P&O Cruises Humiliates Blind Passengers

by Kevin Burton

   For blind people, being a second-class citizen would represent an upgrade. The following provides another example that proves, when it comes down to it, blind people aren’t treated as citizens at all.

  This story was widely reported. My information comes from Insider.

   “Two blind passengers who were ordered to leave a cruise ship before it set sail said it was “humiliating” and that they “felt like criminals,” Insider reported.
   “Pam May and Jennie Bailie told ITV News they were asked to leave a P&O Cruises Ventura ship in May for “health and safety reasons.” 

   “We were standing there and having to argue why we had the right to travel, and go on holiday on our own, the same as everybody else,” May told the outlet. 

  “ The friends, from West Sussex, said they were put in a room for two hours before being escorted off the ship in Southampton, England. They said they asked to use the restroom first but were not allowed to do so,” Insider reported.

   “Bailie told ITV News they were “marched off” the ship “like two criminals. It was totally and utterly embarrassing, and very, very upsetting.”

   “After arriving home P&O then charged them a cancellation fee of almost $1,130 each — the entire price of the cruise.”

   “May told the outlet: ‘We weren’t even given the opportunity to say ‘look, this is what we’re capable of.’ They didn’t ask to get to know us and see what we were like as individual people. They just decided ‘oh you’re blind you can’t be on there.’”
   “P&O Cruises told Insider in a statement: ‘Whilst we want all our guests to have a wonderful time with us, clearly the safety and wellbeing of all onboard is our priority at all times. We are so sorry that these guests were unable to travel with us and we have offered them a full refund for their holiday including any expenses incurred.”

   Blatant discrimination, followed by unconscionable insults, the cancellation fee and not being permitted to use the bathroom. Both  are unbelievable. The cancellation fee sounds like something a fiction writer would put in a story to illustrate how unfeeling and unthinking big businesses can be. But this actually happened.

   P&O provided a refund only after their corporate discrimination hit the news. Either way, were I in that situation, they wouldn’t get a dime from me.

   This is the kind of thing Stephen Kuusisto writes about. He is a blind educator and WordPress blogger.  He often writes about the sighted/able world wanting to eradicate the handicapped from existence, just airbrush us out of the picture.  (You should find and read his stuff by the way.)

   Unfortunately Kuusisto and I have way too many examples of discrimination against the blind to write about.

   A cruise of course, is among other things, an attempt to keep reality at bay for a week or two.  Maybe imperfection in the form of blindness wasn’t what P&O wanted to sell to their other customers.

   As for “health and safety reasons” that needs to be explained and defended, ideally in a court of law.

   The story doesn’t say, but I am guessing these two would-be passengers were totally blind. I wonder what they would make of me, a partially-sighted person. Depending on the context of how you met me, you might not know I had a visual impairment right away.

   They might admit me to their cruise and then have to have a helicopter whisk me away  for the safety of their other passengers.

   How about a passenger who loses her contact lenses while on board. Does she have to go too?

   It’s just so absurd.

   The story doesn’t mention anything about a pending lawsuit, but I hope the two women do sue.

   I love the idea of an hours-long or even day-long boat ride and I have been on a few. A longer cruise never has appealed to me, even before the pandemic era. So I had never heard of P&O. 

   I urge those of you considering a cruise to chose another company.  Having said this, I wouldn’t be surprised if  the other companies are just a s bad.