This was a short family cruise of just the ladies to celebrate two of our birthdays, my sister and I, and our elderly mother and aunt (both in their 80s) came too. We had 2 staterooms, my mother needed a scooter & the Carnival website said scooters had to be parked in the room overnight to charge and they would only fit in accessible rooms. So Mom and Auntie were in an ocean view (a window bigger than a porthole) stateroom (E71) and my sister and I booked a suite (U87). We wanted one stateroom with a balcony so Mom and Auntie could hang out there during the day if they didn't want to go out on the upper deck. Turns out that was a smart move!

E71 was unbelievably small for being accessible. Yes, the door was wide enough to get the scooter into the room but that was as far as it went. The bathroom door was super-sized so you couldn't open or close it with the scooter in the room. The bathroom was extremely small even though it was accessible with grab bars, a roll-in shower, and a fold-down seat. The bathroom floor was slippery once you showered because the water goes everywhere. IF we were to charge the scooter in the room it would have not only blocked their access to the bathroom (let's envision 2 elderly women with no potty access at night...) but more importantly, it would have completely BLOCKED their EXIT out of the room!! Needless to say, we parked it in the hall, told Guest Services we were doing that and they provided us with an extension cord to charge it.

Other thing to note about E71, convenient location on Empress Deck - right around the corner from Guest Services & Lobby Bar. The room is just 2 doors down the hall, so its a busy location. The Lobby Bar played great music all day until late at night. We loved it, Mom and Auntie could hear it all. Good thing they didn't mind the entertainment. Read more