Is my scooter too big for elevators

[halfcrippledcruiser]

I have a three-wheel Pride Legend scooter that feels to me to be like the size of a small ATV. I'm 5' 8" and fat on lots of Prednisone, so I'm not a petite little thing, plus my scooter has in it an elevator lift, which means that it rises to help me get out of it. I have a muscular disease that makes my legs very weak and unable to get myself up from a seated position unless I'm about bar stool heighth. I hear that the elevators on cruise ships are a bear for getting scooters on and off of them. I'm sailing on RCCI Grandeur of the Seas in less than a week. Should I try to rent a small scooter for the trip or will people let me on the elevators in my big one? A small scooter would mean that my elderly Mom will have to get me out of it, but I'm worried that we will have elevator problems with the big one. Advice, anyone? THanks.

[KL&KR]

Hi--I hope someone here can give you an answer specifically for RCCL, but if it helps any, my partner is a BIG woman, uses a Pride Maxima with an extra-heavy seat for weight, and never had any problems with the elevators on the ships we have traveled, Princess and Carnival. I think those elevators are built to take anything. The only problem you might have is able-bodied passengers who crowd ahead of you (it happens). Be politely firm about your turn to get in.

[halfcrippledcruiser]

Thanks so much for your reply. I'm always polite, but if people are rude like that to me I'll just squish them like pancakes with my big Pride Legend and my Prednisone enhanced body - that is, if my mother doesn't get to them first. Additional weight comes in handy sometimes.

[cusyl]

Just a suggestion, if an elevator comes that is empty get in it even if it is going in the opposite direction...then send it where you want it.

I have used a rollator for a few years and that's the only way I can get an elevator. Unfortunately, a lot of people will crowd in front of you.

[CaptData]

Your scooter will be fine. As above you may have to go down to go up ect.

 

I have to do this on my little scootie which is 17 " wide. People still crowd in front of me then tell me there is room with only 10", really!!!. :D I drove in once and the people in the elevator kicked off the person who said there was room after jumping in front of me. Strange I fit in when they left (husband and wife).

[Starr Mtn]

Our experience has been that there is not enough room for a scooter

to turn around in the elevator. That makes it difficult to back out of the elevator. Agree w/previos poster - just get in any elevator that has room and then go to your desintation. Experience has been it's most difficult

during dinner times.

 

If you could rent a power wheel chair and have it delivered to the ship - they

are so much easier to maneuver on the ship and especially elevators. Of course yoy would need to bring your manual wheelchair for the airport and/or pre-post-cruise hotel. No extra charge on the airlines for the manual chair........

[KL&KR]

"...but if people are rude like that to me I'll just squish them like pancakes..." :rolleyes: hmmm...I think I remember my partner saying something like that; hope we meet up with you sometime! (we're always trying to find enough wild-eyed scooter people to join us in asking for scooter-gymkhana games on board)

 

Kristen

[halfcrippledcruiser]

"hope we meet up with you sometime! (we're always trying to find enough wild-eyed scooter people to join us in asking for scooter-gymkhana games on board)

 

Kristen

I have no idea what scooter-gymkhana is, but it sounds like fun. Gosh I love you people. What we need to do is have a disabled people only cruise, but the ship would have to have a lot more elevators.

[KL&KR]

We were thinking of games like balancing an egg on a spoon while you navigate a scooter backwards around a line of pylons; tandem balloon carry between two carts or w/c down a curved course... silly stuff like that. (We did get a staff member to set up a game one time, but then all the scooter people who had absolutely promised to show backed out :( -- we're still hoping the right combination of folks will show up on a cruise someday, and we can play for those oh-so-important ship prizes)

 

Kristen

[halfcrippledcruiser]

We just got back today from the RCI cruise to the Carribean and here's how it worked out: We took both the portable wheelchair and the big scooter and thank God we did! My mother couldn't push the portable over those stinking metal strips and speed-bump looking things in the halls. It was just too hard for her, so we used the scooter all the time on the ship and used the portable only for ports of call where I couldn't take the scooter. I took the scooter off the ship at St. Thomas and used it to shop at the Havensight shopping area without any problems at all. The ship docked at pier 4, which made it easy. Because the ship wasn't full to capacity and because the elevators were generously sized, we had no problems with elevators except for when we boarded and a little bit when we were leaving, but it wasn't too bad at all. I backed out of elevators without problems. Most people were very nice. A few would race to get an elevator before me, but that was an exception and usually when it was really busy. The advice from this group was invaluable. Thanks.

[cusyl]

I'm glad you had a nice cruise, thanks for checking back in. Are you doing a review?

[halfcrippledcruiser]

Yes - I'm preparing a full review because I believe that what I learned will be of use to many others. I'm still working on it because it's a long review. I am also planning on sending a copy to Royal Carribean. I have many suggestions for things they should change to make the experience easier and more enjoyable for disabled cruisers. I would say that the inability to get solid information out of RCI employees was our biggest problem. No one spoke English very well and those that did lacked the knowledge to tell us what we needed to know for making our plans. See my full review, which will be posted in the next day or so.