Accessible cabin ...... What would you do???

[caribill]

As somebody with limited mobility and I use a scooter/wheelchair I think it is very wrong these accessible rooms are being allocated to people who are not disabled and do not need them.

 

 

 

As it gets closer to the sailing date, if the accessible cabin has not yet been sold, they will allocate it to someone who does not need it. They will not keep it available just in case someone who would need it books the cruise at the last minute.

[crochetcruise]

I am taking my mother who will be 75 next July to Alaska in May 2018. She uses a rollator (one of those fancy walkers with wheels and a seat), because it helps her with stability and helps when she walks distances.

 

Our travel agent would not book an accessible room for us, because those rooms are intended for people who have true mobility issues and use scooters or wheelchairs.

 

While it will be some extra effort on our part to collapse the rollator coming and going to and from the room, it is effort we are able to make while someone else who requires more assistance cannot.

 

I would take the room if Princess changed us because it would provide some benefits for us, but I hate the idea of someone else who has looked forward to their trip as much as we have might have to miss out if we booked it.

 

Your TA is WRONG! When I booked, my TA rang Princess Cruises and discussed my needs-I also use a Rollator for mobility and stability myself having sight, balance and mobility issues, and I found while aboard, that the Handicapped Accessible Window Suite bathroom with the handrails, fold down seat and drains made showering much safer for me. I travel solo, so took the Handicapped Accessible Window Suite once I knew about it-had planned on a Balcony-and enjoyed myself thoroughly.

 

I did have to fill in a form giving more specific details, including the weight and height of my Rollator, but that was easy.

 

My TA also asked for my booking to be marked NO UPGRADE as I am in the highest available stateroom-the only Suite on the Golden Princess equipped for Handicapped Accessibility.

 

I plan ahead and book early to secure suitable accommodation.

 

Enjoy your cruise!

[MrsUsman]

What ship and date? We are on waiting list for HC accessible on transatlantic.

 

Mrs. Afeez Usman (Jennifer)

[jeffbrig]

I booked a cheap last minute balcony guarantee for a Caribbean cruise on the Ruby a few years back, and we were placed in an accessible room. Huge, awesome room. Sometimes they do go unused, but I would not have deliberately booked it.

 

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[jmpember]

We had one once when my duh was recuperating from a bad wreck and required a walker. It was nice, it was a balcony. If you don't mind being by an elevator and they don't need it,go for it.

[jmpember]

I am taking my mother who will be 75 next July to Alaska in May 2018. She uses a rollator (one of those fancy walkers with wheels and a seat), because it helps her with stability and helps when she walks distances.

 

Our travel agent would not book an accessible room for us, because those rooms are intended for people who have true mobility issues and use scooters or wheelchairs.

 

While it will be some extra effort on our part to collapse the rollator coming and going to and from the room, it is effort we are able to make while someone else who requires more assistance cannot.

 

I would take the room if Princess changed us because it would provide some benefits for us, but I hate the idea of someone else who has looked forward to their trip as much as we have might have to miss out if we booked it.

 

 

So not true, using a device to assist mobility is a reason for one of those cabins. We had no issue, my husband was not wheelchair dependent but needed a walker and the room location and choice made it perfect for us.

 

Now would I intentionally book a hc cabin

No, we don't need it, now

[Colo Cruiser]

We had one once when my duh was recuperating from a bad wreck and required a walker. It was nice, it was a balcony. If you don't mind being by an elevator and they don't need it,go for it.

 

 

Do I dare ask?

[avcruz]

Do I dare ask?

 

 

 

Oh, please do! [emoji57]

 

 

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[Lucky TGO]

Just wait and see. If they need that cabin you will be upgraded.

Tony

[Thrak]

We were once automagically upgraded from a forward interior cabin to a Caribe deck HC balcony. OMG! Freaking huge balcony and room. The room and balcony were both 1.5 times as wide as a normal balcony and, in addition, the Caribe balconies are much deeper and half covered, half uncovered. It was an amazing and HUGE upgrade. Nobody had booked the cabin and they just moved us there. I didn't even get a notification and just saw it on the personalizer a couple of weeks before we sailed.

 

The bathroom is different and some may find it "weird" but it is a much larger bathroom and a much larger shower. We loved the cabin for the extra room and the giant balcony.

 

Rest assured that, if someone actually needs the HC cabin, Princess will move you so you are not hogging a cabin someone else might need.

