Hi Meggie and welcome to HT!

There isn't a lot of room to manouevre a wheelchair in a standard cabin, it would be pretty much a case of pushing it in and reversing it out. The deluxe cabins on the Thomson Spirit have a lot more room, but you could get a much better cruise for the price you would pay for them.

Some ships do have disabled cabins which may be more suitable. Check out a few ships HERE as this site usually mentions if there are disabled cabins. However you may struggle to book a special cabin at this stage with wanting to go in May/June.

luci

Hi and welcome,

As it happens NCL is our current cruise line of choice, but they are not a traditional cruise line they operate a style of cruising called freestyle, which we like a lot, but some don't. the main benifit for us is lots of food choices with 10 restaurants and flexable dinning times but this also means sometimes you have to eat early or late, some people prefer the fixed time dinning.

We are actualy thinking of a trip on the Jade(June north cape) and did two trips on the Gem last year which is very similar ship so know our way around so any info just ask.

So to the Jade, first let me say it is very wheelchair friendly, plenty of automatic doors even into the public restrooms there are ramps to get over the ledges(needed for safety at sea).

I have checked the cabin availability on the main NCL site for the 30May and looked for 4berth disabled cabins there are a few G grades left but not sure about others nothing seemed to come up.

The G disabled are a good location(very handy for the blue lagoon 24hr food place) and a good size I think it is one pulman(bunk) and one pull out for the extra beds.

Booking this direct with NCL in the US will cost $4920 the NCL UK site will want £3222. so booking US is much better but you don't have ABTA,ATOLprotections but the cruisline is unlikely to go bust and if you book through US agent with Credit card(nationwide is best) NCL actualy take the money not the TA.

Both these prices can be bettered by using on-line agents an example for the US price with on-line "best price cruises" is $4443. Vacationstogo might be able to give you a price between and have UK 0800 so are easier/cheaper to deal with if needed. I would talk to them about your needs and see what price they can do for you. In the UK I would look for a 10% reduction.
There are currently some on board credits and a voucher book but that is not a big deal.

If you have a bigger budget then you may want to look at an AB suite allthough I don't think they have the wider doors that disabled cabins have but they do have extra bedroom/bathroom and come with a lot of perks but are a lot more money.

One thing I would recomend if you choose the Jade is to get on the rollcalls on either or both of cruisecritic or cruisetraveltalk(if you need help finding these let me know) and then you get to know some fellow passengers and generaly plan things, depending on who is sailing they can be very helpfull with getting to know how NCL works and give lots of tips.

As for the best time, I think prices will drop, but the RCI Independance has sold out for this date and getting a disabled cabin will get more difficult the longer you leave it.

One other thing with NCL(and other US lines) is that you will need to budget $30pd(thats for the 4 of you) for the gratuities and I would also put $200 into the budget so you can try the pay extra restaurants(steak,bistro,tepenyaki/asian).

Looking at other choices May June round trip ex UK to the Med your main choices are
Sea Princess
RCI Independance
and probably some P&O

Of these I think NCL Jade will be the best value

Any other questions we are here to help.

Almoast forgot you don't get the free parking if you book US which is around £100.

Wow, thanks Windjammer and Luci, what a great forum.

Windjammer, as it turns out I did request a quote from vacationstogo yesterday and got a very quick response. I don't have the e-mail to hand but from what I remember the price for a "disabled access" 4 berth G deck cabin was in the ballpark of the NCL.com 'list' price of $4920 you list above.
From what you say with "best price cruises" quoting less that this there may be some opportunity to get vacationstogo to move their prices some??

I have found the cruisecritic or cruisetraveltalk web sites you mentions so will dig further on these.
The one thing I had not found on the NCL web site was the availability of specified disabled cabins. If you can point me at where to find this info I would really appreciate it. (Edit - cancel that - have found specific cabins which I assume you can individually book on the NCL web site)

When you say "one pulman(bunk) and one pull out for the extra beds" I take it you mean one bunk bed set up (two singles - one over the other), plus one double size sofabed type setup (pull-out)???

I really am greatful for your help here. When you are able bodied it can be a difficult task to plan a holiday. When you have someone in the family with a disability it makes the task a whole lot more challenging, so I really do appreciate the help you are providing.

ATB.

If you go into the http://www.cruisecritic.com website, scroll down the page to "Quicklinks", click on this you will see one of the heading options "Cruise styles", and the first one is "disabled", click there and you will get some information that should be helpful.

I did not explore far, but there are a number of details there about best cruise-lines to use, what you need to know and look out for etc.

Best wishes in finding a suitable cruise.

Hi again,

On the beds not sure, but I think it will be a pull out as in one that goes under one of the singles rather than a sofa bed, when using the pulman it is usual to have the main bed setup as a twin rather than a double. The G may even have room for two pull out beds if a bunk is not practical.

The AF minisuite has a double sofa bed. and they are going to upgrade the regular suites to sofa beds as well.

Don't worry about the beds too much the cabin steward will make them up at night and put them away in the morning while you are out. oh and they will make towel animals which are great and the kids should love them.

If you cannot get V2G to drop the price you may as well go direct with NCL or with an agent that will. I used BPC for two trips last year and the prices were good but email exchanges to make changes were not so hot, but the chances are you will be happy to stick with the cabin price and not need anything changed. and the saving will be around £250 which would cover the tips.