cruise and 5th on Princess. We live outside of Chicago so our winter weather is similar to NY. We ALWAYS fly in at least 1 day earlier in winter...we almost missed a cruise out of Florida due to bad weather in Chicago. Its worth the peace of mind to spend the money on a motel the night before the cruise. We also get a w/c accessible room near the airport...almost all of the hotel/motels in the area have free shuttles back to the airport the next morining where you can be picked up by the cruise line if you opt for the ships transfers.

I am an AKA and use a w/c when I am not wearing my prosthesis...I will rent an electric scooter from http://www.Carevacations.com (have used them 3 times with no problems) for the ship during the day...it is very difficult to manually push a wc over the carpeted floors on the ship. I have not been on the Dawn before but we were on the Sun ...a sister ship (that was befor I lost my leg) I have found that most of the Princess ships are accessible, however they could have a few more automatic doors to the outside (there was always someone there to offer help, either a passenger or a crew member if I needed it) My only other complaint was that there were strange angles and turns often to get into a w/c accessible washroom, and that none of the pools were accessible. Also the hallways are always crowded with laundry carts in the morning when the cabin people do their thing...but they always moved them with a smile when I came by...just shout out to them when you need them.

None of the problems has stopped me and my husband from having a wonderful time on our cruises....just keep an open mind that the world is a littlle behind in accessibility and enjoy anyway. Change is coming but a little slowly for me.

As was said before I hope you have a w/c accessible cabin..it would be difficult in a w/c without one.

Arlene

[Splinter]

It might help to clarify which ship you are on. I believe there are both Norweigan Cruise Lines and Princess ships called "Dawn".

[QuickieGlenn]

Sorry, I am looking into going on the NCL Dawn out of NY

[redspize]

Hi Glenn,

 

Been on Dawn several times. Handicapped room very easy to get around.

If you book inside, 11th deck is midship but very noisey for the 2 cabins on that deck. Outside are not as noisey. On deck 10 they are at very back of ship. Deck 10 rooms very quiet. Bathrooms are large and easy to get in an out of. Except for distance from midship I enjoyed deck 10.

You should have a great time.