Do cruise lines discriminate against disabled cruisers?
You'd certainly hope not, especially in this day and age, but I was thinking about it recently and was wondering what your thoughts were?
For obvious reasons cruise lines don't have hundreds of disabled cabins per cruise ship and to give them their due they wont let you book a disabled cabin unless you need it so most cruise lines will have disabled cabins to offer right up to the last minute.
But......
As you probably know, if you book a cruise on a last minute basis there are massive savings to be had, although you're normally only offered a guaranteed cabin, ie you know which grade cabin you will have but not where on the ship it will be.
The problem with that is though that whilst almost all last minute offers are on a guarantee basis, (you can't pick a cabin number), to book a disabled cabin you have to pick a number to start with.
This means if you want a disabled cabin you're almost always paying the full fare, you'll rarely, if ever, have the chance to book a last minute deal.
Now don't get me wrong, the cruise lines do a lot to look after disabled passengers once they're onboard and as I've already mentioned they put aside disabled cabins and only allow you to book them if you need them. But is this situation with last minute offers fair? Why shouldn't disabled cruisers be allowed last minute deals, (subject to the cabins being available). Which I suppose is the crux of it, the practicality's of the situation if you will.
What do you think? Are you a disabled cruiser? Do you always have to pay full fare or have you ever managed to get a lat minute bargain?
Let everyone know here.
Happy cruising.
Hello,
ReplyDeleteI wish everyone would consider that not everyone who is disabled, actually LOOKS disabled. My daughter and I have been on several cruises. We both have some limited mobility however we do not look as if we have. Further, my daughter has severe learning difficulties and cannot use a shower but can only use a bath tub. To get to the point, the bath tubs are in the more expensive cabins, usually the de-luxe cabins and we have to book these ahead of time therefore paying the full price and do not get the opportunity to take advantage of the last minute deals.
As I'm wheelchair bound I have to have a disabled cabin which means booking a cruise about a year in advance to get on the cruise we want. This means never being able to get any bargains as there are never any accessible cabins left if you leave it until later so we have to pay full price. The staff on board all our cruises have always looked after me well so i've got no gripes about that but I do get fed up with the struggle to find places to sit with my husband in theatres so we can watch shows together. Having to get to the venue an hour before the show starts because of a lack of space for wheelchairs & partners is my main complaint.
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