January 9, 2008
More and more travel agents are handling accessible travel these days, especially cruise travel agents. To be honest, you really need to have some level of expertise in access issues if you sell cruise travel, because sooner or later you are going to have to make arrangements for a disabled client. As far as sorting out the logistics, booking an accessible cabin isn’t that difficult, especially with assistance from the cruise line’s special needs department. But when it comes to planning for accessible shore excursions and ground transportation, then it gets a bit tricky. And then, there are those helpful tips you want to share with your clients before they sail. After all, that’s why they use travel agents -- because of their expertise. Well, although I can’t help with the shore excursions and ground transportation (besides referring you to Emerging Horizons and my books), I can offer up some tips to share with your disabled clients. In fact they are featured at the end of Judi Erickson’s excellent article about accessible travel (All-Acess Pass), in the December 7 issue of Travel Age West. My tips are only included in the on-line version so you’ll have to visit the Travel Age West website to get them. But it’s just a short surf away -- and it’s well worth the trip.
November 17, 2007
Imagine the following scenario. You've booked an accessible cabin on a cruise and made plans for wheelchair-accessible shore excursions; because, well you are a wheelchair-user. Seemingly you've done everything right. Unbeknownst to you though, you didn't have your reservation flagged as "no upgrade". Heck, you didn't even know you needed to do that; because, well, nobody told you.
Fast forward to embarkation day. You arrive at the dock only to find that you've been upgraded. That's usually good news, but it seems you have been upgraded from an accessible stateroom into a non-accessible stateroom. You explain to the clerk that you cannot use a non-accessible stateroom and she advises you to board the ship anyway and they will "see what they can do."
Four hours later you still haven't heard from guest relations and you are getting antsy because you want to settle into a cabin - preferably an accessible cabin. What do you do?
Well I have to applaud the ingenuity of one spunky cruiser who took matters into her hands. Since she felt the cruise line was ignoring this whole situation, she knocked on the door of her former accessible cabin and explained the situation to the able-bodied occupant. He was more than willing to switch cabins with her - who wouldn't be for an upgrade - so they went to the pursers office and made the change. Interestingly enough, the cruise line had done nothing to contact the passenger in the accessible cabin to see if he would be willing to switch cabins. And it's most likely that if Ms. Spunky hadn't taken matters into her own hands, nothing would have been done about the situation,
So the moral of the story is, if you see a reasonable solution and the cruise line doesn't seem to be acting on the matter, don't be afraid to take matters into your own hands.
Three cheers for Ms. Spunky!
October 26, 2007
Just when I though we might finally be nearing the release of the final guidelines on cruise ship accessibility, my hopes have been once again dashed. Dashed, by an advisory committee; more specifically an advisory committee to examine issues concerning emergency alarm systems for deaf and hard of hearing cruise ship passengers. Not that I don’t think this is a valid concern -- if you can’t hear how do you respond to emergency instructions -- but couldn’t the Access Board have addressed it a little sooner? At issue is whether cruise ships should be required to provide more "advanced" technology than the standard emergency strobe or flashing red light in cabins of passengers who are deaf or hard of hearing. The argument in favor claims that many passengers miss important announcements over the PA, so some type of visual text messages should be available for all announcements. After all, some of those announcements may be emergency announcements. Also at issue are phones that are not T-coil compatible and not usable by folks with certain types of hearing aids; because access to telephones may be necessary in emergency situations. The cruise industry of course disagrees. Or at least it disagrees with what kind of technology it should use. This committee was created because of the large response from the deaf community to the proposed guidelines, which some people felt did not include "best practices" technology. Many people also complained about the lack of captions on movies, but since that isn’t an emergency issue, it’s not something that this committee is addressing. So I’ve learned two things form this whole process. 1. The Access Board does listen to feedback 2. Rulemaking is a painfully slow process So, it’s back to the drawing board, or should I say the waiting room, as far as access guidelines for cruise ships are concerned. Stay tuned.
October 5, 2007
Yesterday we docked at Labadee, Haiti for a day of fun in the sun at RCI's private island. To be clear it's actually a small section of the island, but it was still fun. The tendering process went very well and all of our power wheelchair and scooter-users were able to get off the ship. At the pier there were RCI employees with beach wheelchairs waiting for folks who could not make the short walk to the beach.
The beach wheelchairs are great, but the island staff wanted to use them as transport chairs. This may work for some slow walkers, but it really takes away the independence of full time wheelchair-users. In any case, several folks in our group did manage to keep the beach wheelchairs for the day, but they had to be really insistent about it. The porters who pushed the wheelchairs wanted to take them back and make folks transfer to lounge chairs. Obviously this will not work for everybody.
I also have to say that this problem is not unique to RCI, as I've received complaints about it from folks who have cruised on a variety of different lines. The only words of advice I can give you is to be firm and insist that you keep the beach wheelchair. After all, you are pretty much in the drivers seat once you are sitting in a beach wheelchair - it's not like they are going to dump you out against your will. So be firm and insist on staying in the beach wheelchair for the day. You'll have a much more enjoyable private island experience!
October 3, 2007
Yesterday we docked at Philipsburg, St. Maarten and spent the day exploring the island. I was thrilled to see an accessible bus waiting for our group at the pier. It's the only accessible tour vehicle on the island, and it was reserved exclusively for our group.
Although we did get a bit of rain near the end of the day, the group managed to visit a coffee plantation and the zoo. I also visited the butterfly farm to check out the access. All in all it was a good day.
There is a lot of new development going on around the port area in St. Maarten and I'm happy to report that access has improved greatly since my last visit. Now there is an accessible pathway all the way into town. Previously, the only way to get there was on the inaccessible water taxi. Gladly, all that's changed now.
The ship is great and although today was a day at sea, there was certainly no shortage of activities to occupy us. I enjoyed my game of miniature golf this morning, and I'll probably go back and play again on our last day at sea.
Tonight is our second formal night, and we have reservations at Portofino, one of the alternative dining choices aboard this ship. We also have tickets to the ice show, which I hear is excellent. Right now I'm sitting here on my balcony writing this, so I expect I should shake a tail feather and start getting ready. Shorts just won't make due for formal night!
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