Cruising is a popular vacation choice for wheelchair-users and slow walkers, however some cruise destinations are just more accessible than others. Take Hawaii for example. For starters it’s located in the US, so shore tour operators are bound by US access laws. Granted, not every shore excursion is wheelchair-accessible; however you’ll find more accessible transportation options in Hawaii than you will in the Caribbean or Mexico.
Of course, it goes without saying that as an island state, Hawaii is perfectly suited for cruises. Perhaps that’s why Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) has two NCL America ships stationed there; the Pride of Aloha and the Pride of America.
The Pride of Aloha first entered service as the Norwegian Sky in 1999, but was retrofitted and reflagged in 2004. It features six accessible inside staterooms located near the elevators on Decks 8 and 9. The larger Pride of America was launched in 2005, and includes 22 wheelchair-accessible staterooms in a variety of configurations. The accessible staterooms on both ships feature wide doorways, level thresholds and bathrooms with a roll-in shower, a fold-down shower seat, a hand-held...