Letting Carnival choose my room when Accessible needed

[Floriduh]

Has anyone chosen to have Carnival choose your room when fully accessible room was needed?

 

Sometimes it is the only option that comes up. But, when it gets to the final booking page there is no reference to needing an accessible room.

 

Someone had told us once that you could not choose that option for accessible, but they keep offering it.

 

Just hoping for some help.

[firefly333]

I would say you need to call and talk to your booking agent. I would say gty gives almost no chance of getting accessible, it's any cabin the the major types of cabins. 

 

I've been thru this with my sister and had a note that she needed a shower chair and got moved to one without being asked a teensy 4J.  Much smaller than what I booked. With the enlarged bathroom you couldnt even put the twins together. All the space was in the bathroom to make it wheelchair accessible.

 

I would also be careful and look at deck plans while I had someone on the phone as carnival does no favors for accessible cabins imo.

 

They have little plastic shower chairs we have asked for but that's all we wanted.

 

I'm guessing you have to call to book one. Or last minute they might open to the rest of us as I remember. 

[1025cruise]

Since a gty room can put you anywhere, I would not book if accessible is a requirement.

[NavyCruiser]

If you NEED an accessible cabin, then you have to BOOK an accessible cabin.

Don't do Gty.

I'll say your chance to getting an accessible when you book Gty is less than 2%.

[Floriduh]

It's just that the booking flow has you request accessible, then confirm that you qualify for accessible then offers you the choice to pick a room or let them pick.

 

We are starting to "know " the accessible rooms by ship type. Have to stay in the same rooms every time, for the most part. Thought choosing this option might get us upgrades every now and then.

 

Since switching to accessible rooms the upgrade fairy has pretty much disappeared.

[firefly333]

Refer to the thread on Havana rooms and gty. Apparently the gty shows up and so she wanted to know if she would get Havana room. Probably old booking engine.. but this is 3rd thing recently where someone said the gty option is misleading where it shows as a option.

[jmspk19]

We have dealt with this before as my parents were/are both in wheelchairs and always needed accessible rooms. The answer is this...you should call. They are required by the ADA to offer the same access and pricing to disabled people as they do to everyone else. Translation, if a GTY Inside room is an option for anyone to book, and you know for a fact that an inside ADA room is available, they have to offer it to you at that price. They cannot force you to pay more b/c of a disability. The caveats to this rule are, they have to be available. If all the inside ADA rooms are booked, then they don't have to make any exceptions. If only balcony ADA rooms are available and they are offering inside GTY rooms, they do no have to upgrade you. But, like I said...if you know (by doing a mock booking) that an ADA room is available in the same category as your GTY option, you are within your rights to request that room at the GTY price. One more caveat...if MORE than 1 ADA room is available in that category, they do not have to assign you a specific room...but they almost always will. I will say, in my experience, the person who first answers almost never understands this rule and has to ask for a supervisor. You may be better off calling the ADA booking department and dealing with them.

[Lottacruises]

I find when I book last minute and they assign me a room that many times it's a wheelchair accessible room. Always best to call though to be sure you get what you want.

[firefly333]

1 hour ago, jmspk19 said:

We have dealt with this before as my parents were/are both in wheelchairs and always needed accessible rooms. The answer is this...you should call. They are required by the ADA to offer the same access and pricing to disabled people as they do to everyone else. Translation, if a GTY Inside room is an option for anyone to book, and you know for a fact that an inside ADA room is available, they have to offer it to you at that price. They cannot force you to pay more b/c of a disability. The caveats to this rule are, they have to be available. If all the inside ADA rooms are booked, then they don't have to make any exceptions. If only balcony ADA rooms are available and they are offering inside GTY rooms, they do no have to upgrade you. But, like I said...if you know (by doing a mock booking) that an ADA room is available in the same category as your GTY option, you are within your rights to request that room at the GTY price. One more caveat...if MORE than 1 ADA room is available in that category, they do not have to assign you a specific room...but they almost always will. I will say, in my experience, the person who first answers almost never understands this rule and has to ask for a supervisor. You may be better off calling the ADA booking department and dealing with them.

My experience is let's say the lowest category accessible is on deck 8, which costs more. Idk they are required to let you choose a more expensive pick you cabin option, but if you can get them to give it for gty price, good going. My pvp always said I had to pay extra if it was on a higher deck than say a 4A cheaper inside. 

