My wife and I recently experienced an 11-day cruise
aboard the Sky Princess, round trip from
San Francisco to Alaska. It was
our 7th cruise, but it was our first one since my wife became a
below-the-knee amputee last year. From previous trips, I knew that the Sky Princess
is a smaller and older ship; it turned out - with a minimum number of
handicapped person staterooms. Imagine our disappointment to find our
cabin right next to two "crew members only" entrance doors,
and adjacent to our room, a loading dock with loose pieces of inventory
on the floor. This all meant 24-hour door banging by the crew and
with the help of an occasional sea swell, load shifting, right next to
our room. The comment from the Pursers’ Office was that they simply
had overbooked the cruise, and there was nothing they can do about it. But the biggest bummer was the access, or the lack
of it. The handicap stateroom had beds about 17" off the floor,
which made it impossible for a disabled person to sit down or get up
without major assistance. The towel racks, again - over 5' high, a
steady "Hon, would you please, get me the towel." All of
the passageways, such as the main Promenade Deck, have little
thresholds, which were very hard to get over without help from others. Instead of a ship to shore ramp, they used the steps. It took four crewmembers to lift a handicap person (over water, mind you!) with a wheelchair and carry her, or him down to the pier. After two or three shore visits, my wife decided, it was OK to stay on board... Thinking that she could navigate easily in her
wheelchair, I made reservations to fly a seaplane in Ketchikan and
another for a helicopter ride over Vancouver. Needless to say, I had to
cancel both, realizing that I could not leave my wife in the stateroom
for a few hours each trip. Well, perhaps, the newer ships have better access for the handicap, or is it my fault for not researching well enough? No matter what, it was a big disappointment for my wife and I to take this holiday cruise under our new circumstances. Top
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