Venice Airport to Cruise Ship

[josiem]

Relatively new to CruiseCritic so this issue may have been addressed before. How difficult is it for a handicapped individual (uses a walker/seat) to get from the Venice airport to the cruise ship? I have seen comments about using a water taxi or gondola. Are these the only ways to get to the ship?

[dbertell]

My wife who is confined to a wheelchair and I took a Celebrity cruise that started in Venice and ended in Barcelona in late may. I can only speak for Celebrity, but when I booked the cruise, I got their special services department to commit to handicapped transportation at both the Venice airport and the dock in Barcelona. My wife is able to transfer to regular car type vehicles but not up steps into a bus. Celebrity was very helpful and got the handicapped transportation for us at no extra charge. I also got them to put it into writing with the phone number of the lady and her name in special services just in case there was any problem. We had to wait a bit at the Venice airport when we flew in since there just aren't that many handicapped vehicles there. They came with one where my wife could actually stay in her chair and ride like that. They also did the same thing when we disembarked in Barcelona. Only had about a 5 minute wait there. Cannot say enough about Celebrity taking care of all this. And the way my wife was treated on board was superb. If they saw us, they would not let me push the chair, they would come do it, hold her food tray at the buffet, find a table, get her drink, etc. Good luck on your cruise and enjoy!

 

Dan Bertellotti