Handicapped Room

[NINAVMD]

Hey everyone!! I just booked a handicapped room. However, when the time comes to cruise I might not need it! However, I dont want to lose it cause its bigger and nicer, are they going to give me problems when boarding?? I hope not!! This is my only vacation, please advise. Its from Norwegian Cruise Line.

Thanks so much and I am hoping that someone can give me some advice:)

[Dreamgal]

You book an accessable (handicapped) room because you need it for a wheelchair or other mobility aids...not because it's "bigger and nicer". Otherwise, you are taking it away from one who truly needs it.:confused:

[Jane110]

Hey everyone!! I just booked a handicapped room. However, when the time comes to cruise I might not need it!

 

I'm not sure I understand. Were you in a recent accident or suffer from a recent illness that has left you temporarily handicapped so you need the handicapped room now and you're thinking that by the time cruise comes about you may no longer need it?

 

 

However, I dont want to lose it cause its bigger and nicer, are they going to give me problems when boarding?? I hope not!! This is my only vacation, please advise. Its from Norwegian Cruise Line.

Thanks so much and I am hoping that someone can give me some advice:)

 

Sorry, but I have to say that's selfish. How awful if someone who needs the room can't go on a cruise because an able bodied person is now in it because they like it better.

 

If you booked it because of a temporary physical setback and you're "all better" before the cruise, please tell the cruiseline that. IMHO, it's the right thing to do.

 

Jane

[RZM2005]

As a wheelchair user, I find it unfair and insensitive that people book handicap rooms when they do not need it. Some handicap cabins are the same size just rearranged differently so wheelchairs can enter. I heard of people having to book a year out just to get a handicap room because there are not that many available.

 

If you need it, then use it. If your only using it because you think its "bigger and nicer" is not a justifiable reason. Please think of others who do need it.

[kitty9]

I'm going to be completely blunt here: I am getting so sick and tired of selfish people booking accessible cabins just because it's the last cabin in the category they want, the last cabin on the deck they want or because it's so much nicer and larger than regular cabins.

 

If you don't need the cabin, DON'T BOOK IT !!!! And regardless of what the agent tells you about taking away the HC cabin if a disabled person needs it, that's pure and simple BULL. Once a cabin is sold, there's absolutely nothing in the computers saying an able bodied person booked the cabin---it's just marked as sold, period. So if a disabled person calls and needs a cabin, and is told there are none available, there's no way of finding out how many HC cabins were booked by able bodied persons.

 

While I fault the cruise lines for not doing their duty in requiring passengers to present proof of disability, I also fault passengers who book these cabins for selfish reasons. Now, before the rabble rousers get their undies in a bunch, I'm not saying the HC cabins should go unused if no HC person books them, I'm saying that those cabins should never be booked by able bodied persons until after final payments are made, which in most cases is 70+days out.

 

BTW, I'm a disabled person, but I dont use a wheelchair, so I NEVER book an HC cabin. I respect those who are in wheelchairs far too much to ever take a cabin away from them.

[CruisingAlong4Now]

... I'm saying that those cabins should never be booked by able bodied persons until after final payments are made, which in most cases is 70+days out.

 

So you are saying that if it's several months before the cruise, and the only cabin available is HC, that cabin should remain unsold until 70 days before the cruise. And then, and only then, should that cabin be sold? And if I want to book that cruise months before final payment is due (as most of us do), and since I am able-bodied, you are saying that I shouldn't be allowed to reserve the only cabin available on the ship?

 

Sorry - I can't go along with you on this. I agree that if other cabins in the class are available, an able-bodied person should not be allowed to book the HC, but if the ship is otherwise sold out, I don't think that I should have to miss a cruise because the HC is being held for sale at a much later date.

 

If I am willing to commit today to a cruise that is otherwise sold out, why should a cabin be held for months for the possibility that a HC person might want it?

[prairie_fox]

DId the cruise line place you in it as it was the last one left in what you had booked or are you just wanting it for your own personal reason of having a larger room???? If its just for the heck of having the larger room then I can say you are booking it for the wrong reason. There are many HC people who may need that room and it is wrong you would take it only because you wanted a BIG room. You need to tell them you are not HC and are willing to hand it over if someone who REALLY needs it comes along.

Im sure the advice you get from everyone is going to be a flame for booking for the wrong reasons.

[DEL67]

NCL would not create an issue, but if you no longer need it, it would be gracious of you to call and offer to switch. Note: You say you need a HC cabin now. Think about how would you have felt if you were unable to go because there were no HC cabins left? And then think about how you would feel if you were permanently disabled.

[Bonnie J.]

Just got off Carnival's Valor. We had a handicap cabin but we didn't ask for one. We booked 7 days before sailing. Our TA had told us most cruise lines hold these cabins for handicapped people until 60 days before sailing. We would have gladly given it up. We had an identical cabin last Nov. also Carnival but Glory. Again, we didn't know it was hadicapped until we saw it. We did get perturbed because on last day at sea met woman who could have used one. Her mother was with them, usually using a wheelchair. But there was three of them and our cabin could only sleep two. She had not asked for a handicapped cabin but came and saw ours and will ask next time! And our cabin was not bigger. The bathroom was huge, width of cabin, 8" deep. Our closet was small, one of the two sides had the only four drawers in the cabin but we now only pack what we will wear so had no problem there. Oh, this was an inside cabin and we did have one chair for the desk.

