Friday, 10 April 2015

Britannia - Access to Sports Deck for Disabled Passengers

I may be wrong but studying the deck plans for P&O's Britannia indicates that the Sports Deck has the promenade running around the edge and it appears not to be accessible for disabled or mobility challenged cruisers.  I hope I am wrong but I fear I may be right.  For a few weeks now I have done my usual research that I do before every cruise, some people say that I am a bit OTT but I have found you need to do a hell of a lot of research if you are disabled because the information is simply not there.  
I emailed my cruise agent to see if she knew if there was a "platform lift" from the sun deck up to the sports deck but from what she can remember from her visit to Britannia there isn't.  If this is the case I am disappointed with P&O,  after all they have a "platform lift" on the Azura from the aqua deck to the sun deck and on Ventura from the sun deck to the sports deck.  The other thing I have noticed that neither of the lifts are shown on the deck plans.  I remember finding out about these "secret" lifts from a forum and again it might be nice to have been told of there existence by P&O.  
As disabled cruisers we are expected to comply with certain rules and restrictions set out by cruise lines.  For me it was completing a questionnaire and giving detailed measurements of my wheelchair and any aids that I will be bringing.  Once complete I emailed it to P&O and I received a reply saying that if I didn't hear from them within two weeks everything was OK and that was it.  That was 4 months ago.  I had the disabled excursions come through in February and that is another topic to tackle at another time.  It would be nice to have more information from P&O as I feel I have been forgotten.  I am a partial wheelchair user but can manage a shower in a non-accessible cabin leaving accessible cabins for my fellow travellers who need the space.  Once you have registered your disability, condition or illness with P&O I think they should keep in contact with you for updates etc.  I am on Britannia at the beginning of May for a fortnight and I have list of things that I will be checking out. So please keep checking back.

No comments:

Post a Comment