Written by Chillie Falls, December 7. 2022
After finding a second “accessible” restroom on the Nieuw Statendam that is not truly accessible due to the lack of automatic door openers, plus the heaviness of the doors, I shot a quick video and proceeded to guest services to report it.
I found that there is not a special needs coordinator on this ship, nor any ADA Compliance officer. Special needs are just handled by any of the guest services personnel. So I explained the findings from the restroom and showed her the video.
She still did not really understand. So, I took her to the nearest accessible men’s room and demonstrated how I had to struggle to get the door open, hold it with one hand, try to squeeze the scooter by the door, and then avoid the door crashing into my arm. I told her one restroom on Deck 2 near the main dining room, the open door blocks a scooter or wheelchair from even getting inside.
She promised to look into the matter and forward the information up the line.
I assumed that would be the last I heard of the issue.
I took a couple of hours and surveyed the entire ship and found 12 public men’s rooms with no automatic door openers. NOTE: There are numerous automatic openers all over the ship. Just not on public restrooms. Assuming the ladies accessible restrooms are the same, the makes 24 restrooms that are not really accessible. I reported that finding back to a different guest services agent. In question are the following “accessible” restrooms: Deck 2 Forward, Deck 2 Mid, Deck 2 Aft, Deck 3 Forward, Deck 3 Aft, Deck 9 Forward, Deck 9 Mid, Deck 9 Aft, Deck 10 Mid, Deck 10 Aft, Deck 12 Forward and Deck 3 Mid that has a weird slider type door.
I was in total shock when my phone rang about 9 PM last night. And an official from Holland America thanked me for the information and reported that early next year, Nieuw Statendam will be going into a drydock and several accessibility issues would be addressed, including automatic door openers on the public restrooms.
How cool was that?
This information will be included in my accessibility report at the end of my cruise.