[Bonnie J.]

Just got off Carnival's Valor. We had a handicap cabin but we didn't ask for one. We booked 7 days before sailing. Our TA had told us most cruise lines hold these cabins for handicapped people until 60 days before sailing. We would have gladly given it up. We had an identical cabin last Nov. also Carnival but Glory. Again, we didn't know it was hadicapped until we saw it. We did get perturbed because on last day at sea met woman who could have used one. Her mother was with them, usually using a wheelchair. But there was three of them and our cabin could only sleep two. She had not asked for a handicapped cabin but came and saw ours and will ask next time! And our cabin was not bigger. The bathroom was huge, width of cabin, 8" deep. Our closet was small, one of the two sides had the only four drawers in the cabin but we now only pack what we will wear so had no problem there. Oh, this was an inside cabin and we did have one chair for the desk.

[RevSmith]

As the wife of a handicapped person who cruises...I sure hope you need it, because for use cruisin in a non-handicapped room is next to imposible. The doors are even smaller and the wheel chairs can't fit through...so please don't book that type of room unless you need it. Thanks.

[Bonnie J.]

We DID NOT book a handicapped cabin. We just booked any inside cabin, deck 9. We DID NOT know it was handicapped until we got to it! Carnival put us there. Remember, we booked a week before we sailed.

[prairie_fox]

Bonnie what you are talking about is one thing but someone who books the room and doesnt need it but wants the space is another. I never get mad at those who are given the room who did not ask for it. I just hope the Ninavmd really needed that room and isnt just wanting it for all the wrong reasons.

[cruzer0428]

NCL will send you a medical for to be filled out. In which you will have to state your condition and the reason that you need such a room.

Have traveled NCL with handicapped friend and that is what they do.

[Dreamgal]

So you are saying that if it's several months before the cruise, and the only cabin available is HC, that cabin should remain unsold until 70 days before the cruise. And then, and only then, should that cabin be sold? And if I want to book that cruise months before final payment is due (as most of us do), and since I am able-bodied, you are saying that I shouldn't be allowed to reserve the only cabin available on the ship?

 

Sorry - I can't go along with you on this. I agree that if other cabins in the class are available, an able-bodied person should not be allowed to book the HC, but if the ship is otherwise sold out, I don't think that I should have to miss a cruise because the HC is being held for sale at a much later date.

 

If I am willing to commit today to a cruise that is otherwise sold out, why should a cabin be held for months for the possibility that a HC person might want it?

 

And why shouldn't they???

 

A disabled person has just as much right to take the same time as an AB to commit to a cruise.

 

Here is a post from the HAL thread:

 

There was an older lady sitting in a wheel chair beside the desk sobbing uncontrollably, while her husband and a person stood patting her shoulders. She was saying "they promised me a handicap room"..."how am I ever going to manage in that room?" I quietly asked the front desk girl what was wrong and she said that there was a mix up and they didn't have any more handicap rooms to give the lady.

Then later in the cruise I stood beside a lady pushing her husband in a wheel chair...she said that they were also supposed to have had a handicap room and got a regular room and her husband was having a horrible time...he said that the step into the bathroom was really hard for them to manage. He said that he was feeling so bad for his wife, as it was no vacation for her to have to deal with him in a wheelchair all week).

We were in cabin 6005 and the cabin beside us (6003 I think) was designated as a handicap room. The two ladies in the room were far from handicapped in any way. I saw them around the ship and on shore tours, and they were both very able to walk, dance, eat, etc. normally. I am aware that not all handicaps are visible..but they certainly seemed more than able to negotiate on their own..both wore high heels often.

This leads me to wonder how they were given that room when I know of two other people who desperately could have used it.

 

Do the right thing people!!!!

[kitty9]

We just have to disagree with this cruisingalong4now. Do you realize how many cabins there are for the disabled compared to the hundreds for able bodied? Far too few, when you realize that the baby boomer generation is just starting to cruise and many of them are in wheelchairs and have appliances such as oxygen that requires the extra space an HC cabin provides. I hardly doubt that you've ever been turned away from a cruise because the only cabins left were HC ones, have you? Plus, the scenerio you propose rarely, if ever, happens. How many times has a ship been completely sold out "months before" a cruise? Yes, cruises are selling out, but never "months before" a cruise date. Also, so what if you have to wait until the day after final payment is due to find out you can get on that ship? Big Deal !!! There are so very few cruising choices for the disabled as it is, but for the cruise lines, and able bodied people to book these cabins months away, is just plain wrong, regardless if the ship is selling out quickly.

 

Bonnie, your situation is COMPLETELY different. You only booked 7 days out, and the HC cabin was available. It's not like you booked months in advance and were given the cabin. If that were the case, that you booked months away and were given the HC cabin, I would fault the cruise line.

[KarenR_UK]

Interesting

 

I read this thread (I have a friend who is handicapped and take much more of an interest than I ever did before I knew him) and went off elsewhere.

 

I was 'playing' with the P+O online booking system (to see how it works) and the first cabin grade I selected came up with this

 

"Either all cabins at this grade have sold out since you logged on or only disabled cabins are left. P&O Cruises apologises for the inconvenience. If you like, you can return to the search system and choose another grade or call reservations on 0845 3 555 333."

 

So it looks like someone is dealing with disabled cabins in this way

 

Karen