One night Miami stay & 14 night Caribbean Cruise on Celebrity Eclipse
Dates:-15th December - 30th December
The start of the holiday for My husband & myself was when the Private car & driver arrived at our home at 6.20am he took all the bags and my wheelchair and put them in the blacked out window car. It was a lovely comfortable car with lots of leg room which made the 2hr drive to Heathrow enjoyable. Once we arrived at Heathrow our driver got my husband a bag courier to take the bags so he could push my wheelchair, cost of courier was £7! But it was handy having him, he took us to the wheelchair assistance area where our names where checked off and then they took my husband, myself and our courier to the check in desk for disabled passengers which fast tracked us past the huge line for check in!! We then thanked our courier payed him and was fast tracked to passport control ect including being picked for a full bagage & body search!! To the duty free and departure gates.
Our flight was on time and we with other disabled and eldery passangers where put on the plane 1st, our seats going out where rather cramped so the flight to Miami (which was 9hrs 45mins) wasn't great and even myself who mesures 4ft 11 found it cramped so my poor husband who measures 6ft+ was glad to get off the plane!!
Our arrival at Miami was a slow one!! it seemed to take forever to get through passport control to the baggage! And the disabled assistance lady managed to loose my husband and that took 15mins to find him and another 10mins to find my wheelchair which was shocking as it has bright green 'Monster Energy' Stickers on it so we would never loose it!!! Eventually we got to the Virgin Rep and was directed to our transport to get us to our hotel. We where so glad to get moving to our hotel which was 45mins away from the airport, all we could think about was getting into our bed for the night even though it was only 7.45pm in the evening in Miami and the night was young! But to us with jet lag it was bedtime!
Once we got to our hotel which was:-
Courtyard at Marriott, Fort Lauderdale
Which was a nice over night hotel. We had booked a disabled room which had a widened door into it, the room was spacious, I could easily move around in my chair, the bathroom had a raised toilet with grab rails. The bathroom was a wet room and a seat under the shower.So we where impressed with the room. Even though the room was on the 5th floor I was able to get around with no problems outside the room.Once settled in the room we set an Alarm call and I took my meds and crashed for the night! We woke at 8am the next day, had breakfast and enjoyed the lovely warm weather which was 28oc which is crazy for December to us! We weren't allowed to go the cruise ship till 1pm, so we chilled in the hotel grounds which where well adapted for disabled people with ramps, dropped curbs and even a lift outside to take you to the ground floor restaurant and beach front! Very impressed with the hotel.
Celebrity Eclipse
Once we got to the port our bags where taken from us and we where pointed in the direction of the checking in area, once again we where fast tracked and where on the ship in minutes!! The one thing that hit us right away was the amount of people waiting for lifts!! Able-bodied people who where just lazy who had just walked on the ship 1st thing they did, wait for a lift not think 'oh lets walk about the ship to see what was on it', No 'we're lazy lets take the lift!!' As we waited in a mass of people for the lift my husband leaned over to speak to me and made sure everyone in the waiting crowd heard him and said 'Shall we go for a wander and see what the ship has to offer, because these lazy able-bodied people can't be bothered to take the stairs!' And half of them looked down in embarrassment and the other half didn't move a muscle! So we walked to the other end of the ship found an outside bar and had a drink, yes alcoholic my drink is 'jack daniels & coke'! We eventually found a lift to get us to our room, we had a disabled balcony cabin, Again the door was widened, the room was spacious, huge round bed!, the bathroom was again a wet room with a folding chair under the 2 different sorts of shower, a power shower with enlargened head and a normal style. The loo was weird it had no flush handle it flushed when you stood up!! There where grab handles to it. The whole ship was catered well to the disabled cruiser, the toilets had special touch plates that when you pushed them in the doors opened, the same with the locking, press and it will say by a light whether it was open or locked. Only bug bear was that it had a metal lip into the toilet and you really had to go at it to get over lip.
Yes the lifts could be a nightmare, mainly from the chinese people they would push in front of you to get in! We made them aware what we thought of them doing that! And another problem this year was people having no respect by moving their sunbeds on path area's! The amount of times we had to ask people to'please can you move your sunbeds out of the way we want to get past'! It went from polite at the start of the holiday to sething by the end. But I don't want to put whole cruise down just because of a few inconsiderate people, the whole holiday was lovely and the staff couldn't do enough for us. We have both agreed we will definatly do it again this Christmas, it makes our Christmas more magical and enjoyable. Would I reccommend it? YES!!
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