[Momma Mojito]

We were once automagically upgraded from a forward interior cabin to a Caribe deck HC balcony. OMG! Freaking huge balcony and room. The room and balcony were both 1.5 times as wide as a normal balcony and, in addition, the Caribe balconies are much deeper and half covered, half uncovered. It was an amazing and HUGE upgrade. Nobody had booked the cabin and they just moved us there. I didn't even get a notification and just saw it on the personalizer a couple of weeks before we sailed.

 

The bathroom is different and some may find it "weird" but it is a much larger bathroom and a much larger shower. We loved the cabin for the extra room and the giant balcony.

 

Rest assured that, if someone actually needs the HC cabin, Princess will move you so you are not hogging a cabin someone else might need.

 

 

Thanks for your the support. I did call Princess after I started this thread and they also reassured me that if this cabin is needed WE WILL BE MOVED which we won't mind!!

[JimmyVWine]

Thanks for your the support. I did call Princess after I started this thread and they also reassured me that if this cabin is needed WE WILL BE MOVED which we won't mind!!

I hope this is the case. I just wonder if Princess has a way of tracking if an accessible cabin is currently occupied by someone who doesn't actually need it or whether their system assumes that everyone in those cabins meets the requirements and needs to stay there.

[Casey12]

I hope this is the case. I just wonder if Princess has a way of tracking if an accessible cabin is currently occupied by someone who doesn't actually need it or whether their system assumes that everyone in those cabins meets the requirements and needs to stay there.

 

There are several reports on here where individuals wanted to bring family members in wheel chairs and was unable to. Once on the ship, they find a newlywed couple onboard bragging that their TA booked them a bigger (handicapped) cabin for their honeymoon and how they are loving it. They did not need it but wanted the bigger cabin.

 

When those in need want the cabin, it shows up as booked. Princess has a difficult time figuring out who needs the cabin once they are already booked. So they don't try.

 

If you do not need the cabin, don't book it.

[JimmyVWine]

There are several reports on here where individuals wanted to bring family members in wheel chairs and was unable to. Once on the ship, they find a newlywed couple onboard bragging that their TA booked them a bigger (handicapped) cabin for their honeymoon and how they are loving it. They did not need it but wanted the bigger cabin.

 

When those in need want the cabin, it shows up as booked. Princess has a difficult time figuring out who needs the cabin once they are already booked. So they don't try.

This is exactly how I see it playing out, (though not necessarily because they don't try, but because inventory is controlled by a computer program and the computer assumes that everyone in an accessible cabin belongs there.) In order for passengers who don't need the cabin to be moved out of it, there has to be human intervention and with 17 ships with thousands of passengers each, all sailing 365 days a year, the level of granular attention to detail necessary to remember that there is one couple booked into one accessible cabin who doesn't need it and who is willing to be moved is virtually impossible. I assume that all that is needed to test this out would be to try to do a mock booking on line for an accessible cabin once all such cabins are booked. I am certain that the Princess website would show no availability. What it won't show is: "Hold on a minute. There is a couple in an accessible cabin that doesn't need it, so we will now reassign them and move you in to the cabin that they are now holding. This will just take a moment." That will never and can never happen. So once the last accessible cabin is booked, all future requests attempted on line will fail. Would you get a different result if one called and spoke with a live agent? Maybe. But I am skeptical.

[montgomeryfamily]

I can tell you from personal experience that Princess does NOT track who is in an wheelchair accessible cabin but doesn't need the cabin so that someone who does need the accessible features can be booked in it. Once a wheelchair accessible cabin is booked, it is out of the inventory. We have cruised on Princess many times since 1989, so we have much experience.

 

We have tried to book wheelchair accessible cabins on several different ships/sailing dates only to be told that all are booked. When I asked Princess on those occasions if the representative/agent or someone else from Princess could check to see if the passengers booked in at least one of these accessible staterooms actually needed the accessible features, I was always told that the passenger wouldn't have booked the stateroom had they not needed the accessible features on each of these occasions, with no further inquiry by the agent.

 

On several of those occasions, I even contacted the access dept to try to get them to confirm that the rooms were booked by passengers who needed the accessible features and again was told the same thing, with the access dept rep refusing to contact the passenger. We missed an entire season of Panama Canal cruises with no WC balcony availability even ten months out.

