DCL Med cruise transfer fyi

[cupcake]

Just got back from the transatlantic repositioning cruise -- had a great time! I wanted to note that for anyone with walking issues, you should absolutely avoid the DCL airport transfers unless you are sure that DCL has changed its practices. Anyone who cannot transfer and do some steps cannot use the buses, which are standard large excursion type buses with narrow steps. But if you can do the bus, note that DCL drops you off in a bus zone that is nowhere near the actual terminals. Also, Barcelona does not let DCL handle luggage, so you have to collect it yourself and someone has to push it on a cart.

The drop off location means that depending on what airline you are flying, you can face a bad to disastrous situation if you have limited mobility. There's no curbside check-in, and wcs are available from the airline once you have checked in, so you may face a serious walk. We were a solid 20 minutes (Aer Lingus) from where they dropped us off, walking at a moderately brisk pace which of course we weren't doing. Given that DCL knew my mom (who absolutely can't do this) was with us, this was totally unacceptable (yes, I have written them).

Taxis are available at the port, but I wonder if, as the lameness of the DCL service gets out (no help with luggage, loser drop off location) the lines will get longer. For us, there was no line and we were totally kicking ourselves after the fact, esp bc it would have been less expensive to take a taxi. We shall see what DCL does, if anything, to make up for what can only be described as a bad ending to a magical vacation. I also wonder what they provide, if anything, for wc guests. The info I got from special services ahead of time was sketchy and turned out to be inaccurate (i.e., the transfers were totally inappropriate for our needs).

Just wanted to prevent anyone else from having this same problem-- we were disappointed, both bc this was a real nightmare for my mom and bc Disney is usually reliable for this kind of thing.

Cupcake

 

[dclfun]

As far as I know, DCL went out of their way to contact guests in an accessible stateroom and who were travelling in wheelchairs to provide lift vans to/from the ship. Was your Mom in an accessible stateroom or noted as having mobility concerns? As far as the length of a walk at the Barcelona airport, I don't know that they had much control over that. I would highly recommend though for anyone travelling with mobility concerns who doesn't already use/have a w/c to rent or borrow one, perhaps a lightweight travel transport w/c to use in this kind of situation. Just like DCL doesn't have control over the airlines, they don't have control over the facilities and accomodations at the airport either and perhaps they were limited in where you could be dropped off, per the airport policy or limitiations. I'm sorry she had to walk so far though- glad you made it home safe and sound!---Kathy

 

[cupcake]

As far as I know, DCL went out of their way to contact guests in an accessible stateroom and who were travelling in wheelchairs to provide lift vans to/from the ship. Was your Mom in an accessible stateroom or noted as having mobility concerns? As far as the length of a walk at the Barcelona airport, I don't know that they had much control over that. I would highly recommend though for anyone travelling with mobility concerns who doesn't already use/have a w/c to rent or borrow one, perhaps a lightweight travel transport w/c to use in this kind of situation. Just like DCL doesn't have control over the airlines, they don't have control over the facilities and accomodations at the airport either and perhaps they were limited in where you could be dropped off, per the airport policy or limitiations. I'm sorry she had to walk so far though- glad you made it home safe and sound!---Kathy

She was not in an accessible stateroom as we could not get one, but she had a transfer bench provided by DCL and we worked with Special Services to address her needs given the lack of an accessible stateroom, plus once onboard, she was on the system for guests who need assistance in the event of an emergency. The folks in Special Services arranged the purchase of the transfer after investigating that it would be OK for her, and I stopped by guest services the day before to make sure she didn't need to do anything special. So there is no question that they knew about her and her needs. The issue with us is that we kept being reassured that we would be dropped off close to where we could get to the Aer Lingus wc, and that didn't happen. Frankly, I think they dropped the ball. If they could not address her needs, they should not have affirmatively told us they could and then dropped us off where they did. All's well that ends well, but it was an unfortunate ending to our trip, and I feel that anyone taking DCL transportation for a Med cruise should be especially vigilant in light of our experience.

C.

 

[dclfun]

I agree- if you were reassured that she would be dropped off close to the airline check in and then were dropped off far away, then that's not good service at all. I just know that DCL doesn't have the control over things at an airport, but it's different if they promised something that couldn't be delivered. I'm glad you wrote a letter which hopefully will help but sorry that you were the ones who had to suffer.---Kathy