Baltic cruise for disabled traveler - review

[flabuddy]

Just got back from a great cruise on the Regal Princess. Spouse rented a 3-wheel mobility scooter on board the ship (it was waiting in our cabin when we arrived) and we took a manual wheelchair. It turned out we needed both, depending on the ports. He's able to walk a bit and climb a few stairs too, which helped.

Copenhagen - We flew into Copenhagen and checked the wheelchair. When we retrieved the chair from baggage claim, one of the wheels wasn't working properly. The British Air/airport staff were incredibly helpful - they were even ready to loan us one of their own wheelchairs for the duration of our trip, when one of them figured out that our chair had been disassembled by the baggage crew and re-assembled incorrectly - they took it apart and fixed it and all was fine. They basically saved the first few days of our trip.

We spent a couple of days in Copenhagen before and after the cruise - We only had the wheelchair before the cruise (which is why it was critical that it worked!), but both the scooter and chair afterward. I would highly recommend the scooter for the city - It was tough pushing the wheelchair over the many cobblestones. Much easier to navigate with the scooter. The city is flat with plenty of curb cuts and most of the sights were very accessible. We even were able to do a canal boat cruise - We left the scooter next to the Netto ticket office (We covered the steering column with a raincoat to protect from rain) and my spouse was able to climb slowly into the boat.

Oslo - Very easy to get around town with the scooter on our own and most of the sights were accessible. The scooter collapses, so we hailed a cab and got the scooter into the trunk for the ride to museum island and the Viking Ships Museum (which was accessible for the most part).

Warnemunde - We rented a car and drove to Schwerin for the day - took the scooter only. We scooted/walked around the Schloss and visited the excellent Stasi Documentation Center, which had elevators.

Gothenburg - We only docked for a few hours, so spouse stayed on board.

Stockholm - We were concerned we wouldn't be able to visit Stockholm since it was a tender port (we docked about 45 minutes from the city center), but it was a pretty calm day and the crew helped get the wheelchair on and off board. We were told our tour (and probably the tender) couldn't accommodate the scooter. We went on a ship excursion - mostly a bus tour of the city with a few stops. The driver stowed the folding wheelchair. We did tour the Vasa Museum, which was completely accessible (but extremely crowded!).

St Petersburg - Took a 2-day private tour with TJ Travel -we highly recommend them. They went out of their way to be helpful and got us into all the sights using accessible entries, elevators, etc - In addition to our outstanding guide, they even provided a young man to push the wheelchair. We didn't really use the scooter much for this port. We were thrilled that we got to see everything we wanted to, and much more.

Tallinn - We took a private tour with Saku Travel - they, too, were outstanding and we highly recommend them. We primarily used the scooter -There are lots of cobblestones in the Old Town, but it would have probably been even tougher with the wheelchair. Our wonderful guide and driver helped find accessible entrances, smoother paths, curb cuts and parking right near the main sights. They tailored the tour to our interests and included several Soviet-era sights and the great Kumu Museum. It was one of the highlights of our trip.

Overall, Tallinn and St Petersburg would have been very difficult to do on our own, so the private tours were totally worth it and were much more reasonably priced than the ship's private excursions. Also, the ship's accessible excursions seemed pretty limited - mostly bus tours with very few opportunities to get out and see the sights firsthand. The private tours were perfect for our needs, hassle-free, completely reliable, and we saw and learned a lot in those two wonderful ports.

Oslo, Warnemunde and Copenhagen were very easy to do on our own with the scooter. We would have loved to do Stockholm on our own, but since we could only take the manual wheelchair on the tender, we opted for the pretty mediocre ship excursion. Next time, we'll try to find a cruise that docks in the heart of town.

[lost4sure]

Hello,

 

Both my parents have never cruise the Baltic and they are both mobility challenged. Again, thank you!

Grace

[tommui987]

Very easy to get around town with the scooter on our own and most of the sights were accessible. The scooter collapses, so we hailed a cab and got the scooter into the trunk for the ride to museum island and the Viking Ships Museum (which was accessible for the most part).

 

Grace:

 

Where did you rent the scooter? I tried the usual two companies but they did not have a scooter that was collapsable - which I would need if we were to take taxis' around.

 

Thanks,

Tom

[MeiFong]

Thanks for this review.

 

Which hotel did you use in Copenhagen? Was it an accessible room or a regular room?

[flabuddy]

We rented the collapsible scooter from Special Needs at Sea.

After the cruise, we stayed at the Hotel Skt Petri in Copenhagen for 3 nights - we had an accessible room. It was very nice, had decent AC and was centrally located (right off the Stroget) and the hotel staff were very helpful. We made arrangements for Special Needs at Sea to pick up the scooter at the hotel rather than leave it on the ship - it cost extra, but it was worth every penny to have the scooter (rather than just a manual wheelchair) in Copenhagen.

Before the cruise, we stayed in the Hotel Neptun (just for one night). Not an accessible room, and there were several stairs from the front entrance to the lobby and to the dining room - they had told us ahead of time there would be no stairs, so we were very disappointed. Luckily, we had fellow guests/staff help us get the manual wheelchair up and down the steps - we didn't have the scooter before the cruise, which is just as well because we wouldn't have been able to get it inside the hotel without a ton of effort and help. The hotel did have an elevator to the guest rooms.

[MeiFong]

People who are inexperienced with wheelchairs tend to overlook 'a few steps'. Glad you had help from others a hotel Neptun, but I now know not to book that hotel.

[Chunky2219]

Many thanks for the review and information, especially St. Petersberg and Tallin. I know Copenhagen and Stockholm very well, but have avoided voyages with the former communist ports because of concern that they might just not be right for me on wheels.

 

.