[Travelandtourism] Cruise Questions

[David Andrews]

I have been on Celebrity a number of times, and to Grand Camaan and 
Panama  (through the canal.)  Celebrity is a step up from Carnival, 
Princess, etc.  The food and service are quite good.  It has been a 
few years since I was on one, but people used to dress for dinner, it 
was the old-style formal two seating dinner kind of thing.  I like 
that, but it has gone somewhat out of style.

I was with a sighted spouse, at the time, so can't help much with two 
blind persons.  I certainly went around the ship on my own, but 
generally was able to go places first with Michele.  There are almost 
always people around though, so you can always ask.

Have fun

Dave

At 12:30 AM 9/20/2011, you wrote:
>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