Mobility Challenged? Caution!

I have had well over 20 cruises on Princess Cruise Line, They have never been handicap friendly on embarkation. Once on board everything is fine but getting there is always been bad until my latest cruise. It was a total nightmare. We stayed at a hotel that is recommended by Princess. On the morning of boarding the Caribbean Princess my wife informed the Princess rep. at the hotel that I would need help boarding the bus to the ship. She was assured that both the Rep. and porters would be there to lend assistance. Once the bus arrived my wife again talked to the Princess Rep. and was again assured I would be helped. When the bus was almost fully loaded my wife once again went to the Rep and was told to get me on the bus herself. When the Rep boarded the bus I called this to her attention, she said she was sorry and assured me that she would make sure there was plenty of help and a wheelchair when we reach the terminal. On arrival at the terminal, after much struggle and pain, I got off the bus and looked for the wheelchair the Princess rep had promised me. It was not there nor was there anyone around from Princess to lend assistance. I was forced to hang on to the bus’s external mirror for 20 minutes while my poor wife was going crazy thing to find me help. When help finally did arrive the wheelchair was broken. The footrests did not hold causing my feet to slid off of them. The Princess person pushing the chair kept yelling at me to put my feet on the rests. Trying to tell him they were broke did no good. When we finally arrived in the terminal (it was a long distance through baggage handling areas) I informed a supervisor about the condition of the wheelchair, he responded that they only had a few chairs and half of them were broken. After this experience I would not advise anyone with a disability to cruise on Princess. We have already paid for a cruise in Jan. which I now dread going on. In the future I will search for a cruise line willing to treat me like a human being.

Room steward was poor but the Dining room and Bar service were excellent