Are cruises accessible? A wheelchair user with 40-plus cruises under her belt weighs in.

Boston Globe

a day ago

Is that cruise ship friendly to mobility-challenged guests? Sylvia Longmire is happy to share her opinions on the good and bad features she's discovered onboard.
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Love me tender? Not so much.
Notice she says, 'If you get lucky.' Tendering (where passengers are transported from the cruise ship to the shore using smaller 'tender' boats, when the ship cannot dock directly at the port) can be a challenge, the cruise veteran says. 'I cruise a lot with Celebrity Cruises, and all of their Edge class ships have accessible tendering with the magic carpet,' a cantilevered, floating platform that extends from the side of the ship, making it easier for guests to embark and disembark. 'But I've had nightmare scenarios with other cruise lines when I've been picked up and carried in my chair from the ship's platform to the tender while the boat was bobbing up and down due to choppy seas. I thought I'd have a heart attack!'
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Thus, Longmire recommends that wheelchair users choose itineraries where ships are docked at ports of call, or simply be OK with skipping a tender port. 'I've done this plenty of times. I always hit the spa while the ship is empty!' You've got the ship to yourself while everyone else is in port — not a bad thing.
How accessible is it?
As for the ships themselves: Modern cruise ships on major cruise lines follow the guidelines from the Americans with Disabilities Act. Accessible staterooms are typically oversize, with wider doors, lower counters, roll-in showers, and grab bars alongside toilets, Longmire notes. Balconies are usually accessible too. Public spaces, including dining rooms and theaters, have room to accommodate wheelchair and scooter users.
The larger, newer ships are the best option when it comes to accessibility, but the cruise line you choose is also important. 'You're going to get a fairly standard accessibility situation with US-based cruise lines like Royal Caribbean, Carnival, NCL, Princess, Disney, and so on,' Longmire says, but 'my worst cruise-ship nightmares have been aboard the newer MSC ships.' Very few of the doors in the MSC
Seascape's public areas are automatic, she notes, and the elevator system was unreliable. In addition, she discovered that MSC's private island, Ocean Cay, was not accessible. 'There are no beach mats for wheelchairs, and no access to food or beverages because it's all in the middle of the sand (and thus not navigable for wheelchairs). The shuttle is not accessible, so you have to rely on your own battery power or manual power to get around the island,' Longmire says.
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Sylvia Longmire is a full-time wheelchair user and accessible travel expert at www.spintheglobe.net.
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Also disappointing from an accessibility standpoint: Princess Cruises' Sun Princess. 'The medallion system was great for unlocking my stateroom door, but there was no automatic door opener,' she says. On some decks, there was a double-door system to reach outdoor spaces. 'One door would be touchless/automatic to open, but the next set of doors were manual and heavy. It made no sense at all,' Longmire says. 'They also didn't have one single lowered table in the casino (to accommodate a wheelchair), and I really wanted to give them my money for blackjack.' Longmire has shared her concerns with the cruise companies. The Globe reached out to both cruise lines, but neither responded by press time.
That said, a few cruise lines have won her heart. 'My absolute favorite is Virgin Voyages, with Celebrity Cruises a close second,' Longmire says. They both have all of the standard ADA accessibility features, but there's this: 'a general sense that they've thought of you and want to include you.' It's not surprising that Celebrity embraces this group, since their demographic skews older, so they have plenty of passengers who rely on mobility devices, she says. 'Virgin has a younger demographic, but an extremely inclusive business culture, so they want everyone to have fun.' Examples include accessible karaoke spaces, pool lifts on their ships and on their private beaches, lower tables in the casinos, and designated spaces for wheelchair users all over the ships, she notes. Disney was also great for accessibility, 'but I only cruised with them once when my sons were younger,' Longmire says.
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Take me to the river
We suspected that river cruises would be a no-go for this group, given that many lines are European-owned, and therefore not subject to ADA requirements. Plus, river boats are often stacked up next to each other, so you need to walk through one vessel to get to another, and so on, before you finally hit pavement.
But if you're pining for a river trip, Longmire has a recommendation: the Vakantieschip Prins Willem Alexander (
Accessible travel blogger/expert Sylvia Longmire has been a full-time wheelchair user for 10 years. She travels extensively, and shares the ins and outs of accessible travel online and in her travel guidebooks.
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The kindness of strangers
Forty cruises! That's a lot of safety drills and champagne toasts. What has surprised Longmire the most on these journeys? The kindness and grace she's received from local people. 'I'm astonished at the length locals will go to make sure you can experience as much as possible with a disability,' she says. 'Given that tour operators and residents deal with thousands of cruise passengers being dumped in their neighborhood every day, they're all about hospitality,' she says, and proudly share their culture and history with a stranger who might not otherwise be able to enjoy it. 'I can't tell you how many times I've been picked up and carried, both in and out of my wheelchair, just so I can experience something awesome in a foreign port.'
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As for the cruise lines, they could do better when it comes to making passengers with mobility challenges feel welcome, Longmire says. 'When was the last time you saw a TV commercial for a cruise line that included a wheelchair user? I've been doing this for a very long time, and I never have. And that makes no sense whatsoever because every time you go on a cruise, you're going to see dozens of people using wheelchairs, scooters, and walkers.
'People with disabilities spend $50 billion on travel in the US, so I don't understand why cruise lines and the rest of the hospitality sector aren't more aggressively marketing directly to us.' They also haven't recognized the powerful peer-to-peer social media groups — many on Facebook — that focus on accessible travel. 'Cruise lines need to tap into the community and make us feel more seen and desired as future passengers.'
'Everything You Need to Know about Wheelchair Accessible Cruising' is available at www.amazon.com. Connect with Longmire at
Diane Bair and Pamela Wright can be reached at