Alaska and the Sun Princess from a HC perspective

[DEL67]

We recently did a round trip Seattle Alaskan cruise on the Sun Princess. The ship is in pretty good shape, but being an older one, it does not have all the HC features of newer ones.

 

Our inside HC cabin, A308, was spacious with a lot of storage; however we had to leave the beds as twins to allow my husband to access the bed on the right side. The cabin, like the one we had on the Grand Princess, did not have an automatic door, but unlike the Grand Princess, they seemed to have replaced the heavy door with a lighter one, making it possibly for my husband to access the cabin by himself. However, we had to check to make sure it was fully closed as it did not swing shut.

 

The bathroom was adequate with a roll-in shower, a roll-under sink and a medicine cabinet that provided the bathrrom storage that many HC cabins with roll-under sinks do not have. Because my husband is tall and finds getting up from low shower seats and toilets difficult, I had pre-requested an adjustable shower seat and toilet riser. They provided both, but I had to remove the arms of the toilet riser so he could use it. The only issue was the ramp to the bathroom which tended to shift a little.

 

The rest of the ship was fairly accessible with a few exceptions. Several of the lounges have revolving doors. This would not have been an issue except for the fact that bridge was held in one of these lounges so my husband couild not participate. In the dining room, all the tables for 12 or more were up a step which meant that our party of 14 always had to split into 2 tables. The outside decks, except for the Lido deck had some ramps, but they were difficult to access. The only place for wheelchairs in the main show lounge was behind the last row of seats on the sides. Note: The last 3 rows in the lounge were marked as reserved for the disabled, but many passengers ignored this. There were not any lower blackjack tables as many ships have today.

 

Embarkation/disembarkation at Pier 30 is fully accessible; however there is a very long ramp so I would suggest that anyone with trouble walking distances use a wheelchair.

 

We went to 3 ports: Ketchikan, Juneau and Skagway.

 

In Ketchikan we, as a group, reserved private city tour with Northern Tours. My husband had great difficulty getting into the 14 person van because of the seat height, but was able to with the help of my nephew, daughter and myself. Saxman Village was mostly accessible, but there were some areas that had light gravel. After the tour, we wandered around downtown where there were curb cuts and most of the store entrances were at street level or ramped.

 

I thought that we would have to use taxis in Juneau since I was not able to find an accessible tour to Mendenhall Glacier before leaving. We took the shuttle from the dock into town (one of the 4 buses had a wheelchair lift.) When we got into town we saw that one of the tour booths there had a wheelchair symbol and found that they had a bus with a lift. We took their city tour which includes the Medenhall Glacier and were pleasantly surprised to find out that the accessibility at the Glacier had been greatly improved since we were there about 8 years ago. There is now an elevator to the visitor's center and the path to the lookout area is also accessible.

 

In Skagway, we hired cars from Avis and drove out to Emerald Lake. I was concerned because the largest car Avis offers online is a full size and my husband has difficulty getting out of regular car seats. However I called them and they told me that they would save us a minivan if they had one, which they did. It was raining in Skagway and extremely foggy so we could not see much as we climbed the mountain, but the weather cleared and it was sunny after we crossed into Canada. We stopped at the suspension bridge (not accessible) and then at Caribou Crossing before going to Emerald Lake. Caribou Crossing is very touristy; however the wildlife musuem is accessible. Many of the outside areas are dirt/grass so they are difficult for a wheelchair to traverse, but they are passable. The children in our party were able to go dog "sledding (carting since there is no snow this time of year) and gold panning and we all held huskie puppies. They also have delicious homemade donuts and good (but expensive) ice cream.

[robseat]

We were on Sun Princess in 2004, and found it amazingly accessible for an older ship (of course, this was our first cruise so we didn't know what to expect!) We had a GREAT room, outside room on starboard side (we were northbound only). Don't remember the room number, but it had a HUGE picture window. We could lay in bed and watch the scenery. There was also a window seat. At Ketchikan and Juneau, Princess provided wheelchair accessible bus or minivans, including the trip out to Mendenhall Glacier visitor center. These were tours booked through Princess, of course. In Skagway we took the Whitepass Railway -- fully accessible, with great views. We can't wait to go back again (maybe next summer) on one of the newer ships.