[Travelandtourism] Cruise Questions

Tue Sep 20 11:34:50 UTC 2011

good morning all

Hey Bill and Stacy!!

Before you both run off into the sunset and help her Bill.

I want to welcome Stacy to the talk list.

Let me introduce myself. I am Cheryl Echevarria, President of the Travel and 
Tourism Division.

And I can be reached at President at nfb-travel.org

Bill I have been trying to reach you! It was nice seeing you at convention.

Also want to remind readers out there, that this is just not for travel 
agents and people who want to travel and ask questions about like what stacy 
is doing, which is awesome and Bill you did a great job in it.

We are an active division, and with the help of the officers of this 
division and myself we are  making this a stronger one in the way of 
accessibility for us all.

The talk list is free to all on the NFBNET.org

To join our Division it is $10.00, we have started having board meetings and 
the last one the minutes were taken by Secretary Mary Donahue.

Our board meetings are open to all, but paying members have voting 
privileges.

Our next board meeting is next week and it the information will be posted 
here in my next e-mail.

Stacy, please stay with the list you will learn a lot from us.

Now to answer some of your questions that Bill has indicated.

You may be the best person with mobility but each cruise ship is different, 
I would take advantage of the tour of the ship, all of them offer it, get 
acquainted with your travel agent are you using one or just the cruise 
lines.

Just advice for all, we are out here, 4 of us on this list are travel 
agents, 3 of the board members including myself are.

Talk to Bill, Stacy, he is excellent. He has given me advice on issues when 
I didn't know the answers.

With the workforce issues we are fighting, and other issues with blind 
people being employed let us support one another. I also mentor people to 
become travel agents.

Take care and enjoy your cruise, we want to hear from you when you come back 
about how it was.

If any of you have been anywhere, on a cruise, land travel, anywhere in the 
world we want to hear it also.

We are going to be working on the accessibility of the airline industry and 
other issues hopefully with the NFB has a whole, I want us to get involved 
with any issue that affects us with travel and accessibility.

Have a great day

Cheryl Echevarria
President at nfb-travel.org

Leading the Way in Independent Travel!

Cheryl Echevarria
http://www.echevarriatravel.com
631-456-5394
reservations at echevarriatravel.com

Affiliated as an Independent Contractor with Superior Travel, located in 
Baldwin, NY. www.superiortravel.com

Affiliated as an Independent Contractor with Absolute Cruise & Travel, Inc.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bill Kociaba" <williamkociaba at comcast.net>
To: <stacy.cervenka at att.blackberry.net>; "NFB Travel and Tourism Division 
List" <travelandtourism at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Tuesday, September 20, 2011 6:48 AM
Subject: Re: [Travelandtourism] Cruise Questions

Hi Stacy,
First let me say Celebrity and Carnival are worlds apart in every way from
their food quality to their ships to their staff.  I am speaking both as
someone who has traveled a great deal and also as a professional in the
cruise /travel industry.   The ship you have chosen is laid out in a very
logical and simple manner.  More so than any other ship I have ever been on!
I have been cruising since I was a small child and believe I have been on
some where around 40-45 cruises(starting in the early 60s)   I have sevral
suggestions that will enhance the trip for you.  First get abord as early as
you can.  They tell you something like 2:00 I believe. Ignore that be ready
to embark at 11:30-12:00  Secondly I would take advantage of the tour that
is offered. Yes you will have plenty of time to learn the ship but the day
of embarkation things are always crazy. Lots of people all trying to find
their way around..  Letting the cruise line know in advance will only be to
your bennifet.  As I said this is not Carnival.   You might find that the
staff will try to be almost too helpful.  There are far more staff members
on this ship than on most of the other lines.  You will likely be offered
help to find your way any time you are walking around.  Its their job to
help the guests sighted blind or otherwise.  This line focuses on guest
services a great deal.  In truth I have gotten annoyed while wandering the
ship to learn my way as I couldn't go twenty feet without someone offereing
help.  I usually cruise with my wife who is sighted but normally go
wandering by myself a great deal. Its my job to learn where everything is as
my wife has a really lousy sense of direction.
Regarding the tours,  they are provided by local vendors that the cruise
line contracts with and some of the vendors are just more accessable than
others.  I can give you a great deal more info if you would contact me
directly off group at williamkociaba at comcast.net or phone me on my cel at
954-801-6322  I do have access to some accessable tours in the various ports
as well as having a very close relationship with the head of the access dept
at Royal/Celebrity.
One thing I have done for blind clients of mine was to create an audio deck
plan or ship tour for them explaining in detail where various venues are
both in relation to the clients stateroom as well as to each other.  If
there is anything I can do to help make sure you have a fantastic first
cruising expeirience, it would be my pleasure.
Hope to hear from you soon.
Bill
954-801-6322 cel
williamkociaba at comcast.net

Bill Kociaba
CRUISEONE
Bill at Ycruise.com
954 227 7772 or Toll Free 877 227 7775
7600 Wiles Rd, Coral Springs, FL 33067
----- Original Message ----- 
From: <stacy.cervenka at att.blackberry.net>
To: <travelandtourism at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Tuesday, September 20, 2011 1:30 AM
Subject: [Travelandtourism] Cruise Questions

Hello,

My fiance and I will be taking our first cruise in December. Both of
us are blind and we are interested in hearing the experiences of other blind
cruise travelers, particularly those who have cruised without a sighted
spouse, friend, or family member.

We booked an 11-night cruise on the Celebrity Equinox in an Aqua Class
balcony stateroom. The cruise goes to Mexico, Belize, Costa Rica,
Panama, Colombia, and Grand Cayman. Has anyone on this list had any
experience with this cruise line, this ship, or these particular
destinations? We'd love to hear any good, bad, and ugly stories about
anything you've encountered and also any tips you might have.

We’re not sure whether we should let the cruise line know in advance
that we’re blind. On the one hand, because we’ve never been on a large
cruise ship before, we think it would be helpful to get a tour of the
cruise ship before the ship departs. We understand that Celebrity offers
this service to blind
passengers. On the other hand, because we’re in Aqua Class, we already
get priority embarkation anyway, so we'll have plenty of time to explore the
ship ourselves. Also, it's not like we get any kind
of special tour when we stay at large hotels on land and finding our
way around them has never been a real problem. Do many of you find it
helpful to have someone orient you to the ship beforehand or is it not
that complicated?

My other big concern is, how will Greg and I find our shore excursion
groups? Are they pretty easy to locate once you get off the ship? In a
way, I have no problem letting them know we’re blind, since this is
our first cruise and we might not mind a little assistance. On the
other hand, I’ve heard one blind cruiser say that when the ship on her first
cruise (run
by Carnival) learned she was blind, they cancelled many of her shore
excursions, claiming the tour providers weren’t equipped to deal with
blind people. Since then, she has taken many cruises and never lets them
know about her blindness in advance. She has never encountered another
problem. Greg and I both have excellent travel skills and don't
feel we'll need much extra assistance. We just don't want them to
freak out and cancel our shore excursions or take other unneeded
precautions.

Any advice you all might have for us would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you!
Stacy

Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T
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