@Speedymoneysaver it is my adult DSD who has multiple disabilities - visual impairment, learning and communication disability, mild mobility difficulties. She prefers not to use a wheelchair, so we don’t have experience of that.
We mainly have been with P&O and they have been very welcoming. Fred Olsen were even better but £££. We never had to wait to go into dinner, or to get off the ship, everything seemed like it had been streamlined for us.
We only choose cruises from Southampton, and book special assistance so we don’t have to worry about queuing to check in and get on board. You can’t get so far from Southampton, so no Med or Alaska for us, but it means we can avoid flying.
Cabins are not huge, but there are some accessible ones available - you would probably need to book early.
One thing to maybe avoid is ports with a tender, which means the ship drops anchor and you get a little boat out to the port - you have to pass a mobility test to be allowed to do this. DSD did pass but it was hard for her to understand what she was supposed to do. That was the Norwegian fjords.
Another thing that helped us was that on P&O the laundry room was self service and free, whereas on others we had to pay. But that might not be a consideration for you.
We have only been on mid sized ships - worried that bigger ones might be too crowded. We tend to just avoid areas with lots of people and children running about, which tends to be the buffet and pool area. We’ve always found quieter spaces to relax.
Fred Olsen ships are a fair bit smaller, if that is a consideration. But they are less geared towards children than P&O, it’s very sedate.
Royal Caribbean have lots for children and teens, like climbing walls and go karts, but we have never been on their ships, as we thought it might be overwhelming for DSD.