Talking about wheelchair access reminds me of an incident at the beginning of a cruise down to the Med.
This elderly Brit couple, he in a wheelchair she as his carer boarded in S'ton, being 'savvy', so they thought, and working on their Travel Agents - outdated - advice [read Michael's post reference Carnivals 'Full ship mentality' above] they had booked the cheapest cabin on 5 Deck fwd, Port side fwd. On boarding and being escorted to their cabin they immediately complained to the Waiter escorting them that the cabin was 'too small' and not at all Wheelchair friendly'! The poor old Waiter referred them to the Guest Service Manager, [GSM] to whom they went post hast, well after having tea and cakes anyway! GSM 'empathised with them', informed them that the ship was fully booked and anyway that was the cabin they had booked! He also said that if they came to see him the following morning he might have a spare cabin from a 'no show' but couldn't guarantee anything. That evening they were further informed by their cabin stewardess that they couldn't leave the wheelchair out in the corridor but would have to accommodate it inside the cabin! They made a fuss and said that once she was off duty hey would put it outside anyway, to which the Stewardess replied that if they did then Security would remove it during their safety/security rounds as it would be constituting a hazard, in the event of an emergency.
The next morning they went to see the GSM who by chance had 2 spare cabins from 'No shows', to which he took them to see if they were acceptable. One cabin was 5 Deck aft and the other 4 deck fwd, not much better that their original cabin, but with a door that opened straight out into the corridor. Their original 5 Deck cabin was in a set of 2 down a side corridor. GSM then left them at the 4 deck cabin to talk it over and returned to his office, having told them that once they had made a decision to come and tell him and then he would arrange for housekeeping to move them.
At approx 1110 they were using the 'E' staircase lifts to return to Reception, the inside one of the port side pair, and on arriving at 2 Deck she backed out of the lift and promptly fell backwards down the stairs onto the half landing, he followed in the wheelchair, landing on top of her!!
As luck would have it, the Dr and Nurse were just walking fwd on 2 Deck having just finished at the aft Surgery and saw the incident occur, so were able to take charge straight away and begin triage.
It turned out that the lady had suffered and bad injury to her leg and would need to be admitted to the Medical Centre. As she was her husbands carer he also had to be admitted!
So we then had this elderly couple, both confined to wheelchairs 'living' in the Medical Centre for the rest of the cruise!!
As Security Officer it befell to me to investigate the incident and collect all relevant evidence, as such i had a fair amount of contact with the couple and the Medical Staff, who were wonderful.
But after a few days this couple were becoming a bit 'Ward weary' so The Dr and I worked out a way to at least get them ashore for some fresh air. Luckily we were calling into Malaga, which meant that the gangway would be on 5 deck and with easy access to and from the ship.
So it was that, with The Medical Centre supplying their orderly and housekeeping providing a couple of Utilities, we were able to get the couple 'ashore' in their respective wheelchairs for about an hour to sit and enjoy the views of Malaga harbour! Firstly the 'boys' wheeled them up beyond the bow and pointed them across the harbour, while they 'jibber jabbered' away in Tagalog behind them. Then, after a suitable time lapse they moved them down aft to change the views and continued with their 'conversation'! Finally returning back onboard and returning the couple to the Medical Centre.
On approaching S'ton the Senior Dr contacted the couple's GP, fully briefing him on events and arranged for him to be at their house when the St John's Ambulance, arranged by Cunard, dropped them off!
We sailed that evening off to New York and about 3 or 4 days into the 'trannie' i got an email from Cunard S'ton informing me that' strange as it may seem' the couple's solicitor had contacted them to say that, the couple would be suing Cunard for damages and loss of enjoyment on their cruise and that Cunard's dealing with the whole incident had been poor!!!
Needless to say that, once we had presented their Solicitor with a good proportion of 'our' evidence and our actions, together with the Dr's recommendation, in writing to S'ton, that the couple should be repatriated from Lisbon 2 days after the incident, which they had declined, due to limited Medical/Travel Insurance, the legal action was dropped.
But it showed two main points;
One being that there was a 'theory' out there that you book the lowest grade cabin that you can then once onboard make a fuss and 'normally' you would have got an upgrade by at least one deck, possibly even two or three!
The other point was that many passengers travel with either no or minimal travel insurance and when something does go wrong they are left 'stranded! Luckily in this case the ship was able to accommodate them in the Medical Centre, but had there been a major incident then the ship's capability to respond would have been severely restricted.
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Apr 11, 2021, 01:12 AM