Mobility ashore

Staff will be able to provide wheelchair or arm assistance from the top to the bottom of the gangway only where it is safe to do so. Guests must make their own way to/from the terminal/shuttle bus/tour buses etc. Please note: If your shore excursions are operated by a minibus, there will be no storage space for mobility scooters or wheelchairs.

Due to the extreme tidal nature and gangway configurations required to cope with large varying height differences between the quay and the ship side, there is a strong chance that full and/or part-time wheelchair users may be required to stay on board in some ports, including, but not limited to:Bilbao, La Coruña, Le Havre, La Rochelle, Lisbon, Zeebrugge, Malaga, Cadiz, Madeira, Rotterdam, Hamburg, Boston, Halifax, Portland, Quebec and San Francisco. We apologize for any inconvenience that this may cause, but we hope you will appreciate that this is in the interest of your safety. 

At ports where it is not possible to use the ship’s bow, access to shore will be either by a long straight shore gangway fitted with self-leveling steps to take into account the tidal conditions or, in some cases, wooden batons for foot grips. Dependent on tidal conditions, the baton type can be quite steep at times. 

The ship may also use its own narrow-stepped gangway (the “accommodation ladder”), which also features self-leveling steps to take account of the tide.

All attempts are made to provide an accessible shuttle bus. However, for reasons out of our control, this may not always be possible. Therefore, if booked on a Cunard Fare, in ports where a shuttle bus is provided but an accessible service is unavailable, you are invited to use a taxi service as an alternative, as the shuttle bus would have been complimentary. The taxi should take the same route and drop off and collect at the same point as the shuttle bus service. Please keep the receipts and speak to someone at the purser’s desk, where the expenses will be refunded to your onboard account.