Corfu, Greece

A lovely place, Corfu.  However, although I later found it to have plenty of wheelchair access - the Hop-on,Hop-off bus and the ordinary public buses - Princess Tours knew none of this.  There is only one accessible taxi and it was already booked.  Not that the taxi company answers its phone or its emails.

Not that John could disembark!  The ramps were too short and his wheels just skidded.  I got off.  And that's when I discovered the buses.  So very disappointing for John.  And depressing.

Here are some photos taken around the suburbs and old Corfu town.  The island is a gardener's paradise.  Very lush.

Margaret's perspective on cruising

On Saturday morning, Sea Princess arrived in Rotterdam, the third biggest port in the world after a Friday sail away from Zeebrugge, where we visted Brugge (Bruges).  

As you know, we arranged many excursions ourselves, but where there was a Princess Tours wheelchair accessible tour available in a port, we opted for that.  However, as we discovered in Civitavecchia (the port for Rome), we should not have been so confident.  Whilst catering very well for seniors who use manual wheelchairs or lightweight scooters and can climb stairs (there are many such people), it has no idea how to cater for people who can’t transfer to a “normal” seat. This is despite our tickets being described as “wheelchair-confined”.  Princess Tours had to learn the hard way (me stressing out big time/ John clinically and logically but very precisely stating his case), backed up by our new friends Mal and Lesley from Melbourne.

We had also booked Princess sponsored “wheelchair-confined” tours in Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Helsinki and Tallin, so our confidence was at a low ebb after Rome.  However, we now have the ship’s full attention, and the Amsterdam coach trip was an example of great service and we told them so this morning.  They secured a coach with a side platform lift (like we had for our Computer Club tour to Hunter Valley), proper tie downs and seat belt.  Hopefully they will do the same where they can for our other ports of call.  Tomorrow’s tour of Copenhagen will be in a van like in Rome, we have been told.  We are getting “special” attention from Princess, but we’d rather that it was routine so that future travellers can benefit – all rather exhausting for everyone.

We emphasised this morning that we write a travel blog and that quite a few of our friends are looking to us for advice.  Lots of our friends with disabilities who have worked full time and/or successfully run businesses have disposable income and will be checking out cruising.  Sea Princess on-board wheelchair access is very good, and the crew are marvellous opening those difficult deck doors, reserving easy access tables for wheelchair users and helping any way they can.  We prefer eating in the bistro areas rather than in the dining room, simply because it’s more relaxed, but if you enjoy fine dining every night, you just need to make sure your allocated seating is easily accessible. On the first night, we had to ask to be reallocated (because the route to the table was not thought through by Princess) but this was very quickly arranged.

John has been far healthier on this cruise than he was two years ago on our trip through the Panama to the UK – no infections at all.  I’ve had a couple of days of back aches and being out of sorts (including being a painful travel companion) but nothing to worry about.  Our fuses are short but fizz very quickly.

As a partner, I think it’s a great way to travel – the best relaxation possible.  Unpack once, get into a routine with the changed personal care procedures (always different from home), meet and chat to interesting people, ocean gaze and read, read, read is my idea of a great time.  The library on this ship is nothing like as good as on the Cunard line, but mostly we read e-books anyway.  I also introduced a “family history” group on the ship, and we’ve had three meetings so far and made a few friends that way.  We would like to meet more often, but these “common interest groups” are scheduled by the ship’s entertainment team, and there is plenty of competition from other hobbyists – cricket fans, motor home travellers, residents of various Australian states, Kiwis, Maltese speakers.  And of course, shipboard life is full of activities anyway.

We’ve met many interesting crew members – many of the wait staff are university or college graduates from non-EU countries in Eastern Europe like Serbia/ Moldova with qualifications in economics, linguistics, accounting who cannot get into their professions in their own countries and who cannot get visas in Western Europe including the UK to work and save money.  Is this now the future for young British people outside the European Union?  I fear so, and so do they.  It was mostly their parents and grandparents who voted to leave.

The cabin stewards are Asian; our steward Rene is Filipino with three school aged boys he is sending to an English language fee paying school and a baby daughter.  He’s been on the ships for twenty years and his wife has to manage without him for about 10 months a year and relies on his wages and passenger tips.

I’ll leave Amsterdam till the next post. Keep the Facebook comments and the blog comments coming, we so much enjoy hearing from you.  Neither of us are homesick though.

Random thoughts on cruising

Marg & John leaving Melbourne

This is our fifth cruise – previously we have cruised on the Princess of Tasmania from Melbourne to Devonport, Tasmania (1 night each way) and return with a car and camper trailer, Sydney to Devonport, Tasmania with a van and camper trailer, and back (2 nights each way), Cunard’s Queen Victoria from Sydney to Southampton via the Pacific, Panama Canal, Caribbean Sea, USA (San Francisco and Fort Lauderdale) (54 nights), from Southampton to New York on Cunard’s Queen Mary 2 (8 nights), and a 7 nights Alaskan “inside passage” cruise on Celebrity Solstice.

