To whom it may concern,
As a mobility impaired person, I urge you to recommend that any passenger cruise ships that embark or disembark passengers in the United States of America follow the ADA guidelines in place in the USA.
My family loves to cruise, but since I have to use a mobility scooter, and/or wheelchair, my choices of cabins are already very limited. The accessible cabins are wonderful, with wide doors, flat floored doorways into the bathrooms, higher toilets and roll in showers, with room in the cabin to move from area to area in a wheelchair. I wish that the cruise lines would have several cabins in each category (e.g. inside, ocean view, balcony, and suites) available for the handicapped. At present, some lines have cabins in each category, some have them in only the lowest inside categories, and some have them in the three bottom categories, at the highest priced level, but not suites.
As the "aging of America" continues, there will be more people with accessibility issues, that also have the funds to cruise. As an impaired person, I pay the same or higher fares than the rest of the passengers, don't need any special help, tip the same amounts, and would enjoy access to all parts of the ship. This would not take much..........electric eyes or push button electric doors to various areas of the ship.........RCI already does a pretty good job with this, and Princess has a few. Each cruise line SHOULD have to have someone to inspect each of their ships from a wheelchair and scooter. On Princess, the public restrooms are wonderful inside, BUT one cannot get inside them, as all the doors open OUTWARDS. Cabin doors could be a few inches wider, thereby allowing people with chairs or scooters easy access into regular cabins. I would suggest that there could be several levels of accessibility. One with wider doors and a bit more room inside, to turn chairs, and a flat access to the bathroom and guide bars in the bathroom, and the second with the fully accessible bathroom with transfer seating in the bathroom shower, and pull down bars in the closets, and with beds at standard wheelchair height.
Thank you for your consideration of my comments.
Elaine A. Wightman
[address]
Las Vegas, NV 89149