 

My sister is in between a wheelchair and a walker. Can walk but has balance issues and epileptic seizures. So we managed with the shower chair you can ask the cabin steward to get for you when I was told i had to pay extra to pick my cabin.

 

But call and push. Tell them Adam says they have to let you have it. Let us know please.

[firefly333]

49 minutes ago, Lottacruises said:

I find when I book last minute and they assign me a room that many times it's a wheelchair accessible room. Always best to call though to be sure you get what you want.

I think that's because they ho,d them back until a certain date and if not booked than anyone can book them

[Lottacruises]

11 hours ago, firefly333 said:

I think that's because they ho,d them back until a certain date and if not booked than anyone can book them

 

Absolutely.  

[jmspk19]

11 hours ago, firefly333 said:

My experience is let's say the lowest category accessible is on deck 8, which costs more. Idk they are required to let you choose a more expensive pick you cabin option, but if you can get them to give it for gty price, good going. My pvp always said I had to pay extra if it was on a higher deck than say a 4A cheaper inside. 

 

My sister is in between a wheelchair and a walker. Can walk but has balance issues and epileptic seizures. So we managed with the shower chair you can ask the cabin steward to get for you when I was told i had to pay extra to pick my cabin.

 

But call and push. Tell them Adam says they have to let you have it. Let us know please.

I think i'm understanding you correctly, that they want you to pay more for a higher category, b/c they don't offer a handicapped cabin in a lower category. This is exactly the type of thing the ADA was designed to help. They cannot force you to pay more for a higher category b/c they don't offer the accessible in the lower category. They are legally required to sell you the first (lowest) category handicapped cabin they have, at the very lowest price that is available. So if that means you get 4 categories higher of a cabin than the price you paid, then that's what it means. That's their fault for not offering all the categories, not your fault for needing it.

The same thing goes for a concert or show (ive done this many times before too). We go to broadway shows and sit in the orchestra for the price of sitting in the back of the balcony. That's because in the older theaters they don't have a way to offer handicapped seats in the back of the balcony. So they are required to offer the next best available seat, in this case orchestra, for the balcony price.

 

I hope that helps.

 

They may argue with you, but I promise you, this is true...keep holding your ground until you get the right person on the phone. 

[xDisconnections]

12 hours ago, firefly333 said:

My experience is let's say the lowest category accessible is on deck 8, which costs more. Idk they are required to let you choose a more expensive pick you cabin option, but if you can get them to give it for gty price, good going. My pvp always said I had to pay extra if it was on a higher deck than say a 4A cheaper inside. 

 

My sister is in between a wheelchair and a walker. Can walk but has balance issues and epileptic seizures. So we managed with the shower chair you can ask the cabin steward to get for you when I was told i had to pay extra to pick my cabin.

 

But call and push. Tell them Adam says they have to let you have it. Let us know please.

Princess provides you with the minimum lead-in pricing whenever selecting an accessible stateroom. This process is automatic online but requires a quick phone call to Customer Relations to have the stateroom price protected if reserving by phone.

[firefly333]

I do know my pvp said they cant ask you what your handicap is. I think it's against the law

[xDisconnections]

26 minutes ago, firefly333 said:

I do know my pvp said they cant ask you what your handicap is. I think it's against the law

The ADA does not require your disability or diagnosis to be disclosed. They only need to know what reasonable accommodations are needed to provide an equal experience or to assist you.

[Gma&Gpa]

WE have had to use accessible rooms for our last several cruises, as my husband needs a scooter on the ship - and they don't fit though all of the doorways.  The problem is, many of the ships are very limited on accessible rooms of any type, so we try to book them as far ahead as possible - and I always do it by phone.  At the same time, I AM looking at the deck plans to see where it is - but it is very limited.  If you don't need the larger door frame, there are usually a few more options for rooms.  The larger, newer ships seem to have a few more choices.  But, I highly suggest you do it by phone to make sure you can get what you need.  And don't wait too long.

 

[Elaine5715]

1 hour ago, firefly333 said:

I do know my pvp said they cant ask you what your handicap is. I think it's against the law

 

37 minutes ago, xDisconnections said:

The ADA does not require your disability or diagnosis to be disclosed. They only need to know what reasonable accommodations are needed to provide an equal experience or to assist you.