We have also travelled extensively in Australia, the UK and Ireland, and the USA.

Our experiences on each of these cruises has varied, and I’ll explain how a little later.

And now (May 2016) we are a bit over a week into a 66 nights cruise to New York from Sydney via Australia’s southern coast, the Indian Ocean, the Suez Canal, the Baltic Sea, UK, and the “other” Sydney in Canada aboard the Sea Princess – with many ports of call along the way. After we disembark in NYC we will spend two weeks there, catch the Amtrak to Washington DC, then fly to San Francisco for a week there, and then fly home.

In the Lido

So we are not inexperienced cruisers but also not seasoned like many on board, some of whom have done many world cruises.

Travelling anywhere is a challenge, but when you have quadriplegia and use a 150kg power wheelchair the challenges mount.

The biggest challenges are access on and off the ship in some minor ports, access to on-shore tours, but mostly the amount of extra stuff you need to bring with you. In my case three months abroad means three months of medications ( a shopping bag full), three months of colostomy and urostomy supplies (two shopping bags full), a CPAP, two months (refill in NYC) of the concoction I add to my breakfast cereal (in case you’re curious, I have IBS and I control it with a mix of psyllium husk, quinoa flakes, black chia, and pumpkin seeds), and of course a portable commode chair – a brand new one this trip to replace the one made for me by Russel Cragg of Met-a-Lite in 1995 for our first circumnavigation of Oz – camping all the way.

On this trip we have also brought with us my 1mtr long portable ramp – good for one step, because we guess that I some ports the street access will not be up to Oz standards.

Within the ship’s cabin (or any motel for that matter), circulation space is a major factor. The height of the bed is critical, as is access into and within the bathroom.

Our bathroom and cabin on the cruise are quite okay for me. I can transfer on and off the commode chair after adjusting its height. The bathroom is also okay for me except that the shower controls are out of my reach and Margaret needs to stay with me and turn taps on and off and hand me things.

In comparison, the Princess of Tasmania was cramped with bunk beds and a tiny bathroom, Queen Victoria (inside cabin with no view at all) was about as okay as this one, the Queen Mary2 (window high up wall – so daylight but no view at all for me) was cramped and difficult, and the Celebrity Solstice (balcony cabin with push button opening door to balcony) was bigger and better appointed than any motel room we have ever had.

Okay. Cruising. What’s good, what’s not, and what’s tolerable?

The thing that I like most is that you are not constantly packing and unpacking. The cabin becomes your home bedroom with accessible en-suite for however long you are on board.

Getting in and out of the cabin, however, is often, as on this trip, a chore as the door springs are very heavy, and the key card entry requires manual dexterity – insert and withdraw the card quickly and then unlatch the door and get it open at least a bit within about 2 seconds. Sometimes it takes me several goes to manage it.

All the ships we have been on have plenty of lifts to get you between decks – although you do have to wait sometimes for a lift with enough space for me and my chair.

There are certainly areas which are not wheelchair accessible – like the swimming pools and spas, and, on Sea Princess, the top deck (15).

All cruises we have been on book you into a restaurant for lunch and dinner. These vary in quality and service, but mostly are ok by our standards as far as the food goes. The service, on the other hand, is mostly “over the top”, with waiters and even the maitre de hovering and constantly interrupting conversations to ask if “is everything okay, sir? More water?”

On Cunard ships about a third of the evenings are “formal”, requiring at least a lounge suit with a shirt and tie. Most passengers, however, seem to relish the chance to wear a dinner suit with bow tie. The women dress to the nines. To my mind they are trying to recreate the early 1900s of the rich who “dressed for dinner” in some country manor or perhaps on the Titanic. I find it pretentious.

So we mostly eat in the bistro (or Lido, as it’s called) where there are no dress rules, the variety of food is quite good, and the atmosphere much more relaxed.

We have breakfast in our cabin – hot food is available but we eat cereal, fruit (plus yoghurt for Margaret), juices and coffee (not too bad, either).

But what do we do all day?

Not much, really.

A knitting group

There is lots to do – cards, mahjong, make up parties, craft groups, lectures on all sorts of things (ports we are visiting, wellbeing, history, etc), acupuncture demos, palm reading, a variety of musical entertainment in various on-board locations – some quite good.

A communal jigsaw puzzle

There is a book club, a Scottish dance group, various sporting groups (carpet bowls and the like), and much more.

The library

There is a casino where you can lose your money (you’re allowed to draw up to $3000 per day in chips and add the cost to your cruise account). There a several bars serving grog.

There are some 20 TV channels showing movies, TV serials, history stuff, art stuff, nature stuff, and info about the events on board, a channel showing on a map where we have been, are now, and will be later, the weather and other fascinating information, plus a channel showing the image from a camera on our bow which shows the view ahead (mostly just ocean).

