Are Disabled room options on all MSC ships a problem?

[The Admiral]

:oSo for those of you who are familiar with MSC and their ships. I'm trying to get an accessible cabin for my mother for a family cruise and when I called today and looked at the MSC SEaside deck plans there are zero accessible cabins except for inside cabins?

 

How on earth in 2017 can a cruise line building a brand new ship tell that segment of the population they can't have any other cabin other than an inside cabin.

 

I'm hoping the deck plans I saw and call I had today are all wrong. :o

[fishywood]

There are eight Fantastica-experience Oceanview cabins "for people with disabilities" on Deck 5 of Seaside. Shown plain as day on the online deck plans:

 

https://www.msccruisesusa.com/en-us/Cruise-Ships/MSC-Seaside/Deckplan.aspx

Edited May 1, 2017 by fishywood

[Skier52]

There are eight Fantastica-experience Oceanview cabins "for people with disabilities" on Deck 5 of Seaside. Shown plain as day on the online deck plans:

 

https://www.msccruisesusa.com/en-us/Cruise-Ships/MSC-Seaside/Deckplan.aspx

 

 

There are also two balcony "H" cabins, 18024/18029 in the Yacht Club

[Beamafar]

:oSo for those of you who are familiar with MSC and their ships. I'm trying to get an accessible cabin for my mother for a family cruise .....................

 

Do you know that you have to submit a doctor's note outlining your mother's need for such? We had to do that when booking one for my father. I can't remember, offhand, but I think MSC, through our TA, supplied us with a form to be filled out and signed by the doctor???

[The Admiral]

Thanks the online deck plan I had those were not noted. Still not many choices for such a large ship compared to their competitors

[Homosassa]

MSC is very careful about releasing accessible cabins.

 

When booking the Divina last summer (2016)for an April 2017 cruise, the couple with us needed a accessible cabin (he uses a scooter and a walker).

 

No accessible cabins were showing as available. Our travel agent needed to talk directly with MSC to obtain a accessible cabin and he needed to provide preliminary information on the disability to obtain a release of the cabin.

 

According to our friends the follow up documentation that was needed to keep the cabin was detailed.

 

Besides the expected medical information from his doctor, he also needed to provide details on his scooter (width, weight and other parameters) and his weight (combined with the scooter weight to help MSC determine if the crew could safely help him off the ship if necessary).

 

MSC may be handling the Seaside in the same way and MSC may need to be contacted directly for an accessible cabin.

[The Admiral]

Thanks. Geez I know some folks abuse getting an accessible cabin but it seems to me in dealing with MSC this week that they have an antiquated way of doing things across the board.

[Homosassa]

Part of the limited cabin selection that shows as available is due to MSC's marketing strategy. MSC tries to maintain a global mix of passengers on all their ships.

 

To that end, each cruise will have a certain percentage of cabins set aside for sale in Europe, Asia, Africa, South and Central America, and North America. This is the reason why the number of cabins showing as available is limited when trying to book a cabin.

 

The accessible cabins may be held in a separate pool to assure that only those that need them can book them.

[The Admiral]

Wow didn't know about the certain geographical mix issue - seems a little shortsighted. I for example couldn't get as many cabins as I needed in yacht club if that's because they have limited how many yacht club cabins will be sold in the US market that kinda ticks me off. Should be first come first serve regardless of what the make up of the clientele is