Welcome to our new cruise club members. we've had a huge month and are looking forward to your thoughts on cruise and what you get up to in the coming months
Our cruise club members are:
Adele Parry, director, TR4 Travel, Flintshire, Cheshire
David Sixsmith, travel consultant, Personal Travel Advisor, Winstanley, Wigan
Martin Hay, homeworker, GoCruise, Ribble Valley, Blackburn, Lancashire
Tracy McFall, business proprietor, franchise for Accessible Travel and Leisure, Bristol South
Holly Warner, partner, Holly-days Travel Shop, Folkestone, Kent
Sandra Lines, director, Knowle Travel, Solihull
Thanks to Martin and Andy for the welcome!
I look forward to working with Travel Weekly over the next twelve months and along with my fellow club members exploring more of what this industry has to offer.
I hope to meet some of you guys at the Cruise Convention in Southampton in a couple of weeks.
Cheers,
Martin
Really looking forward to hearing how you all fare over the coming year. I know Tracy already has bagged her first cruise sales. She’s also got an interesting story to tell. As you may know, she is a franchisee for Accessible Travel which specialises in holidays for people with disabilities. She's already encountered some problems over the accessibility of some cruises. I'm hoping she'll post a message about her experiences thus far!
Visited Hurtigruten's MS Fram on Monday. Measuring just 114m X 20.2m and with just 318 berths it might seem pretty modest compared to some of the floating hotels my colleagues have visited over the past few months, but just as impressive when you hear about the amazing experiences it offers. Was also pleased to see it accommodates people with disabilities – something some of the larger cruise liners do not, according to one of my sources.
Do Cruise Club members experience much demand for cruises from disabled customer?
Hi there Tracy here! now let me just say how great it is to be part of the Cruise Club, I am so looking forward to the next 12 months and meeting some of you (perhaps at the Cruise Convention!) I must say that I am not only new to the industry but also a virgin with regard to cruising! so how fantastic it is to be given the opportunity to experience many different cruise ships as well as being able to discuss and gain information regarding cruising for disabled passengers.
I am the franchise/representative for my area for Accessible Travel & Leisure who specialise in holidays for people that are disabled/elderley providing accessible accommodation, accessible transfers, accessible excursions as well as medical equipent and nursing care if required in world wide destinations - so as you can see any information on the disability side of cruising would be so gratefully received by not only me (I have a walking disability) but ATL's many customers! The answer to the above question is that ATL's customers who enquire about cruising is approx 30% of the business!! we do loose quite a few only down to the fact that so many cruise lines/ships have an access problem - be it difficulty with getting on/off the ship if you are a wheelchair user, or ships that do not have accessible tenders, cruise lines that do not provide accessible excursions, ships that will not carry electric wheelchairs, cruise line policies on not allowing single disabled travellers and some who state that a disabled person must have an able bodied carer with them!! a lot of disabled people can and do manage very well by themselves!!!! saying all of this - most ships are very accessible on board, the accessible cabins are spacious and well equipted and the staff are very helpful, great information is out there - it is just getting it.
I had my first viewing of a cruise ship last week - P&O's Ventura - WOW its fantastic, very accessible for all, great cabins, one of the pool has a hoist and if you have children you won't see them the whole of the cruise (my opinon!!) the childrens facilities outway anything that I have seen anywhere including Butlins!! - this was also very special ship to see as my husband and I are booked onto her Nov this year (in the Carribbean) to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary!! we even managed to see our cabin!!
I am going to view the Crown Princess on Friday, if anyone else is going please let me know so I can say hi, I will be on a mini mobility scooter (the Ventura wore me out, so taking precautions this time), I just hope that I will be ok by Friday - I had a fall last night and my hip is very painful (I have had 3 hip replacements and 4 knee replacements so I do have to be careful) nothing broken but still hurts!!
Oh, nearly forgot to mention - how excited was I the other week when I booked my first Cruise!!! I nealy went out onto the street to tell everyone!!! have booked 2 to date now and I only started in this Job in January, I had not sold one before joining the cruise club.
Anyway sorry for going on so! please do respond even if to say hi, if anyone has any helpful tips/knowledge with regard to cruising for disabled people then please do let me know.
Regards
Tracy
Thanks for that great, newsy posting and wonderful that you've brought the subject up again. I'm sure the cruise lines want to know (or be reminded) of their obligations regarding their disabled customers and the market opportunities they're missing by not servicing them adequately. As you know I've just written a piece on accessible travel, which features your company. Quite an eye opener. I think part of the problem is that sea and air travel aren't covered by the DDA - although from July air travel for people with disabilties will be by the second part of an EU reg.
