We take yearly cruises with our adult daughter who has cerebral palsy and is unable to walk or transfer independently from her manual wheelchair. She stays in her wheelchair all day, including meals and while attending shows. She particularly loves cruising to take in the shows and take a soak in the hot tub. We do not do any shore excursions. We typically take Celebrity cruises on ships with 2000-2600 passengers. This is our first time on a very large ship. We have mixed feeling about our cruise.

The Anthem of the Seas is beautiful and the accessible stateroom is probably the best accessible cabin we have had. The bed for her was excellent and the bathroom, automatic door and other features of the room perfect. The service was very good and RCCL staff were very accommodating and respectful. It is most unfortunate that this beautiful ship missed accessibility for seating in the public areas, in particular the two show venues (Royal Theater and Two70) and Windjammer Restaurant. We were told the ship met ADA requirements and I believe it probably does, but it missed the mark because the passenger population on our cruise was a much greater percentage of people with reduced mobility than general population for public theaters and dining venues in cities and towns. The ADA percentages need to be greater. The full time wheelchair users were competing with the numerous scooters, walkers and slow walkers who only use manual wheelchairs for travel.

When we attended the show in Two70, we asked to be directed to accessible seating. The staff at the door said she had no idea where it was located. There was nothing marked. She suggested we bump our daughter down some steps! We saw other wheelchair users at the top of stairs, blocking the stairs and hoping to see. I am shocked and appalled this area was designed with no accessible seating. The Royal Theater had perhaps 6 accessible marked spots at the back of the first level, but they were taken up by parked walkers or scooter and those with disabilities were using the companion seats. Public theaters need at least 5% accessible seats, but a higher percentage is needed to accommodate all the walkers, scooter and wheelchair users. The whole back row should be accessible but it had fixed seats that were hardly used because scooter and poles were blocking access and then a lot of space was used by the table with counter stools. There were no accessible seats near the stage even though there was an elevator. Our daughter is visually impaired and we parked her in the aisle or in front of a seat in the first row but we had to go 45 minutes early to a show to do so. We were on the Celebrity Summit last January they had wheelchair seating in the front row. If you like shows, then I can not recommend this ship until modifications are made to add appropriate accessible seating in terms of location and number of seats. Read more