You can drink, eat and dance til midnight, if you wish.

None of it really appeals to me.

I read a lot, write this and plan to write more of my life story.

The Internet Cafe

There is internet (including an internet café) but it’s very slow and very expensive - $200 for 640 minutes – that’s about $500 for 24 hours – don’t ever forget to log off!!!

Margaret is working on her assignments for her Family History Diploma from Uni of Tasmania, in between talking and eating.

The Nook, where Common Interest groups are held

Margaret noticed the lack of a common interest group for family history, so asked for a space and for it to be advertised in the daily event guide. And guess what?  Twenty-eight people turned up, and we had an interesting hour together swapping stories and sharing sources of info, and agreed to meet again next week.

That was yesterday, and today several people have come up to talk to us about it in the Lido.

Cruising would not appeal to many people – but it does indeed appeal to many. It depends on one’s interests and temperament as to which group you fit in to.

Watching other ships we pass

We like not having to unpack and repack.

The on-board activities leave us pretty cold – but we don’t object to others enjoying them – and plenty do.

We don’t like that usually only one day is spent in any one port. On this cruise we get two days in St Petersburg and a day and a half in Dubai.

A cruise where the ship docked for four or five days in each port would allow us to explore more thoroughly. But apparently it would be expensive as port fees are huge.

We don’t like, of course, the ports where the ship anchors off-shore and access is only by tender (small boat) with no wheelchair access (supposedly none on this trip). On our Cunard trip from Sydney to Southampton about 25% of the ports were inaccessible, and it was the same for the Alaskan cruise.

We are told that Holland America has wheelchair accessible tenders.

The reception desk - very informative and helpful

We like that the other passengers are mostly very friendly and we quickly make friends with some. There is always someone to chat to. And there are quiet areas where those who wish to read in peace can do so. The library, in particular (don’t expect more than airport novels, though) is usually quiet.

We like that on this trip it’s about 80 to 90% people in our age group (65 to 80), the rest being in their mid 50s or so, and only a couple of children on board.

There you go: my thoughts on cruising – it’s obviously your decision as to whether you cruise or not.

John

May 2106

In the middle of the Indian Ocean.

Sea Princess Wheelchair Accessibility

Some of our friends want more information about the wheelchair access on board and in particular, access within our cabin.  

So, here we go.

Our cabin in on Level 8 (there are 9 levels (5 to 14 – no level 13) accessible to passengers by lift plus one by stairs only (level 15).

Our cabin has no balcony, and is described as “restricted view” which means that a life boat is right outside the window and obscures most of the view – when seated only sky is visible above the boat, when standing or with the wheelchair fully raised, a sliver of ocean is visible. But you do know when it’s night or day - unlike in the cheaper “inside” cabins, as we had on The Queen Victoria.

We believe that there is only one accessible cabin with an unrestricted window view.

The entry door is 820mm wide, but is heavy to open – John can just manage to open it from the inside, and has finally managed to  open it from the corridor using the key-card.

The corridors are a bit narrow at 1420mm at the door and a bit less elsewhere – no way two wheelchairs can pass, but wide enough for a walking person and wheelie to pass with care, or for a wheelie to pass the housekeeping trolley.

The cabin itself has twin single beds which are bolted to the floor. They are a bit narrow for John – dressing himself is a bit of a struggle - and they are definitely too narrow for comfortable cuddling (and that’s all we’ll say on that subject).

There is space under the beds for storing cases or for hoist access, The gap is 330mm.

The beds are 870mm wide by 1900mm long.

Cabin D329

The distance between the beds is 1750mm

The height of the beds (floor to top of mattress) is 580mm and they offer an extra mattress to raise the height. But the mattress is quite soft and that makes it a bit of a struggle for John to transfer from bed to Chair.

Clearance under dressing table is 660mm with width of opening is 640mm wide, and under breakfast table is 740mm by 860mm wide. Breakfast table is 80mm (making top of table 820mm from floor.

Bathroom entrance  - velcro underneath worn out

The bathroom has an outward opening door 530mm wide, but there is a 25mm step into the bathroom with a moveable ramp that itself has a 10mm step. The ramp is also constantly being pushed away from the step be John’s chair’s casters – a bit of Velcro would fix that.

Shows John's fold up portable shower chair

The bathroom itself is quite okay for us.

There is no hob into the shower.

Note shower hose - attaches too low - gets tangled up with feet

The shower hose is a bit long and fairly stiff so it keeps getting caught on John’s footplates. There controls are odd. One to turn the water on, one to adjust the temperature. John cannot reach either, nor can he turn the knobs if he could reach them, and not could he see the temperature indicator, in any case. Not that it matters as the hottest you can get is only lukewarm.

  

The wash basin has 620mm clearance under. Shelf space is just adequate.

The loo seat is 460mm above floor height, with the flush button fairly light and as shown.