Miserable! Since disabled and on scooter, couldn't go on excursions. Cruise line has their hand in our pockets for absolutely EVERYTHING! Never saw a whale, bear, dolphin, eagle, or any wildlife at all. It was loud and crowded. Unless you're a family or large group who like to do things together, stay up late and drink at the bars, or hike at ports, there really was not much to do.
Embarkation
2 out of 5
Terrible! I'm disabled and required wheelchair embarcation. I had to wait about 45 minutes for someone to come for me while I waited outside in the sun. Embarcation takes approximately an hour given all the stations one must pass through e.g. passport, verification of stateroom, etc. and the poor person pushing my wheelchair had to really work to get me up all the necessary ramps. Rather embarrassing. I had arranged to rent an electric scooter, but could not get the scooter until reaching my room.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
4 out of 5
Beware! You need to reserve your specialty restaurant visits BEFORE your cruise! If you don't you will be completely out of luck for the more popular restaurants or have to take a very late reservation time for the others. The main "free" dining room was, I thought, quite good, open most of the time, the personnel friendly and ready to please. However, if you don't have a beverage pkg, you'll pay $4.00 for a can of soda!
Onboard Activities
2 out of 5
Again, I'm disabled and using a scooter to get around so, no rock climbing walls for me, the fitness center holds limited interest, and while I could get in the pool, it's located in the middle of the deck within sight of all and its very small. So, too embarrassing to use. The two hot tubs were constantly filled with large groups, possibly families so there was no squeezing in there, either.
Entertainment
2 out of 5
The entertainment provided was not very interesting to me. A comedy show, a musical review, an art auction (the art was absolutely hideous! I don't know why anyone would buy it!).
Children's Programs
Have no children
Service and Staff
4 out of 5
My room steward was excellent! A ray of sunchine in an otherwise dismal vacation! The rest of the staff was very eager to please as well and well trained.
Ship Quality
4 out of 5
Ship was very clean; gotta give it that!
Cabin / Stateroom
3 out of 5
Room was good. Very clean and efficient. Glad I paid for a balcony room. However, I require a CPAP to sleep and there was no plug by the bed so my steward provided me with a huge extension card to plug in across the room at the desk (obvious problem for a disabled person). Additionally, whether you paid extra for the internet package or not, there was none. So, entire trip was spent with no internet, no phone service, and no television but for the in-house canned feed. My friend found out in Juneau, when we disembarked and she was able to call home, that her mother passed away two days before! Horrible!
Ship tip
Be prepared to have the cruise line to have its hnds in your wallet for absolutely EVERYTHING! Very crass!
The town is much smaller than I thought. The downtown has a lot of jewelry stores trying to sell cruise passengers gemstones. The cruise excursion to the glacier was MUCH more expensive than arranging for the same trip via Juneau Taxi--we saved a lot!!
Since I was in a scooter, I could disembark, but I could only visit the cruise line souvenier and excursion building. I could not got into town on my scooter so--pointless port for me.
Again, scooter not accommodated so limited to the souvenir building although this was a large souvenir building with lots of nice (but expensive things).
The ship visited this port as I understand is required by Canadian law, but again, the scooter could not be accomodated on the bus into town so I was limited to the parking lot and souvenier shop.
Had to wait in one of the bars on ship with all the other scooter people for the scooter company to come pick up our scooters and then wait for someone from the cruise line to come get me to take me off the ship to the street. As I was being pushed in a wheelchair down the ramps, hordes of people (cleaners? next cruise personnel?) were surging up the ramps at the same time. It was chaos! I had paid for a bus ride to the airport and was wheeled there but no one told me that I needed to collect my lugguge in some warehousing area before getting on the bus--I thought loading my luggage was part of what I paid for. So when I arrived at my home airport to collect my lugguage, imagine my surprise when it did not arrive! Nor did I have any paperwork for it!
I am also disabled, travel solo, and cruise with a scooter. I've taken 34 cruises and was on the Encore in April with the Eastern Caribbean itinerary.
It isn't difficult to cruise with a scooter, but you need to know what to expect before the cruise. I always arrange for scooter pickup outside of the terminal. Both Scootaround and Special Needs at Sea will deliver it outside. That way it's easy to maneuver the entry ramps. Typically staff at embarkation pull you out of the check-in line and bring you to a special handicap counter for check-in and then straight onto the ship.
I always find that both staff and fellow passengers are very helpful to me.
Bottom line is you make a cruise what it is and I always have a fabulous time regardless of what ship or Cruiselines I'm sailing on. Happy sailing!
As others have said, research is the key to finding the right cruise to match your expectations. As a disabled person without children, you shouldn’t be booking on the resort ships like NCL, Royal Caribbean, Carnival, etc. You should be thinking about either Princess or more ideally Holland America. also, a correction here, the ship does not stop at a Canadian port due to Canadian laws. It’s due to American laws that a ship must stop at a foreign port, while cruising in and out of an American port. There are plenty of people that would be glad to help out a first time cruiser with information about what you can expect, nothing that I saw in this review was surprising to me. People just go on cruises and think everything is going to be done for them. However, you do have to take responsibility for yourself.
Research is the key to a good cruise. Watching YouTube videos about the ship you will be cruising on and the locations it will be visiting helps a lot. Also, just going over the information on the cruise lines website helps tremendously with planning.
Buying a drink package before the cruise is always a good thing, even if it is just the soda package if you plan on drinking more than just water, lemonade, or ice tea.
Alaska is not an easy place to do things without excursions. However, I know that Ketchikan is actually more accessible than Juneau to get into town and look at the sites. Also, I'm not sure what you are talking about with excursions in Glacier Bay since no one gets off the ship there. You sail in and out of it slowly so to observe the beauty of it and the glaciers all around along with the wildlife on, in and long the water. How do you not see an eagle while in Alaska? They are everywhere, just like pigeons in NYC. When we were there, we saw thousands of them.
You get the day before the cruise ends all the information in your cabin on how disembarkation works. You receive specific instructions for what to do with your luggage, where you need to go to pick it up you tickets for your transfer along with times and location. So if your luggage didn't make it home with you, it was your fault. Typically, they will load it on the bus, but once at the airport, they will put all the luggage at a drop-off point, and you have to retrieve it to check it in at your airline.
I hate you didn’t enjoy your cruise and I’m sorry you had issues getting on, around, and off the ship, but your review reads that because you didn’t find something for yourself, that the things that were available shouldn’t have been there for anyone else. Remember, a ship is a floating vessel and space is at a premium so building a hidden pool to the side sounds nice, but the feasibility is another issue.(some ships do have them, but they may not be handicap accessible unlike the primary pool) In regard to embarkation, the assistance received at the port has little to do with the cruise line at all. The wheel chair you were given onboard was a chair owned by the cruise line, while the chair you were assisted onto the ship with was likely owned by the port. Plugs in rooms are sparse on most ships therefore most people who cruise and have a cpap know to bring an extension cord. Should you choose to cruise again, I recommend researching the cruise lines and ships to see if there is something that offers what you’re looking for. I have met several handicapped individuals on cruises and they have as a good a time as anyone. Better luck on your next vacation.
It is better to get the soda package and buy it online while checking the packages. My soda package was less expensive when we purchased it online before the cruise for our Norwegian Getaway cruise thus year.
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