I had a really hard time figuring out how I was going to get from the Mahe airport to my airBnb on Eden Island in the Seychelles. Thanks to the Accessible Travel Club group on Facebook and one of my facebook friends, Christian Bayerlein, who had visited the Seychelles with his own ramps, I decided the best route was going to be to bring my own folding ramps and find a taxi with a van big enough.
After emailing several taxi and tour companies — the Seychelles tourism board and bus system were very unhelpful — I heard back positively from Kenneth at Henderson Taxi and Tours.
We figured out that their larger vehicle with the tall roof would work best, and although the ramp was a little bit steep, it still worked great! Be aware that there are no tie-downs in the van but you will be able to get where you want to go.
You can email Kenneth at kennethhenderson2270@gmail.com
It was mostly gray, gross, and rainy on the day we stopped in St. Maarten and the island itself is still rebuilding from the 2017 Hurricane Irma but you could still tell there’s a lot of beauty there.
I was lucky to book a last minute wheelchair accessible St. Maarten tour through the Carnival excursions and my friends and I hopped the accessible bus for a journey around the island. We visited both the Dutch and the French part of the island and our driver kept us very entertained and informed for the entire route.
The island has a lot to see, including many amazing beaches. I didn’t get to see people get blown off the beach by the airport runway but certainly if I ever go back, that would be the plan.
The port area itself was accessible enough to hang around in, but you’ll need transportation of some sort to get to any of the beaches on your own.
The first stop on my 7-Day Southern Caribbean Cruise on Carnival Fascination took us to St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands. There was an accessible excursion available through Carnival so I booked a wheelchair space for myself. Unfortunately, the non-wheelchair spaces were all booked and my friends had to take a different excursion but that’s my fault because we booked it so late.
It was a beautiful day and I met the tour outside the port. The driver loaded me up on the lift to the van and we were on our way for an island tour with a few stops at scenic locations.
Our driver had a great sense of humor and was very accommodating to my needs. A few times I just wanted to stay on the bus while the others stepped off and he was happy to chat.
I did get off at the last stop though which was a beautiful overlook down onto some beaches and islands. I was also able to go souvenir shopping and the store was very accessible — bathroom and everything.
It was a short excursion, but just enough time for me. The island is hilly and the roads were bumpy. Two-and-a-half hours was plenty.
I recently upgraded to the Delta Skymiles Reserve card which has some great lounge benefits among other things. I started out with the Gold card which has a $0 first year fee and $95 every year after. The best part is that there’s a 70,000 miles bonus which can go pretty far if you play your cards right. I recently got two round trip tickets to Seoul from Seattle for 34,000 miles each!
In any case, I do recommend this card because the miles add up and never expire.
Cruises are a great way to see a lot of different places without the hassle of booking transportation, flying, or even leaving the ship. I enjoy cruises as a mode of transportation but am not a big fan of the on-board social experience so I am typically not loyal to any particular cruise line. Having said that, the casino offers from Carnival are usually pretty great so I tend to take advantage of those.
Unfortunately there are two big problems trying to book accessible cabins on Carnival:
You have to go one-by-one into each cruise and check if accessible cabins exist at all.
If you get a great casino offer, the accessible cabins might already be booked, even though regular staterooms are still available.
I recently got Carnival’s Elite casino offer which is fantastic. Aside from a virtually free balcony room (you pay $100pp but get $100pp in onboard credit), you get temporary Platinum status for the cruise, and free drinks everywhere on the ship. Pretty awesome, right? Until you try to book an accessible cabin.
I went thru the online process and found interior rooms at the deal price — no oceanview or balcony. I am definitely not going to cruise Alaska with an interior room, so that’s not acceptable. Thinking the Carnival casino club that sent the offer might be able to help, I sent a message and got the following response:
I have written back with my suggestions on this:
Put an accessible-cabin filter on the website so it filters out unavailable cruises.
Extend the offers to other cruises when accessible cabins are not available.
Have more accessible cabins.
In addition, I called the Carnival booking line directly and here’s what happened.
I talked to a great cruise specialist who tried her best to find me an accessible cabin for the offer I wanted. She put me on hold and had to talk to someone else who had to manually go through each cruise, pretty much the same way you do online, only to find out that there were no balcony rooms available for the offer. The one Alaska cruise with an accessible balcony was not available under the offer, cost $1500+ if I wanted it, and was outside of my travel timeline.
Needless to say, I’ll also be suggesting to Carnival that they make the filter available to their in-house booking staff, as my 15-minute phone call could have been reduced to five or less.
Despite the above annoyances, I have been very happy with my experiences on Carnival thus far. The people I’ve dealt with have always been great. Unfortunately, it’s the technology or the ships themselves that seem to be the limiting factor.
You Should Go Anyway 
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