Hoping we will get some responses from the cruise lines on this, so watch this space.
By the way - big congratulations to you for your cruise sales!
Speak to you back here later.
Tracy,
Gather you enjoyed Ventura then - I was fornuate to attend an overnight event shortly before the official naming ceremony - you're right she is a special ship.
Are you just in Southampton nn Friday or are you staying on for the main event Monday to Wednesday next week?
Martin (Fellow Cruise Club member).
Hi Martin, great to hear from you, I will be in Southampton next week but not actually doing the convention thing on Monday as we will not be there until about 7pm (hubby is going with me), but we will be around Tue and Wed - we are staying both nights at the express holiday inn - this hotel is not covered by the free transort but that does not matter as being disabled I probably could not get onto the coaches! I don't know how I am going to get from ship to ship though as it is going to be coaching!! should be fun trying to see eveything with a mobility scooter!!! just found out though that we don't actually get a chance to view any cabins! this would have been so useful for me just to get a snippet of accessible cabins etc - Georgina from complete cruise solutions has offered that I could go another time to see the cabins on various ships when they are in but that is not really beneficial as I have the expense each time when I go there - it would have been better to do it all at one time.
Guys, let us know how you get on at the convention - I'm trying to get to it myself. have good weekends.
Hi everyone
Wow to the Cruise Convention and a big well done to those that put it all together. There were a few hiccups especially on the Tuesday with booking in to visit the ships, we only had 45 minutes for each visit which was cut down further by the slow checking in proceedure and coaching everyone to/from the ships. Also disapointed in the fact that we could not see any of the cabins - this was an important issue for me to be able to report back on the accessible cabins to my customers (these customers do trust us with our views and recommendations). I also had to be carried on to the ship Queen Victoria due to the fact that the tide was too high for the lower walkway to be put into place!!!! Just one of the problems that is faced by disabled people which I experienced (however I was still able to view the ship) and at no time did anyone say that I could not do what the others were doing.
This was my first convention and my first time at dressing for such an occassion for the gala dinner (very expensive dress bought by someone that does not do dresses!).
I did feel a bit of a fish out of water being the only disabled agent amongst approx 840 people. I took with me a mobility scooter which happened to be the most vital piece of equipment that I have ever bought, without this I would not have been able to attend this event due to the fact that after having a fall the Tuesday before it had left me still in a great deal of pain and unable to walk unaided. This however put me in the same position as most of my customers anyway so now I can at least pass on my experiences for using a wheelchair/scooter.
The whole of this event was very informative and interesting and left me with great insentive to promote cruising in a variety of ways. One down side to this event however was although we were given many interesting facts, figures and future developments for the cruise ships, at no stage was anything mentioned about disabled passengers, infact the word disability/disabled was not said once, was not shown once and not one disabled person was featured in any of the advertising materials/promotions etc, this really surprised me as improvements are taking place across the board with regard to customer satisfaction. I did feel at the end of the speaches very left out as a disabled person and wondering if this industry really do care/understand the needs of disabled passengers. A lot of the people I spoke with during the convention did seem very interested in what I had to say and all said that they did not realise the difficulties that disabled people faced. The positive with this is that I did it and I may have been the only disabled person there, but next year there could be 10 or 20 as I hope that perhaps I have layed the way for more disabled people to get involved in this industry. With a slight tweek at the order of play they can still do what everyone else can do (and sometimes in a better way).
Due to my disablilty and knowing that I would not be able to board the coaches that were laid on free of charge to take everyone to/from the hotels and ships I arranged with Natalie from ACE and Georgina from Complete Cruise Solutions (the rep for us cruise club agents) for me to take my car which would allow me to also take my mobility scooter (breaks down into 4 parts) this went very smoothly and everyone was very helpful especially Georgina who also arranged private tours for hubby and I so that I could use the lifts instead of stairs. We were shown around by someone different at each ship and all of them said that I had opened their eyes with regard to disabled passengers issues and I had actually given them something to think about and take back to their office!!! Georgina is trying very hard to start to implement some of my ideas (most of the ideas I have would only need a slight change to what is already in place).
