Assisted Cruising

At Sea

March 9, 2015

Today is partly grey with moderate swells. The surface of the water is textured. The mood on the ship is: resignation (to the weather).

Being on this particular cruise is like living in an assisted living facility. The number of scooters, wheelchairs, walkers and canes on this cruise is the most we've ever seen. There are several individuals with severe multiple handicaps, including one person on a ventilator. Most of these people are unable to go ashore in the tenders, and most of them do not go ashore when we are docked. They don't allow scooters and walkers to be parked in the dining room due to limited space, so when you are going to dinner you will pass a "parking lot" of these devices near the door to each dining room.

There is an elderly couple who both use walkers, They have their walkers decorated with a multitude of rubber duckies and other tchotchkies. Wish I could get a photo. 

There are a number of accessible rooms on the ship. They have wider doors, they are larger, and the bathrooms are much more accessible. I have been told that you can't book these rooms uness you have a letter from your doctor - easy to create with a computer and printer - how would the booking office know? I have heard that some people who are very marginally disabled try to book these rooms because they are larger.

In addition to all of the scooters, wheelchairs, canes and walkers, there is a very significant subset of passengers who have problems walking. The most common issue seems to be a waddle. I would guess that 20 to 25 % of the passengers walk this way - mostly women. Less common is something that I would call a "goon walk" or "zombie walk" - mostly men. It is a stilted gait, the arms don't swing, the feet don't look right either.

All of this is one of the reasons we cruise so much. Who knows what the future holds? We want to see the world while we can still walk. We want to be able to go whale-watching in a Zodiac and walk around sampling different types of street food and hike to a caldera. Seeing the people who have mobility problems reminds us that we can't take our health for granted.

Anotther thing that makes this cruise seem like we are living in an assisted living facility is the "early diner" mentality. The dining rooms open for dinner at 5:30 pm according to the official schedule. We were down  in the International Cafe between 4 and 5 and we observed people starting to line up at 4:30. Honest to God. The dining room staff eventually opened up the doors shortly after 5. I don't know if they felt sorry for people who would have to wait in line for an hour, or what. Some of these people were the ones who had mobility issues, so why would they show up 60 minutes early to stand in line? Or even 30 minutes early? They have never run out of food to my knowledge.

When we are not on a cruise people will often tell us that it seems as though it would be cheaper to live on a cruise ship than in assisted living. We don't hear this so often on cruises. In fact, depending on what type of cabin you have and where the cruise goes and whether you can get a deal, it may be a little cheaper to live on a ship than in assisted living in an expensive part of the country. But if you are ready for assisted living you are probably not capable of living on a ship. You might be able to manage a short cruise if you bring someone along to help you. But the ship has the right to disembark you for any reason, and if they think you cannot take care of yourself or they cannot provide the medical care you need, off you go.

Ken went to a "navigation lecture," given by one of the bridge officers. One item of interest: the fire sensors can detect smoke and heat. When two sensors detect a problem, the system can pinpoint the location and automatically close fire doors to isolate the affected area. (You may remember that several years ago the Star Princess had a serious fire that started on a balcony. Since that time, sprinkler systems have been added to all the balconies on all the ships in the fleet.)

When it comes to navigation, they have redundant systems that use GPS. However, the bridge officers are trained to use sextants - just in case. The bridge officer also explained, during his noontime update,  how the Great Circle principle works and why ships seldom use Great Circle routes (because of strong currents and bad weather). Ships use the "rhombus method."

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I also want to mention the specialty pizzas that have been developed for Princess' 50th Anniversary. The other day we had a barbecue chicken pizza. Instead of tomato sauce it had barbecue. It was delicious. Today we tried a Thai Pizza. The sauce was a mixture of peanut butter and tamari, I think. I really liked it, but one piece was enough.

In the evening we went to hear the vocalist, Jacqi Michaels. She was very, very good. She gave a very energetci yet polished performance. She sang songs for the Silent Generation and songs for the Boomers. Everybody in the audience had fun.