New rules for wheelchair users

[Megabear2]

31 minutes ago, GOLDSURFER said:

From information received it’s more to do with EVACUATION CHAIRS they have only a few available ( trying to find out how many). Have tried to book ARCADIA for April 20th 2025 all full. So will have to look for different cruise company for Partially adapted cabins. Will look for cruises in 2026.

Derek.

Hi Derek. Am I to take it that your Iona 35 night cruise has had to be cancelled as a result of this new policy?  If it's evacuation chairs shortages being blamed for your situation I would have assumed your partially adapted cabin would have had one of these allocated when you made your booking - was that not the case?  You do not mention how long ago your Iona cruise was booked, was it some time ago?  

 

I'm assuming your reference to evacuation chair shortages refers to any cruise your are trying to move to rather than your original booking.  Therefore the availability of one of those chairs would not be the cause of your forced cancellation rather the new "policy" on storage/manouverability if it had been correctly requested at the point of booking.  

 

Have I got hold of the wrong end of the stick here?

[GOLDSURFER]

PARTIALLY ADAPTED CABINS new law SEPTEMBER 3RD, From what I am guessing they are saying some PARTIALLY ADAPTED CABINS are too small to MANOUVER AROUND with a Mobility Scooter even when filling in the QUESTINARE YOU HAVE STATED YOU DO NOT NEED THE MOBILITY SCOOTER TO GET AROUND CABIN. But you will still not be allowed onboard.   I tried to book ARCADIA today but was told no cabins Available or Evacuation chairs.  

[Megabear2]

1 minute ago, GOLDSURFER said:

PARTIALLY ADAPTED CABINS new law SEPTEMBER 3RD, From what I am guessing they are saying some PARTIALLY ADAPTED CABINS are too small to MANOUVER AROUND with a Mobility Scooter even when filling in the QUESTINARE YOU HAVE STATED YOU DO NOT NEED THE MOBILITY SCOOTER TO GET AROUND CABIN. But you will still not be allowed onboard.   I tried to book ARCADIA today but was told no cabins Available or Evacuation chairs.  

So your booked cruise has been cancelled due to the new rule?

[GOLDSURFER]

5 minutes ago, GOLDSURFER said:

PARTIALLY ADAPTED CABINS new law SEPTEMBER 3RD, From what I am guessing they are saying some PARTIALLY ADAPTED CABINS are too small to MANOUVER AROUND with a Mobility Scooter even when filling in the QUESTINARE YOU HAVE STATED YOU DO NOT NEED THE MOBILITY SCOOTER TO GET AROUND CABIN. But you will still not be allowed onboard.   I tried to book ARCADIA today but was told no cabins Available or Evacuation chairs.  

The cruise was booked JANUARY  2024.NEW POLICY STOPPED ME ON THE IONA CRUISE AND ONE ON THE ARVIA. NOTHING AVAILABLE WITH P.O.

[GOLDSURFER]

Will look for other CRUISE LINES now, always book four a year so only have two booked for next year on ARCADIA.  IN PARTIALLY ADAPTED CABINS. So looking for JANUARY and APRIL.

DEREK.

[Megabear2]

9 minutes ago, GOLDSURFER said:

The cruise was booked JANUARY  2024.NEW POLICY STOPPED ME ON THE IONA CRUISE AND ONE ON THE ARVIA. NOTHING AVAILABLE WITH P.O.

I assume they have refunded your money immediately?

[GOLDSURFER]

Just now, Megabear2 said:

I assume they have refunded your money immediately?

ONLY PAID A DEPOSIT STILL WAITING FOR ALTERNATIVE CRUISE FROM THEM, FILLED IN NEW PAPERWORK.

[Megabear2]

7 minutes ago, GOLDSURFER said:

ONLY PAID A DEPOSIT STILL WAITING FOR ALTERNATIVE CRUISE FROM THEM, FILLED IN NEW PAPERWORK.

Are your Arcadia cruises the replacements for Iona and Arvia, if not and nothing is currently available to you because of this chair business are they offering you a refund of your deposits?  I assume as nothing is available you have a time frame you are happy to look at.

 

I'm currently looking into a requirement of the sister company Cunard for those who cannot find a suitable cruise to transfer to being told they should be passed to their insurance company in the first instance and I am interested to hear if P&O are doing the same.

Edited Monday at 01:31 PM by Megabear2
Mistyped word changed context

[GOLDSURFER]

I had already booked ARCADIA so they are not replacements.

I'M a DIAMOND passenger on CUNARD so it might be worth me contacting them to see what the new rule means to them.

P.O. ASSITANCE should contact me about the two cruises with ALTERNATIVE SUGGESTIONS.

[Megabear2]

7 minutes ago, GOLDSURFER said:

I had already booked ARCADIA so they are not replacements.

I'M a DIAMOND passenger on CUNARD so it might be worth me contacting them to see what the new rule means to them.

