Regulations for Cruisers With Disabilities

If you’re planning a cruise and you have a disability, there’s good news.  The Department of Transportation has rules that cruise operators must follow with regards to passengers with  disabilities.  The ruling, Transportation for Individuals With Disabilities: Passenger Vessels outlines several requirements, which are summarized below.

Passenger Vessel Operators (PVOs) must:

• Ensure that accessible cabins are held for use by individuals with disabilities until all other cabins in that class of service have been rented.
• Reserve accessible cabins upon request by a passenger with disabilities and ensure that the specific accessible cabin reserved by that passenger is held
  for him or her.
• If a passenger with a disability requests an accessible cabin in a given class of service that is unavailable, the PVO must allow the passenger to reserve an accessible cabin at the price of the requested class of service, or whichever is lower.
• Passengers with disabilities must not be charged higher fares, or fees that are not charged to other passengers. They also must not be required to sign waivers, not required to be signed by other passengers.
• PVOs must provide disabled passengers with assistance in getting on/off the ship if requested by the passenger.
• Passengers who require service animals must be allowed to be accompanied by the animal in all locations that passengers can use on the ship – including lifeboats.

Keep in mind that these rules are generally for U.S. based ships. If the PVO operates a foreign-flag vessel, and they believe that a legal requirement of a foreign nation precludes them from complying with a provision of these regulations, they must submit a waiver to the Department of Transportation. However, they are still required to provide an alternative way to achieve the objective of the waived provision.