traveling w/oxygen, anyone done it?

[Fab5]

I will be traveling w/my mom who may need to bring some portable oxygen tanks and her company will not deliver to the ships pier and they would be heavy for us to carry down and we do not have the room in the car either. Has anyone used a service to deliver oxygen to ships ports in NYC? We will be leaving on 9/26 any advice and info would be greatly appreciated.

 

Barb

[Queenie2]

You need to go through an approved vendor (of the cruise line). The cruise lines will only accept delivery from their approved vendors. You didn't say which cruise line you are sailing with, so contact the special needs/access department of that cruise line and ask them who are their approved vendors. Care vacations/cruise ship assist is very good and is an approved vendor for most (if not all) the cruise lines. You could just contact them directly and ask if they can deliver to your cruise ship.

http://www.cruiseshipassist.com/

 

 

Candy

[sashapoo]

There is also a post over on the carnival board that someone put up that has all of the information about which cruise lines require what and carnival does not require any specific vendor but others do. Take a look over there and see if that helps.

[judyfssw]

Please refer to my review of our cruise on the Infinity in a handicapped room. We needed a lot of O2 tanks as well as a concentrator. Care Vacations was an excellent resource,

[trish1c]

My mom has recently been placed on oxygen. How do you use the concentrator? In the cabin only & then have to bring tanks for every where else? Even with a 50 foot line, she can't really move about the ship hooked to the concentrator.

 

She needs 24/7 O2 so on a 10 day cruise (we at least can drive to the port) assuming 8 hours in the cabin for sleep / rest, I will need to bring 40 4 hour tanks? Ugh! That's an awful lot of equipment. Where are they stored? I doubt they'd fit in the cabin. How do we get more when it's time?

 

Any advice / insight would be most appreciated. If it's really this cumbersome, we may just forget it altogether. Mom isn't that thrilled about going; I wanted to do this for her but . . . .

 

Thanks in advance.

[Cruiser@Heart]

My mother was on oxygen when we cruised last year. It was her first cruise. She used a concentrator anytime we were in the cabin (I booked us a balcony Handicapped cabin because she was a wheelchair user, so she enjoyed sitting out on the balcony taking in the view or reading a lot of the time). We ordered oxygen tanks for when we were out and about. In order to not have to order so many external tanks, her doctor worked with us and changed her to a longer lasting tank setup for the cruise. That way we didn't have to order as many external tanks.

 

Just an FYI~ It was quite expensive for us to get oxygen (concentrator and tanks) for the ship and it was entirely out of pocket (her private insurance nor medicare would pay for the oxygen used on the cruise). For a 5 day cruise, I paid nearly $400 (and they gave me a break on the cost!)

[judyfssw]

Trish,

We went through CareVacations.com and, you're right, we needed many O2 tanks. We ordered the larger tanks and they provided us with a holder on wheels and also a carrier for the smaller tanks. I think, for our 7 day cruise, Mom had 8 large tanks and medium tanks which included one that we took with us (prior arrangement with the company) to the hotel where we stayed the extra day.

CareVacations provided us with a scooter for mom, a wheelchair, plus concentrators and tanks for befoire and after the cruise in a hotel in Vancouver. The cost, as Cruiser@heart said, was quite high and not covered by insurance or medicare. I think for everything, it cost here about 1200.00.

However, I agree that it was so nice for mom to go out on the balcony and sit while on the concentrator or go into the bathroom.

If you have any more questions, please ask.