Daily Life with a C4/C5 Spinal Cord Injury

First time cruising on Sky Princess and we’ve been considering the accessibility. 

Firstly, when booking I contacted the accessibility team to gain permission to bring medical equipment onboard – profiling bed with air mattress, mobile hoist, stand aid and shower wheelchair.  Permission was given but disappointingly we were not advised the room was small. All moving and handling and shower equipment was hired from Mobility at Sea with ease. 

Accessible balcony room is very small compared to our previous experience with Celebrity (Silhouette and Apex).  I had to ask for additional furniture to be removed and our Personal Care Assistants have to move mums bed before and after each care visit to ensure enough room for safe moving and handling. 

Dad can barely move around the room and cannot access the ‘accessible balcony’.  If we book this ship again, we would need an accessible suite for the additional room it provides.  

The accessible cabin doors are not automatic, meaning dad cannot come and go as he pleases, he must always have someone with him to help him get in and out.  The wet room is a decent size though, and has great drainage – the shower area is easily accessible for the PA’s and they feel there is enough room to help dad shower. 

Cabin attendant has been attentive, providing extra towels and bedding and providing hazardous waste bags. 

Around the ship, the accessible toilet doors are gender neutral and have push button doors.  They are spacious to manoeuvre the wheelchair around and have a PA to assist. Well done Princess Cruises!

Gelato bar can be difficult to access – the chairs and tables are arranged close together not allowing room for wheelchair access.  

Dining tables are quite low and most are not suitable for wheelchair users – they often have a bar under the table meaning the chair cannot fully go under or dad’s legs do not fit.  To fit under, we have to remove his foot plates to lower his legs, this means the back of the thighs are taking all the weight, which in turn can lead to other health considerations for him.  It’s not suitable and we may have to think about alternative wheelchairs to fit under diner tables if we cruised on this ship again. 

Tables and chairs are really close together in all the seating areas meaning it’s difficult to get around. There appears to be no clear point where seating ends and ‘walkways’ start in several areas such as deck 5 and 6.  This can make it awkward to get around.  

The sun loungers on the pool deck have been placed close to the main pool hoist on each day, in such a way that should we want to use the hoist, we’d have to ask the people to move, and have the beds moved.  A clear area should be marked out on the deck to ‘keep clear’ for hoist use.  The water depth where the hoist would terminate is 5ft – quite deep for moving and handing from and to the hoist chair.  An alternate hoist is available at the aft pool and again the access to it is hampered by tables, chair and loungers – this pool appears shallower. 

We have not used either pool hoist – there are no pool attendants around to ask, although I expect we could ask at guest relations and make arrangements to use it. 

Lifts

There are plenty of lifts on this ship which is a bonus! On the downside, the doors close really quick!  No sooner do they open, they are closing.  With 4-8 lifts in each area, manoeuvring a wheelchair to the available lift takes a few seconds and we invariably miss the lift. 

Ships Crew

Mainly very friendly and helpful.  Restaurant staff have offered to cut dad’s meal up and de head prawns etc – really helpful. 

Gangways when going ashore have been ok.  It is very difficult to have a perfect gangway when in a tidal port.  The crew do their best to make it safe and have assisted.  We felt some gangways were too steep or have not had a suitable access point (one in particular was steep up to the ship and then a sharp downward short slope onto the deck).  We have ensured dad wore his seatbelt to avoid being thrown forward – and fall out – due to the poor placement, however, this can bring other implications should he fall overboard from the gangway!

In summary, for accessibility, we would cruise on this ship again but it wouldn’t be our first choice.  We’ve had better experiences on other ships.