They can require a form  signed by a medical person to verify.  This form does not required disclosure of the nature of the illness or disability, just that the stated accommodation is needed 

[xDisconnections]

9 hours ago, Elaine5715 said:

 

They can require a form  signed by a medical person to verify.  This form does not required disclosure of the nature of the illness or disability, just that the stated accommodation is needed 

How often does Carnival require anything beyond the medical questionnaire? I’m going to guess... very rarely. In the past, it was a widespread problem where many would freely book these as they were larger but that practice isn’t as common anymore.

[firefly333]

1 hour ago, xDisconnections said:

How often does Carnival require anything beyond the medical questionnaire? I’m going to guess... very rarely. In the past, it was a widespread problem where many would freely book these as they were larger but that practice isn’t as common anymore.

I havent found on carnival they are larger. Royal they are about double the size of a regular cabin. The one I had on carnival the cabin was actually smaller. The bathroom took up half the cabin. 

 

I dont think on carnival accessible rooms are highly desirable and people booking them for their size. Carnival is really stingy with the size of accessible cabins. You should see the size on any rcl ship. And the rcl I saw they had it fixed up with lower drawers easier to reach. We did one of those roll call cabin crawls is how I saw the accessible inside cabin on rcl. 

 

The ones on carnival you cant even get your scooter in and turn around I've seen. People wind up leaving their scooters outside their cabins. 

[Barry ATL]

I have been doing a lot of shopping/pricing of ADA cabins on the Carnival website in the last few weeks.  It is new, but they are offering one some cruises an ADA cabin GTY price.  It is usually only a few dollars lower than the price for choosing your own room.  I am pretty good about using the website to find ADA cabins.  Someone stated at the beginning of the thread that the OP might have been confusing the GTY price for a regular inside.  I just wanted to give the OP the benefit of the doubt since that rate actually does exist on some cruises.

 

That being said, I would NEVER use the ADA GTY rate for an ADA room.  There is no room for error when we book a cabin.  DH is wheelchair bound and we would not be able to stay on a cruise if the cruise line screwed up or overbooked the ADA GTY booking.  So, we always choose our cabin when making a reservation.

[Elaine5715]

On 7/2/2020 at 12:07 AM, xDisconnections said:

How often does Carnival require anything beyond the medical questionnaire? I’m going to guess... very rarely. In the past, it was a widespread problem where many would freely book these as they were larger but that practice isn’t as common anymore.

 

On 7/2/2020 at 1:56 AM, firefly333 said:

I havent found on carnival they are larger. Royal they are about double the size of a regular cabin. The one I had on carnival the cabin was actually smaller. The bathroom took up half the cabin. 

 

I dont think on carnival accessible rooms are highly desirable and people booking them for their size. Carnival is really stingy with the size of accessible cabins. You should see the size on any rcl ship. And the rcl I saw they had it fixed up with lower drawers easier to reach. We did one of those roll call cabin crawls is how I saw the accessible inside cabin on rcl. 

 

The ones on carnival you cant even get your scooter in and turn around I've seen. People wind up leaving their scooters outside their cabins. 

I have been booked into handicap cabins.  The square footage is the same.  The bathrooms take up more cabin space and beds could not be moved together in the ones I was in.  They indeed require this form in order to take a cabin from someone who has not provided proof that they need an accessible stateroom and they require it to keep you from being moved should another person provide such documentation.  

[firefly333]

I can see it says scooters must be stored in your stateroom. How many times have you seen scooters down near the elevators at night?  If there was so much space in carnival accessible cabins they wouldnt be leaving them down by the elevators.

 

I only have 180 days on carnival but I've lost count of how many times I've seen scooters parked outside the cabins and around wherever there is more space toward the elevators. If that's the rules, they arent enforcing them. 

[Elaine5715]

On 7/3/2020 at 11:00 PM, firefly333 said:

I can see it says scooters must be stored in your stateroom. How many times have you seen scooters down near the elevators at night?  If there was so much space in carnival accessible cabins they wouldnt be leaving them down by the elevators.

 

I only have 180 days on carnival but I've lost count of how many times I've seen scooters parked outside the cabins and around wherever there is more space toward the elevators. If that's the rules, they arent enforcing them. 

The scooters are outside regular rooms.  EVC users are supposed to fill out a mobility questionnaire https://www.carnival.com/about-carnival/special-needs/wheelchair-users.aspx

 

[MississippiMom]

Yes, I know this is old, but was hoping someone from this thread might return to reply.

 

The Carnival Conquest Class ships appear to have very few Fully Accessible Cabins.  Are the "one-sided" accessible ones still large enough to drive a scooter into?  It's really difficult to tell from the deck plans.