Passengers with disabilities: Plan ahead

Cruise-goers with disabilities, especially people who use wheelchairs, can't take anything for granted. While cruise lines profess to be wheelchair-user-friendly, there are instances where they are not.

For anyone with a serious disability who is interested in cruising, full disclosure of your problem to the cruise line or travel agent is a must.

Every cruise line has a toll-free number and guest-access specialists to help passengers with disabilities, whether it's a wheelchair issue, a hearing or sight impairment, questions about oxygen for those with respiratory problems or other medical concerns.

Keep asking questions of the cruise line or your travel agent until things are crystal clear and you feel comfortable embarking on a new experience.

In picking a ship, consider the newer vessels, because their facilities will be more state-of-the-art for passengers with disabilities.

Some questions a wheelchair user needs to ask include:

• What's the size of the accessible stateroom? And what's the size of a comparable stateroom in the same category for a person who doesn't need an accessible stateroom? If both are the same size, ask the cruise line how it gained the space (removing furniture?) to make the cabin wheelchair-friendly.

• Are doors electronic, and do they open automatically?

• If the stateroom has a balcony, is it accessible by wheelchair?

Getting access

Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that foreign-flagged cruise ships sailing from American ports must provide access to mobility-impaired people under the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990, but so far the U.S. Access Board has not issued any guidelines to the cruise companies.

Mobility disabilities are the most common problem encountered by cruise lines, according to Tiffany Bergman of the Seattle-based Holland America Line.

The biggest issue, she said, is getting wheelchair passengers ashore at ports where the ship doesn't dock and where tenders (small boats) are used.

"That's probably the most challenging aspect of cruising, because there are so many variables — whether we can use tender lifts or not depends on weather and sea conditions."

Enjoying time ashore is another issue, one not always under the cruise line's control. Some ports are easy to wheel around, but others are not; ask the cruise lines for detailed advice on which shore excursions would work.

For travelers with hearing problems, cruise lines can make shipboard life easier.

Portable "hearing-impaired kits" can be installed in staterooms and provide the passenger with visual and vibrating signals that someone's at the door, that the phone is ringing, that the alarm clock is buzzing or that a fire alarm is sounding.

Many ships also stock headsets that amplify sound via infrared transmitters so passengers can enjoy lounge shows and movies.

It's even more critical that sight-impaired passengers alert their cruise line so that Braille materials — menus, ship directories — are made available, since ships don't stock a lot of those materials.

For passengers who depend on oxygen for respiratory illnesses, cruise lines can provide the name of their preferred vendors for equipment and tanks, items that cruise ships don't supply.

CareVacations' CruiseShipAssist is a Canadian-based company that can supply oxygen (and wheelchairs, scooters, hoists and lifts) at most major cruise ports; www.carevacations.com or 877-478-7827.

Major cruise lines allow service dogs, but passengers must let the cruise line know so it can provide a "relief area" for the animal.

Some countries don't allow service animals, so that can be an issue on shore excursions.