Best of Havana Excursion Reviews Empress of the Seas

Discover if the Royal Caribbean area Empress of the Seas cruise from Miami to Havana Republic of cuba together with its attractions, tours and activities is accessible for disabled travelers. Read our informative review to learn if this cruise is wheelchair accessible and wheelchair friendly or if Wheelchair Jimmy recommends this attraction be avoided by travelers in wheelchairs.

WCJ Contributor Anne Simmon's Accessibility Comments

Empress of the Seas Cruise Miami to Havana, Cuba

July 12 – sixteen, 2018

Function I

This is a review of my cruise to Havana, Cuba on the above dates.   I take mobility issues which crave the use of a pikestaff or walker.  I as well travel with my legally bullheaded husband and his guide dog. The purpose of this review is to inform other travelers who may exist wheelchair leap or have other accessibility issues of what to expect from this cruise and the accessibility features of this particular ship.

The Empress of the Seas is 1 of the oldest and is the smallest in the Royal Caribbean fleet.  She carries a total of i,602 passengers when at full chapters.  She was originally launched in 1990 and "after a hiatus from Regal Caribbean while the ship sailed with Pullmantur, Empress was relaunched in May 2016 post-obit a $50 one thousand thousand revitalization." (Cruise Critic 2018)

Below are three links giving information about the Empress herself and her accessibility features.  Post-obit them are my personal observations and experience.

https://world wide web.cruisecritic.com/articles.cfm?ID=2564

http://www.royalcaribbean.com/findacruise/ports/printAccessibilityInformation.exercise?pagename=accessible_features_NE

https://www.royalcaribbean.com/cruise-ships/empress-of-the-seas/deck-plans/1810/AD

There are four attainable staterooms on Deck 4 – 2 Inside and two Oceanview.  They are supposed to be about 159 sq. ft. each.  I was unable to verify this personally as they were all occupied.  I was able to see view briefly one of the inside rooms equally it was being cleaned.  There was not room for the occupant to remain inside the room as the attendant inverse the sheets.  He was in the doorway half into the hall in his wheelchair.

The passageways are simply wide plenty to adjust a wheelchair merely there is non enough room to walk next to the chair without turning sideways.  This meant there was not room plenty to allow my husband and guide dog to walk adjacent to me with my walker.  In fact, several times I had to partially collapse my walker in order to get by a linen cart.  And room service dishes left in the hallway outside of cabins were a real trip chance.

Our Oceanview stateroom (run into pictures) was less than 140 sq. ft. which made getting the walker and a 74 lb. Lab into it quite a challenge.  I asked about folding the walker and leaving it in the hall but was told that was strictly non allowed.  They offered to store information technology for me but somehow that seemed to defeat the purpose of having information technology.

The ii sets of elevators (one forrard and ane aft) are fully wheelchair accessible.  The only deck not reachable by elevator is Deck eleven which is where the fitness center is located.  There are public restrooms on all of the decks with public venues (i.e. principal restaurant, theater, etc.) but not all of them are wheelchair accessible.  To my knowledge the shipboard map does not indicate which are and which are not.

As with most ships, infinite between the tables in the dining areas is very sparse.  There are only a very few which are wheelchair accessible.  My walker had to be folded and left at the maître de stand.  Then there was no identify to put my pikestaff once seated.

Getting on and off the ship was not simple either.  The gangways were steep and difficult to navigate with the walker.  I was offered the use of one of the ship's wheelchairs, just I would have had to wait until someone was available to push it since my married man could not handle it and the dog as well.  When we got on board, in that location were extensive apologies and promises that we would have assistance in the future.  This did not materialize.

Overall, I did not find the Empress of the Seas to be particularly inability friendly.  This included wheelchairs, walkers and canes.  The crew was pleasant but did not go out of their way to ease the problems I establish.  I too found the excursions desk to be totally ignorant of what was or was not bachelor for someone with mobility challenges.  That will be covered in detail in the next department.  Even so, if I were qualified I would give the Empress a WJAR 2 rating.

Office II

Havana

A tourist visa (known as a Tourist Menu) tin can be obtained through the ship and costs $75.  It is expert for simply a single visit of upward to thirty days or however long the ship will be in port.  I feel I need to annotation that our cruise spent ane ½ days in Havana.  At that place are some cruises which besides include 2 other ports in Cuba.  The aforementioned Tourist Card would exist honored at those ports without an additional charge.  However Royal Caribbean area does non tell y'all that in guild to move around Havana legally, you need to be signed upward for one of their day excursions.  For current Cuba travel policy updates as of Oct 2018 please visit the following website.  (https://www.viahero.com/travel-to-republic of cuba/new-republic of cuba-travel-policy-updates)

"Wheelchair users should annotation that accessibility is limited in Republic of cuba. There is a lack of curb cuts, ramps, accessible vehicles and elevators. Doors may not be as broad and grab bars unavailable." (https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/category/category/cuba)

There is also a dearth of public restrooms and none of them are remotely handicapped accessible.  Even in the cruise final (see pictures) in that location were no disabled facilities.  Nosotros had been warned that in that location were ii flights of steep stairs from the terminal down to ground level which were totally inaccessible to wheelchair users.  What nosotros discovered for ourselves was that there were likewise two elevators of sorts.  Iv of the states could barely fit in i and to say it was decrepit was a major understatement.

Havana is a beautiful city.  I expected it to exist similar to Tijuana, United mexican states back in the early 80's before information technology became gentrified.  Instead it reminded me of the suburbs of Barcelona or Naples.  I was extremely disappointed that nigh of the sights of the city itself was inaccessible to anyone with mobility issues.  This was especially frustrating because none of the tours from the ship was wheelchair attainable and only two were offered for anyone with moderate mobility challenges (read using a cane or walker).  We ultimately chose the Vintage Automobile tour.  Nosotros took a motorcoach from the cruise concluding (The aisles and seats were so small that I had to stow my walker under the bus and had no access to it for the four-hour duration of the tour.  At that point I had to ask for information technology twice from the driver who had no English language.) to where the vintage convertibles were parked.  It was first-come showtime served as to which car we would ride in.  The driver of the machine spoke very petty English, then nosotros spent the adjacent two plus hours driving around Havana with very little thought of exactly what we were seeing just there was everything from lush parks to beautiful homes and seaside hotels.  I could easily take spent two more hours enjoying the sights.

Our last stop earlier rejoining the autobus was the celebrated Hotel Nacional whose principal merits to fame is all the famous people who have stayed there.  But for me its fame lay in the fact that it was the first identify I saw in Havana which was totally wheelchair attainable.

Ernest Hemingway lived in Havana for virtually 25 years.  His home of nigh 20 years, Vinca Figia, is now a living museum (Run into attached pictures). At the fourth dimension nosotros were there, it was closed due to being repaired from the ravages of Hurricane Irma.  Simply I recall information technology is necessary to mention it since it is the simply site in Havana which is fully wheelchair accessible (once you really find a way to get there).

Examples of Streets, Curbs and Cobblestones are included in the pictures.

In closing, I tin can honestly say that if I were totally wheelchair bound, despite its dazzler Havana would not be on my list of places to go as of now.  But I would definitely be watching it for improvements in disability friendliness and go along it on my bucket list for the futurity.  But for now …

Hasta la vista, Havana

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Source: https://wheelchairjimmy.com/listing/empress-of-the-seas-cruise-miami-to-havana-cuba/