Disabled husband

Wow. For some reason I thought this was going to be something like my husband is disabled and he absolutely must have his Mtn Dew soda.

Cruise lines have come a long way in accommodating disabled passengers. More cabins per ship, etc. My wife gets weekly infusion treatments for an enzyme deficiency. This means every week she sits in a chair for 2 hours hooked up to an IV.. Fortunately, the ship did have the ability to handle her situation, as long as we brought the bag and vials. Her Dr decided to just skip the week, but we now know several lines will work with us.

My advice will start by piggybacking on what Yankee47 has stated already. On many cruise lines now the "special needs" department has gone on to be called the Guest Access or Accessibility department. Usually at the bottom of the home page of the web based full website for the cruise line you can find a link to that department that might be captioned something like "cruising with disabilities". If not found at the bottom of the homepage look for a link to the site map.

Next make sure you are in a ADA cabin with a 48" mobility device turn around radius. Cabins on cruise ships are much smaller than even your most bargain basement motel room averaging about 160 sq ft including the bathroom. Also most cabin doors are only 22'-24" wide making it hard to bring any large item into it or to remove something from it. Additionally most of the furniture within it is immovable, making it impossible to remove an existing sofa or dresser to provide more room to add specialty furniture or even medical hoist system. ADA staterooms usually have 28"-36" doors and an extra 15-40 sq ft of floor space space within the cabin over standard version of the stateroom carrying the same category name. (ADA cabins will usually have a taller height toilet and many also have an extra large no lip shower stalls with built in stability rails, a shower seat plus a hand held and fixed shower heads.) If only needing the extra room consider booking or upgrading to a suite which will give you the more floor space and depending on the line may already have a manual recliner chair.

Next check directly with the cruise line as to the outlet situation in your picked stateroom if using an electrical lift recliner, electrical medical hoist, or an adjustable medical bed. These devices might monopolize the only current compatible outlet in the cabin requiring you to have on hand an adaptor to covert the other outlet to the voltage needed to charge or use more mundane things like phone chargers or a curling iron. Also inquire about their extension cord restrictions or loaner program, as many cruise lines have very strict rules about the use of non-marine cords.

Second time I'm posting this..No idea what happened to the first one, as usual.

No cruise line has the type of chair you describe available. However, they all have handicapped accessible cabins, if you got one. It really doesn't matter which line you're actually on, since none of them will provide an item like that. They all have a "special needs" department which will refer you to only a handful of pre-approved 3rd party vendors who provide lift chairs and other items delivered to the ship. . When you call (either your cruise line or your TA) make sure you're comfortable with the intelligence level and literacy of the person you're dealing with. Been my experience the average "phone-answerer" isn't very reliable when dealing with anything out of the ordinary.

We had one experience 5 years ago maybe with a man down the hall who had some kind of reclining chair and a wheelchair. I saw the recliner being delivered. Fortunately their cabin was big enough for those items. Had a brief conversation with him in an elevator. It wasn't cheap, and it was a major hassle to get it. Said it was something like $600 and i don't remember if it was for the recliner or the wheelchair or both. It was only a 7 day cruise. Folks who have "special needs" and cruise anyway are high on my list of gutsy individuals. More power to em!

GOOD LUCK! please let us know how it turns out.

What cruise line and ship are you going on? That would help us point you in the right direction.