We’ve always wanted to go to Alaska. So when our friends asked if we wanted to join them on an Alaska cruise, we jumped at the chance! We have a few months to plan and I want to have a great experience especially since it’s Caitlin’s first cruise. Caitlin has multiple disabilities and I’ve found that researching and planning in advance helps to make a vacation go smoothly. In this blog post, I’ll share what I’ve discovered so far from my research on accessibility and accommodations for the cruise.
We’ll embark on the Norwegian Bliss on Norwegian Cruise Lines. I booked directly with Norwegian Cruise Line on their website. On their site there is a whole section for Accessible Cruising. The information is very easy to find by going to the HELP menu. If you’re considering going on a cruise, I encourage you to read through this section first because it has a ton of helpful information. I had a lot of questions and found most of the answers here. I called the customer service number for more assistance and not only were they able to clarify some things for me, but they were very friendly and patient too!
Below are pictures of the cruise ship and itinerary map. We are looking forward to exploring the ship and the ports!
One of the first things you’ll read about on-line in the Accessible Cruising section is the Guest Special Needs Request Form. This is a form that you fill out after you’ve booked your cruise. By filling out this form, it will inform Norwegian of the accommodations that you need. You can also call Customer Service and they can put in the request for you. Below is a copy of the form with all of the different questions on it. The questionnaire covers a wide spectrum of disabilities and special needs. I believe the intention is so that they can accommodate your individual needs and also advise where they may have limitations.
After submitting the form, I got an email confirming receipt of my form stating that they would contact me in 30 days. In almost exactly 30 days, I got a response! Here is a copy of the email I received. I was happy for the acknowledgement and additional information. I was concerned about the section on Tender Policy, especially the part that said there were certain vessel transfers that are not wheelchair accessible which means there’s a possibility of not being able to go ashore. That would not be a good thing if we could not get on land to explore the ports! So I called the customer service line again. The agent confirmed that there were no tender ports on the cruise and that getting ashore would not be an issue…Great news! The information on Tender Ports can also be found on their website. On the website, the ports for the Alaska cruise are marked with an asterisk which means it may or may not need a tender. It’s best to call customer service just to be sure! I was not aware that there are ports that are not wheelchair accessible and will definitely remember this when booking future cruises.
When booking a cabin the one thing we really wished for was to stay in a room with a balcony. There were plenty of balcony rooms available but the accessible rooms were completely booked, even with the 6 months advance booking! Since I was doing the booking on-line I decided to call customer service in case I missed something. The agent confirmed that there were no accessible balcony rooms available. I went ahead and completed the reservation for a regular balcony room and then she made a note on the reservation just in case there happens to be a cancellation. My guess is that if you’re really needing a wheelchair accessible room that even more advanced planning is needed, maybe a year or more. The great thing is we were able to get a room just a few doors down from our friends! I also made note of the location to the elevators and we’re pretty close, but not too close.
Here are pictures from Norwegian’s website of the Balcony room. I think it looks awesome!
I’m about 50/50 when it comes to must-having a wheelchair accessible room when traveling. Our travel experience has been that it is more convenient to have the extra space but we can also be comfortable in a regular size room. Since Caitlin is not a full time wheelchair user, we are able to fold her manual wheelchair to save space and she can walk short distances around the room. We usually request a shower seat and can manage with a smaller bathroom.
Norwegian has a buy one get one free airline ticket deal that can be a pretty good savings if you can take advantage of it. For the three of us, we would pay for two tickets and get one free. I was able to get a quote so that I could do some comparison shopping before making a decision. The catch with this deal is that it offers little flexibility because you can’t select the exact flight that you want and you have to arrive/depart on the same days of the cruise. The other thing is, it’s possible they could put you on a red-eye with one or more connections. It’s not a bad deal if you can go with the flow, but for us, this would not be ideal at all! Our travel experience is that things go much smoother when we have a direct flight, can pick the exact time of our flight, and can pick the exact seats on the plane. As I continued to research, I found that for an additional charge, you can request a Deviation which means that you can arrive or depart on a different day then the cruise (but still no flexibility in selecting the exact flight). The other option is to use their premium airline service that allows you to choose exactly the flight you want. However, you can’t use the BOGO deal with the premium service! I ultimately decided to book a flight directly with Delta Airlines. It’s a non-stop flight that gets us to Seattle early in the morning the day before the cruise. This should leave us time for some sight-seeing, barring no delays! I also saved a few dollars by booking directly with Delta vs. using the Norwegian Cruise premium airline service. The one advantage though to using the Norwegian Airline service is that if for some reason there is a flight delay or other issue that causes you to miss the boat, they will help get you to the next port to catch up with the boat. I’m pretty confident that with the flight arrangements I made with Delta that we will get there before the boat leaves the port!
Lastly, I booked a room at the Fairfield Inn in downtown Seattle. The hotel is reasonably priced and has free breakfast. It is centrally located to a lot of attractions and also close to the port…perfect! Another detail that I’ll need to arrange is transportation to and from the airport. We usually Uber but maybe coordinating transportation with our friends might be a better option this time.
Well, that’s where I’m at so far with the cruise planning. I think that takes care of most of the big stuff. Next step is to fine tune the details as I look into shore excursions, activities/amenities on the ship and ground transportation. More to come as I continue planning this amazing vacation!
JoAnn’s journey as a parent and caregiver to an individual with disabilities started when her daughter was born pre-maturely with multiple health issues resulting in cognitive, physical and speech disabilities. Over the years, JoAnn discovered that recreation, travel and social experiences can bring happiness and relief to a life that is often stressful and frustrating. She loves to seek out adaptive, accessible and fun activities for her daughter and the whole family to enjoy. She started the blog www.OurSpecialFunOasis.com to share her uplifting stories and positive ideas to help and to inspire others.