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Wheelchairs in standard balcony cabins?


cirpi
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That depends, are you wheelchair bound, or just need one for distances?

 

There will be a step up to the bathroom, as well as to get to the balcony. Plus not a lot of room to maneuver.

 

Just distances.

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There’s really no good place to store it inside the cabin. We stored ours in the hallway (I had a severe sprain, not an everyday user). I eventually just told them to take it away as it was a pain in the butt amd in the way in the hallway and just used my crutches. I would go for an HC cabin as they typically have more space.

 

 

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It’s not a big deal and as such I don’t have a picture. We have done this for at least 10 or 15 cruises. Usually the front of it pushes underneath the desk a bit.

 

As my friend is severely physically disabled and is wheelchair dependent, she NEEDS to be able to manoeuver around a cabin and bathroom and not just to have “space.” She is one type of individual to need an accessible cabin.

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A manual wheelchair, which is typically foldable, can be managed in a regular balcony cabin. You may need to fold it to get in and out of the doorway, depending on the width of the chair. It's better if the desk/vanity is closest to the bathroom rather than the balcony. You can tuck at least part of the folded chair under it. You may also find that asking the steward to remove the coffee table makes it easier to move around in the room. The chair will make it crowded, but it's doable.

Do NOT leave a wheelchair or scooter in the hallways. They become a tripping hazard, and make it difficult for both passengers and staff (with their equipment and carts) to pass by.

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How difficult is it to manage with a wheelchair in a standard balcony cabin?
As long as you don't need to use the wheelchair inside the cabin, it is not difficult at all.

We have used the wheelchairs provided by the ship, and they fold vertically to fit through the door very easily.

 

It only takes a few seconds to fold them, or to open them up again.

As long as the person who needs it can get up out of the wheelchair in the hallway outside the door, you just fold it in the hallway.

Then you wheel it right into the cabin and park it anywhere it will fit.

It is just one more annoying thing taking up some of the limited space inside the cabin, but well worth the slight inconvenience for someone who needs it.

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I asked because a battle with pneumonia, already at month 6, will force us to cancel a fall TA on the Reflection and give up our HC cabin. If my pulmonary doctor clears us to cruise, we hope to book a TA for next year. It's slim pickings for HC cabins, even a year or more away, so it's good to know a wheelchair user can sail in a non HC cabin.

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I asked because a battle with pneumonia, already at month 6, will force us to cancel a fall TA on the Reflection and give up our HC cabin. If my pulmonary doctor clears us to cruise, we hope to book a TA for next year. It's slim pickings for HC cabins, even a year or more away, so it's good to know a wheelchair user can sail in a non HC cabin.

 

You could also consider booking a suite room for a bit more additional space....I did two cruises last year whilst temporarily in a wheelchair (I did post reviews). The extra space was much appreciated! It was also nice to have a butler looking after us, we used room service more than we usually would. As I was limited on the tours I could take I did spend more time in the suite and on the balcony than usual. Hence, real value for money! Luminae very easy to navigate in a chair and Michael’s a lovely place to enjoy a drink.

 

I would add that suites aren’t perfect rooms for fully handicapped (doors hard to open in a chair, lip on shower in RS and PH, showers over bath in SS...) however, if you are only using your chair for distance it could be a good option for you.

 

I would finally add that looking forward to my special suite cruise gave me great pleasure in the difficult post operation months.....it did give me something very special to look forward to. So sorry about your present health issues, I hope you make a speedy recovery.

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How difficult is it to manage with a wheelchair in a standard balcony cabin?

 

We have had a wheelchair in an accessible room and nonaccessible room. If you are able to fold up your wheelchair it can be stowed in a nonaccessible room to be as out of the way as possible, assuming you can get around in the room without needing the wheelchair.

 

FYI, here (direct from Celebrity's website) is what they say the door widths are:

 

Wheelchair and Scooters must fit through the stateroom door and must be stored and charged in the guest

staterooms. Standard stateroom doors are minimum 23 inches wide, accessible stateroom doors are 32 inches wide.

