Wheelchair Holidays : Royal Carribean Cruise

Royal Carribean Cruise

I have been on a few vacations since my injury. I went on a cruise four years ago and had a great time!. We flew from NY to florida then went on a cruise to Labadee Hatiti, Ocho Rios Jamaica , Cozumel Mexico then back to Florida. The cruise line was Royal Carribean and the ship was the voyager of the seas.

When we first got to the airport, the airline did not have the aisle chair for the plane avaliable. They had to track one down. this was very frustrating! Once we got to Miami international airport, we boarded a shuttle to take us to the ship. The shuttle had a wheelchair lift.

When we got to the ship, I needed help getting up the ramp onto the deck. The people were very helpful. Our room was an ok size. The doors opened wide and the bathroom was big. The bathroom did not have a standard tub chair. It was a tub chair that came out of the wall. This is ideal for an able body person who needs to sit down while showering.  It did not work for me. My mom had to hold me as I showered.

The ship was accessible. the elevators were great, but it was hard to get one at times because all the able bodied people were using them. That is actually one of my pet peeves when people do that. It really makes me mad.

There wasn't a lot for me to do on the ship. A lot of the activities were for able bodied people like rock climbing and ice skating. When we were at sea, I would sit outside or be in the spa. At the time, I was eighteen years old and there was not many people my age they were either married and older or younger then me.

I was glad that the pools were accessible. they had lifts leading into them. There were 4 pools on the ship. I actually did not go in the pool.

The first place we docked at was Labadee, haiti. It was not accessible so I did not get off the boat. This man that i met who also had an SCI got off and said that it was hard to get around.

The next stop was Ocho Rios, Jamaica. Jamaica was accessible. The roads were older and it was hard to get around. My parents pushed me the whole time. Jamaica was awesome! I would def go back there.

The last place we went to was Cozumel, Mexico. The dock was far from the resturants and the places to shop. we had to take a cab. Once store that we went to was not accessible and the ramp was too thin. This was very frustrating.
All in all i liked the trip. I thought that the destinations would not be accessible, but most of them were.

I was also curious if anyone in a wheelchair went to New york city and what they thought of it accessiblity wise.

Reproduced with kind permission of Jessica Guardino.

Wheelchair Holidays : Royal Carribean Cruise