P.O. ASSITANCE should contact me about the two cruises with ALTERNATIVE SUGGESTIONS.

Thank you for the explanation.  As I understand it Cunard has made the same rule, however I am unaware they offer these partially accessible cabins so had assumed nowhere near the number of people affected as their rules appear to have been more strict on cabin type booking with mobility aids in the first instance.

 

If you do get through to Cunard please could you let us know here as well what they say. Much appreciated and good luck finding what you want.

[GOLDSURFER]

1 minute ago, Megabear2 said:

Thank you for the explanation.  As I understand it Cunard has made the same rule, however I am unaware they offer these partially accessible cabins so had assumed nowhere near the number of people affected as their rules appear to have been more strict on cabin type booking with mobility aids in the first instance.

 

If you do get through to Cunard please could you let us know here as well what they say. Much appreciated and good luck finding what you want.

WILL DO CERTAINLY 

DEREK 85.

[FiftyOnePlus]

On 9/12/2024 at 11:11 PM, TigerB said:

Thanks for that information, @sandancer. 

So, in essence, P&O have known for almost six months, or more, that they would be bringing in this change. Long enough to give guests sufficient notice, and be able to explain the full reasons why it is being implemented. Instead though, they announce it just shy of the implementation date, without proper explanation and, in some cases, cancel some passengers' cruises with just a few days notice.  What a class act there are!🙄

 

This rule has been known for months from P&O. I knew about it in April this year.
 

[Selbourne]

Well I’ve just called our excellent cruise specialist and enquired about availability on 4 P&O cruises that I am watching - 3 in 2025 and 1 in 2026. Rightly, they said that the first thing they needed to check was if an evacuation chair was available. Answer (for all 4 cruises) - NO.
 

I won’t give up and will check again after balance due dates, when there may be a  cancellation, but I fear that this policy change (forcing those who don’t really need a fully accessible cabin into one) will considerably lessen our chances of being able to cruise in the future (we have to have a fully accessible cabin due to the severity of my wife’s disability). 

 

@Megabear2 you might be interested to know that in spite of them being the UKs biggest agent for P&O and Cunard, and having spent much of the last 2 weeks cancelling and changing bookings as a result of this policy, I still got an answer in less than a minute!

Edited Wednesday at 06:24 PM by Selbourne

[pete14]

6 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

Well I’ve just called our excellent cruise specialist and enquired about availability on 4 P&O cruises that I am watching - 3 in 2025 and 1 in 2026. Rightly, they said that the first thing they needed to check was if an evacuation chair was available. Answer (for all 4 cruises) - NO.
 

I won’t give up and will check again after balance due dates, when there may be a  cancellation, but I fear that this policy change (forcing those who don’t really need a fully accessible cabin into one) will considerably lessen our chances of being able to cruise in the future (we have to have a fully accessible cabin due to the severity of my wife’s disability). 

 

@Megabear2 you might be interested to know that in spite of them being the UKs biggest agent for P&O and Cunard, and having spent much of the last 2 weeks cancelling and changing bookings as a result of this policy, I still got an answer in less than a minute!

I am sorry that you are having problems finding cruises where evacuation chairs are available and hope that you are able to get a cancellation but it would appear as though the need for such a facility is well known. Otherwise, they would not be booked up so far in advance. No real consolation for Mrs Selbourne though ☹️

Edited Wednesday at 06:31 PM by pete14

[terrierjohn]

3 minutes ago, pete14 said:

I am sorry that you are having problems finding cruises where evacuation chairs are available and hope that you are able to get a cancellation but it would appear as though the need for such a facility is well known. Otherwise, they would not be booked up so far in advance. No real consolation for Mrs Selbourne though ☹️

Last week I booked a 2026 summer cruise on Arvia and there were quite a number of accessible cabins and evac chairs available on the cruise I was booking. However cruises either side of ours had no cabins available, which seemed very strange.

[Megabear2]

31 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

Well I’ve just called our excellent cruise specialist and enquired about availability on 4 P&O cruises that I am watching - 3 in 2025 and 1 in 2026. Rightly, they said that the first thing they needed to check was if an evacuation chair was available. Answer (for all 4 cruises) - NO.
 

I won’t give up and will check again after balance due dates, when there may be a  cancellation, but I fear that this policy change (forcing those who don’t really need a fully accessible cabin into one) will considerably lessen our chances of being able to cruise in the future (we have to have a fully accessible cabin due to the severity of my wife’s disability). 

 

@Megabear2 you might be interested to know that in spite of them being the UKs biggest agent for P&O and Cunard, and having spent much of the last 2 weeks cancelling and changing bookings as a result of this policy, I still got an answer in less than a minute!

I'm sorry to hear that but I'm truly not surprised.  The young lady I spoke with yesterday told me that the bulk of calls she has been dealing with this month have been cancellations and rebooking.  As I was looking for a fairly hefty cost cruise to move to she also looked at suites - people of course can use them for their mobility scooters - and these to seem to be few and far between.  