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My Daughter was using a WC and crutches on a cruise a couple of years ago. She could walk, but only very short distances. She was fine in the stateroom, but any distance at all was an issue.

 

She had to fold the WC partly to get through the door of the stateroom, but otherwise it was no issue. As long as your WC is a manual one that folds, you should be fine.

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We saw several scooters stored outside of staterooms on recent cruises. I have mixed feelings - I feel for the people who need them, but at the same time I wonder if they are a safety hazard should there be an emergency. As for walking down the hallway, it was really no big deal to pass by them.

 

To the OP, you didn't say what class of ship you were sailing. On M class standard inside, OV, and balcony cabins are smaller than on S class. Would make storing and maneuvering around a wheelchair more difficult than if you were on S class, or had a CC or higher cabin on M class, which are basically the same size as S class cabins.

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To park the scooter in the hallway is rude and inconsiderate of other passengers and is certainly a safety hazard.

 

One of our family members is a full time wheelchair user and there is not enough room in the hallways for him to pass the parked scooters. So in the event of an emergency, he would not be able to go down the hallway and that could be the only safe direction in which to go.

 

We also have experienced this personally several times on cruises. It means when going down a hallway only to find the way blocked from a scooter, we have to go backwards back down the hallway to the nearest place to be able to go to the other hallway to go to the elevator from the other side--or even worse, to have to go down the other hallway to be able to get to an elevator area to then cut through on the hallway which was blocked to be able to get to our own stateroom, which was only a few doors down from the location where the scooter blocked the hallway.

 

I have knocked on the cabin door in front of which the scooter was parked in these instances. Only once has anyone ever come to the door to move the scooter. The rest of the time no one answered the door. I have also sometimes found the cabin steward servicing these rooms and invariably will be told--"I have told Mr/Mrs.--- that this is against the rules and should not be done, but he/she does it anyway".

 

 

If you actually need a scooter, you need to park it inside of your cabin or make arrangements with the ship to be able to store it elsewhere out of the way and obtain it upon request.

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To park the scooter in the hallway is rude and inconsiderate of other passengers and is certainly a safety hazard.

 

One of our family members is a full time wheelchair user and there is not enough room in the hallways for him to pass the parked scooters. So in the event of an emergency, he would not be able to go down the hallway and that could be the only safe direction in which to go.

 

We also have experienced this personally several times on cruises. It means when going down a hallway only to find the way blocked from a scooter, we have to go backwards back down the hallway to the nearest place to be able to go to the other hallway to go to the elevator from the other side--or even worse, to have to go down the other hallway to be able to get to an elevator area to then cut through on the hallway which was blocked to be able to get to our own stateroom, which was only a few doors down from the location where the scooter blocked the hallway.

 

I have knocked on the cabin door in front of which the scooter was parked in these instances. Only once has anyone ever come to the door to move the scooter. The rest of the time no one answered the door. I have also sometimes found the cabin steward servicing these rooms and invariably will be told--"I have told Mr/Mrs.--- that this is against the rules and should not be done, but he/she does it anyway".

 

 

If you actually need a scooter, you need to park it inside of your cabin or make arrangements with the ship to be able to store it elsewhere out of the way and obtain it upon request.

 

 

 

As this is certainly a safety hazard and not allowed, I would take the issue up with Guest Services. The cabin steward is not going to be able to do anything.

 

 

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As this is certainly a safety hazard and not allowed, I would take the issue up with Guest Services. The cabin steward is not going to be able to do anything.

 

 

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Agree - as this is a safety hazard, it should be addressed with Guest Services.

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On our cruise on the Century, I reported the situation to Guest Services, who asserted they couldn't do anything about it. On two other of our cruises (the Reflection and the Equinox) I reported such a situation to Guest Services and the Guest Services representative stated they would contact the Room Steward to have them contact the passengers with the scooter and move it. After that, when the situation arose, I tried to go directly to the room steward. On our next cruise if we run into this situation, I am just going to contact Security.

Edited by montgomeryfamily
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