Accessible Summit: the ups & downs of a disabled passenger's Western Caribbean adventure - Beyond The Brochure

Cruise Travel, Nov-Dec, 2002 by Adam Lloyd

For years, cruising has been an immensely popular vacation choice for people with disabilities. The opportunity to see the world without having to make a plethora of travel arrangements or constantly worrying about finding accessible lodging and activities makes for a wonderfully convenient, stress-free trip.

Pioneers in accessible travel, the cruise lines have continued to keep their senior and disabled patrons in mind, incorporating accessibility improvements into their new ship designs and onboard services. However, while with each successive ship handicap accommodations reach ever closer to perfection, access considerations in the planning of itineraries and participation in shore excursions continue to lag behind.

Expectations were high for my 11-night Caribbean cruise aboard the Summit, the third entry in Celebrity Cruises' Millennium Class. It had been professed that the ship was perfection--the culmination of an innovative original design along with several alterations based on experiences with her two sister ships.

She does not disappoint. Open, airy, and bathed in light, the Summit is a beautifully laid out, tastefully appointed ship. With 10 elevators, 26 accessible staterooms (including six suites), and largely uncluttered public areas, getting around the ship in a wheelchair is, with only a few exceptions, a breeze. The wheelchair-accessible cabins couldn't be better. Wide doorways, spacious bathrooms with all the proper adaptions, and ramped verandas complement easily maneuverable bedrooms. The rest of the ship proves to be equally impressive.

What's striking is how well the Summit's accessibility features blend in with the rest of the ship's design. Wide hallways and well-graded ramps look a natural part of spaces rather than add-ons. The elegant furnishings in the lounges, casino, and dining rooms are plentiful enough to accommodate a full passenger load, yet spaced far enough apart to allow wheelchair users easy passage. Even around the pool, automatic doors and well-defined areas for the chaise lounges provide ample access in every direction.

Simply put, the Summit combines solid accessibility features without sacrificing the overall look, comfort, or utility of the ship's design; it is a rare example of style and accessibility complementing one another rather than working at odds. The Summit's accessibility is not, however, a total bed of roses, as she does come up short in several areas including the disco, theater, and in her "physical" recreational offerings.

Looking for a fun way to spend some time on our first day at sea, my friend Jeff organized a basketball game with people we had met the prior evening. One of the more impressive features on the Summit is Sports Deck--boasting volleyball, ping-pong, a compact football field, and a full-length basketball court. While physically unable to play basketball, I planned on watching and, perhaps, acting as referee if the need arose. We knew that the midship bank of elevators reached only to deck 11, and since the basketball court is aft, headed that way. It was with great surprise that we discovered the aft elevators, too, do not go to deck 12. Instead, we took a detour down to Guest Relations where it was confirmed that there is stairs-only access to Sports Deck.

This experience is representative of the dichotomy in accessibility encountered throughout the Summit. Impeccable access can be found in areas where it thought obvious that people with disabilities will spend their time, but in places where physical or more lively participation is the focus, less attention to accessibility has been paid.

Prime examples are the pool and AquaSpa. For a newly built ship, the lack of any wheelchair access to either the highly touted thalassotherapy or standard swimming pool is disappointing. Not only are there no chairlifts into the pools, but one is required to walk up three steps just to reach pool-side. Spending 11 days in the Caribbean without the opportunity to get in the water definitely leaves something to be desired.

Smaller problems, yet equally annoying, are found elsewhere. In contrast to the reasonably spaced seating in the Cova Cafe Milano and Rendez-Vous Lounge, it is very difficult to navigate past the crush of chairs filling Revelations, the ship's lively disco. On each Revelations visit, I was forced to grab the attention of a cocktail waiter to clear a path through the room. Despite having mastered some pretty impressive wheelchairdance moves, I was reluctant to ever leave my table for the dance floor, for fear of disrupting fellow revelers on my way there.

Seating is also an issue at the Celebrity Theater. Spanning three decks and decorated in lush red tones, the theater is a spectacle to behold. Unfortunately, the wheelchair accessible seating--removable chairs in the uppermost row on decks four and five--is not reserved for people with disabilities and quickly fills up with able-bodied audience members, who are often unwilling to move.

Fortunately, the access issues at Revelations and the theater are easily resolved. Not so, with the rather glaring oversights at the pools and Sports Deck. That said, access aboard the Summit is better than on many comparable ships. The areas where accessible accommodations are lacking are few, and the ship's incredibly helpful staff do everything in their power to make up for any shortcomings. This is most clearly evidenced during the debarkation of disabled passengers at ports-of-call.