 

I had to go through the mobility thing for my OH and she said I was lucky we didn't need a chair as they are like gold dust currently with so many rebooking.  

 

I got the impression people are just taking any cruise that has a chair available going forward.

Edited Wednesday at 06:54 PM by Megabear2

[Selbourne]

5 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

I got the impression people are just taking any cruise that has a chair available going forward.

You may well be right. That certainly won’t be our approach though. We aren’t interested in Arvia or Iona and we aren’t terribly keen on Arcadia, but would give her another go if it was a great itinerary. Azura doesn’t do non-fly cruises, so that only leaves Britannia, Ventura and Aurora. An interesting itinerary is a pre-requisite and if the price gets too close to Cunard then we’d use them instead - albeit we’d have the same challenges there!
 

The agent has made a note to keep an eye on availability after the balance due dates, but suggested that going forward we’d probably need to book at launch. I explained that we always used to do that but can no longer commit to cruises over 2 years away and the last few launches have been overpriced IMHO. I guess if we chance upon one at a reasonable price with a low deposit then we might chance it, but I think I’ll just keep looking for late cancellations. Two of our last 4 cruises were achieved that way, although the odds have probably worsened considerably. 

[terrierjohn]

2 hours ago, Selbourne said:

You may well be right. That certainly won’t be our approach though. We aren’t interested in Arvia or Iona and we aren’t terribly keen on Arcadia, but would give her another go if it was a great itinerary. Azura doesn’t do non-fly cruises, so that only leaves Britannia, Ventura and Aurora. An interesting itinerary is a pre-requisite and if the price gets too close to Cunard then we’d use them instead - albeit we’d have the same challenges there!
 

The agent has made a note to keep an eye on availability after the balance due dates, but suggested that going forward we’d probably need to book at launch. I explained that we always used to do that but can no longer commit to cruises over 2 years away and the last few launches have been overpriced IMHO. I guess if we chance upon one at a reasonable price with a low deposit then we might chance it, but I think I’ll just keep looking for late cancellations. Two of our last 4 cruises were achieved that way, although the odds have probably worsened considerably. 

It's worth joining the P&O accessible facecloth group, that has regular posts regarding sales of accessible cruises with evac chairs due to cancellations. You may find something on there.

[Selbourne]

8 hours ago, terrierjohn said:

It's worth joining the P&O accessible facecloth group, that has regular posts regarding sales of accessible cruises with evac chairs due to cancellations. You may find something on there.

That’s interesting and good to know. I am one of the tiny minority of people who has never joined FB so cannot see the content of most groups, but I think that my wife is a dormant member so may have access. 

[sandancer]

I’m sorry if this is repetitive but this evacuation chair rule is still confusing me. 
Does it apply to any type of mobility aid i.e. Rollator or just powered mobility chairs/scooters. 

[Gettingwarmer]

41 minutes ago, sandancer said:

I’m sorry if this is repetitive but this evacuation chair rule is still confusing me. 
Does it apply to any type of mobility aid i.e. Rollator or just powered mobility chairs/scooters. 

See this

https://www.pocruises.com/accessibility/life-onboard

 

Edited yesterday at 08:54 AM by Gettingwarmer

[terrierjohn]

34 minutes ago, sandancer said:

I’m sorry if this is repetitive but this evacuation chair rule is still confusing me. 
Does it apply to any type of mobility aid i.e. Rollator or just powered mobility chairs/scooters. 

It seems to depend on whether P&O  consider that you need an accessible cabin, and I don't believe that they insist you need an accessible cabin if you use a rollator.

[sandancer]

21 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

It seems to depend on whether P&O  consider that you need an accessible cabin, and I don't believe that they insist you need an accessible cabin if you use a rollator.

We take both a folding wheelchair and a rollator.  Usually the rollator is enough for onboard but getting on and off at ports is when the wheelchair is necessary. I think the agent who refused to let us book a standard cabin was not familiar with the new rules. This was back in March. Having just read through the link provided by Gettingwarmer, I now know that as stairs could not be managed without help an evacuation chair is needed. 

[terrierjohn]

50 minutes ago, sandancer said:

We take both a folding wheelchair and a rollator.  Usually the rollator is enough for onboard but getting on and off at ports is when the wheelchair is necessary. I think the agent who refused to let us book a standard cabin was not familiar with the new rules. This was back in March. Having just read through the link provided by Gettingwarmer, I now know that as stairs could not be managed without help an evacuation chair is needed. 

If you could manage stairs with one to one assistance  then according to P&Os new rules you ought to be able to book a standard cabin, however you would not be allowed to take the wheelchair, unless there was an evac chair available, and whether that would mean you had to have an accessible cabin is a grey area, that I doubt even P&O could answer.

[solentsam]

we booked two P&O cruises this week for 2026. Standard cabins, wife taking manual foldup wheelchair and evac chair allocated all done with online booking and all confirmed on booking receipt