I have had a busy couple of weeks but would not have missed it for the world, I have now seen a total of 6 ships, every one different and have a unique selling point - I really liked Queen Victoria - 'elegant' (hubbys favourite also) the spa was the best with a hydro pool that I could get into as the steps into it had hand rails. The Crown Princess's best points were the golf simulator (hubby had a go as golf is his passion) and 'movies under the stars' was a great feature for me. The Ventura's childrens facilities were in my opinion the best I have seen, Aurora was very British and a bit too 'posh' for me although is our biggest seller!!!, the Arcadia we really liked but disapointed by the accessible cabins (yes we managed to sneak a peak at one, but don't tell anyone!) the room would not be accessible for a person using an electric wheelchair or mobility scooter as it is about half the size of Ventura's (maybe a bit exaggerated). Independance of the seas was the most amazing thing that we have ever seen, we stood looking at her from the car park for ages just taking in the shear size of her! we were a bit disapointed that we did not have the opportunity to see very much of the inside due to the time allocated to us but what we did see made us want to go back!!! wow, awesome.
The possitives outway the negetives of this event - I have to say that all of the ships were very accessible on board and have put some of my concerns at bay, I just need to check out excursions and getting on/off at ports of call etc. This convention only covered P&O, Cunard, Princess and Royal Caribbean which we do feature as accessible, so it will be interesting to check out the many other cruise lines!
Well I think that is all for now, we will definately be going to the 2009 event if they have one (hopefully I won't be in pain and able to enjoy myself more, perhaps having a few more drinks and able to stay later to boogy the night away!), it is so great to see the ships in order to pass on our findings and our enthusism/excitment to our customers.
A big Hi to Martin Hay who I met during the convention and I hope that his experience of the event was a good one. Obviously due to Martin not having disablity issues his story will be totally different to mine which I look forward to reading as it will be from a different angle.
Kindest regards to all - p.s we did take lots of photo's and when I can work out how to post them, I will if anyone is interested.
Hi Tracy,
The convention sounds excellent, but it is a shame catering for disabled customers was not covered.
It seems to me one of the main problems for disabled people and travel is the uncertainty – simply not knowing before you leave home if you’ll be able to get on the ship, let alone negotiate your way around the facilities. This must cause a lot of anxiety – exactly what customers do not want when setting off on their holidays.
Your enthusiasm for cruise should be an inspiration to everyone – especially for people with disabilities considering entering the trade. If anyone can blaze a trail for making cruise and travel more accessible, then I think you can.
Definitely post up your pictures - we publish reader pics each week in TW, so one might end up there!
Anyone going to the ACE roadshow in Manchester tomorrow? If so, see you there.
Martin, great to see you yesterday and thanks for helping out with the video. maybe you could jot down any learning points you had in the forum??
Hi all - its Georgina from Complete Cruise Solution. I have just got off the Sea Princess where I was escorting some travel agents. Loved it - the staff were really helpful -and in particular I loved Movies Under The Stars. I had seen it on Crown Princess but it is even better when you see it in action. On one of the sea days they had 'Grease' on in the afternoon - one of my favourite films. On the night of the Deck Party they have a live band by the main swimming pool and everyone throws streamers and dances around. Everyone from old to the young comes out to dance- incredible!! We got a talk by the person who coordinates the weddings at sea and today I have just been reading about how you can propose using 'Engagement Under the Stars' where a videographer onboard films your proposal and it plays on the big screen - how romantic!!
Now back in the office in my new team as CCS has restructured as of last week.
Take Care
Just imagine getting filmed on bended knee??!!
just wanted to point you to this - agents drinking too much on ship visits . . .
http://www.travelweekly.co.uk/blogs/cruise-lines/2008/07/did-agents-take-carnival-fun-t.html
Back again
I helped with a ship visit on the Sea Princess- it was nice to be back. On Sunday I escorted a tour around Oriana. I have only been on Oriana briefly before so it was lovely to be back on her again. She has a lovely large card room called Crichtons and her theatre which is called Chaplins has a statue of Charlie Chaplin outside. The mixture of traditional and modern really appealed to me. She is one of the most popular ships for P&O past passengers and I could see why.The food in the Pennisular restuarant was divine - I am getting far to used to eating fine food - all I can say its lucky they have nice gyms onboard!!!!
On a romantic note one of the girls in the office came back from getting married on Princess. She said they made a real fuzz of her and her familY - now her whole family are hooked on cruising!! Apparently the DJ even played Chesney Hawkes for her and she said that it was like having a massive wedding - all the guests made a fuss of her- she did look amazing.
Hi all
I chaired an interesting cruise session at the weekend (at the advanatge conference). Here is the story.
What are your thoughts on discounting?
http://www.travelweekly.co.uk/Articles/2008/09/28/28997/advantage-2008-agents-call-for-cruiselines-help-over.html