THE TINY ELEVATOR FAILS!

Odyssey of the Seas is one of Royal Caribbeans newer ships, having been first launched in 2020. Knowing this going into it, we were excited to see what advances they had made as far as accessibility goes. Although I was happy to see that RC made multiple attempts to make this ship truly wheelchair friendly, I feel they did not have someone in Kimberly's position in mind. For those of you who use a manual chair or are able to transition to a manual chair, you are all set! This ship would be great for you. However, for Kimberly, someone who uses a power chair and must remain in her chair, this was not the case.

This ship has at least two small elevators that help those with mobility issues access certain areas. One is in Two70, a two-deck-high venue that has a bar, cool hangout spots and state of the art performance area. We were able to use the elevator to go to the upper deck. It was small, but did the job. The second elevator was in a hard to find area of the Seaplex. We had a few more issues with this one. Like the first one, you had to continuously push the button while riding the elevator. However, in this one, you could not touch any part of the sides of the elevator or it would stop. That is a little difficult to do while riding with a large power chair and multiple bags hanging off of it. But, as that was the only way to access Playmakers Sports Bar, we gave it a try. When we were done with dinner, we went back to the elevator, only to find that it had dropped about 6 inches and was not lined up with the floor. I had to notify someone who then got maintenance. Overall, we had to wait about 30 minutes and were convinced not to use it again!

Besides the Seaplex, an area of bumber cars, arcades and basketball hoops, the Odyssey had an abundance of cool activities you could do. These included the Flowrider (a continuous wave you could surf) and the iFly (a skydiving simulator). Both of these activities could only be accessed by stairs. At first I was happy to see that the Odyssey had implemented a stair lift that could carry a wheelchair up to these activities. Kimberly was really excited to watch the group we were with do the skydiving. Unfortunately, after having to find someone who could work the lift, we found out that it was too small to accommodate Kimberly's power chair. I don't feel Kimberly's chair is very large when it comes to power chairs. I just think it was probably an oversight when choosing what product to install. Or maybe there isn't a bigger one. Might be something Royal Caribbean wants to look into.

Another thing the Odyssey of the Seas is famous for is the North Star. It is a glass-walled orb that goes very high above the ship and out over the ocean. It provides amazing views. Kimberly did not think she wanted to go up in it, but I wanted to see if she even could. Even though the Odyssey did have an elevator, it was only to be used with a manual wheelchair. Kimberly would have to be transferred out of her power chair to participate in the "ride".

I can understand that not all things can be achieved if you use a power chair. They are heavy and rather large, so if they can't go into a glass orb that takes you more than 300 feet about sea level, I think that's understandable. At least they made it accessible to some. I just wish the elevators were easier to use and that the stair lifts could accommodate a normal power chair.