 

One time I was on a cruise roll call and we had very much wanted to book a window suite because the cruise was for a special occasion. In fact, the only wheelchair accessible stateroom was inside cabins, so we booked that (again, all Princess reps refused to look at the balcony cabin wheelchair accessible balcony bookings to confirm that the passengers booked there needed the accessible feature). We waitlisted the wheelchair accessible window suite. On the roll call, an able bodied passenger in an oceanview cabin posted that they were offered and accepted a paid upgrade to the accessible window suite and asked for information about it. I posted we were waitlisted for that cabin--they never posted again. I contacted Princess and even talked to Resolutions about their putting these able bodied passengers in the wheelchair accessible window suite that we had waitlisted, but they refused to move them, saying that it was too late now. I asked what had happened that the passengers who were in the window suite originally and was told they were upgraded to a higher level suite. NO higher level suites are handicapped accessible on that ship, so the passengers originally booked in it clearly didn't need an accessible cabin.

 

So it is just a myth that Princess notes bookings of wheelchair accessible staterooms by able bodied passengers who don't need the accessible features. I wish this myth would not be repeated in numerous threads where this topic comes up.

 

While there could be a rare exception, Princess does NOT move passengers who don't need the accessible features of a wheelchair accessible stateroom so a disabled person can book/occupy the cabin.

[500adverbs]

We had one once when my duh was recuperating from a bad wreck and required a walker. It was nice, it was a balcony. If you don't mind being by an elevator and they don't need it,go for it.

Do I dare ask?

 

Phone/tablet autocorrect for "DH" would be my guess.

[caribill]

Thanks for your the support. I did call Princess after I started this thread and they also reassured me that if this cabin is needed WE WILL BE MOVED which we won't mind!!

 

There are several reports on here where individuals wanted to bring family members in wheel chairs and was unable to. Once on the ship, they find a newlywed couple onboard bragging that their TA booked them a bigger (handicapped) cabin for their honeymoon and how they are loving it. They did not need it but wanted the bigger cabin.

 

When those in need want the cabin, it shows up as booked. Princess has a difficult time figuring out who needs the cabin once they are already booked. So they don't try.

 

 

There is a difference between those able bodied who purposely booked an accessible cabin (somehow claiming they needed it) and Princess offering an accessible cabin to someone they know does not need it.

 

 

We can't be sure, but maybe Princess is able to keep track of this type cabin they offered to someone who did not need it.

 

Of course finding the person(s) at Princess that have this information may be difficult.

[caribill]

One time I was on a cruise roll call and we had very much wanted to book a window suite because the cruise was for a special occasion. In fact, the only wheelchair accessible stateroom was inside cabins, so we booked that (again, all Princess reps refused to look at the balcony cabin wheelchair accessible balcony bookings to confirm that the passengers booked there needed the accessible feature). We waitlisted the wheelchair accessible window suite. On the roll call, an able bodied passenger in an oceanview cabin posted that they were offered and accepted a paid upgrade to the accessible window suite and asked for information about it. I posted we were waitlisted for that cabin--they never posted again. I contacted Princess and even talked to Resolutions about their putting these able bodied passengers in the wheelchair accessible window suite that we had waitlisted, but they refused to move them, saying that it was too late now. I asked what had happened that the passengers who were in the window suite originally and was told they were upgraded to a higher level suite. NO higher level suites are handicapped accessible on that ship, so the passengers originally booked in it clearly didn't need an accessible cabin.

 

 

Probably correct, but there have been posts in the past by some passengers who needed a handicapped accessible cabin and had booked it but were later upgraded to a non-accessible cabin. The upgrade fairy does not always check to make sure an upgrade from an accessible cabin is only to an accessible cabin.

[montgomeryfamily]

While we have had offers of upgrades from an accessible cabin to a nonaccessible higher tier cabin, we have always turned them down because without the accessible features in the cabin, our disabled family member cannot cruise. The passengers in the accessible window suite could have turned down the upgrade to the higher level suite and would have if they actually required the accessible features.

 

In addition, the upgrade by our roll call member was a paid upgrade.

[montgomeryfamily]

There is a difference between those able bodied who purposely booked an accessible cabin (somehow claiming they needed it) and Princess offering an accessible cabin to someone they know does not need it.

 

We can't be sure, but maybe Princess is able to keep track of this type cabin they offered to someone who did not need it.

 

Of course finding the person(s) at Princess that have this information may be difficult.

 

Both the regular Princess representatives (supervisors) and Access dept representatives have advised me that NO such tracking system exists. The Access Dept representatives specifically have told me: "Once a HC cabin is booked, it is out of the inventory".