Where do I find my cruise line's accessibility form?

Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, Princess, Carnival, Norwegian, MSC, Holland America, Disney, Virgin Voyages, Cunard and Silversea all have an accessibility or special needs form or contact. Links and deadlines for each are listed on this page.

When is the cruise accessibility form due?

Most lines want it at least 30 days before sailing. Disney asks for 60 days, Norwegian 45 days for most needs and 90 days for interpreters, Holland America 45 days, and Cunard no later than two weeks before you sail.

What happens if I miss the deadline for the accessibility form?

Submit it anyway. Lines will do what they can, but equipment such as shower chairs and bed boards is limited and accessible cabins are allocated long in advance, so late requests may not be met.

Can you cruise while pregnant?

Nearly every major cruise line refuses passage from the 24th week of pregnancy, though lines measure it differently — some at the start of the cruise, some by the last day. A physician's fit-to-travel letter is required, stating that mother and baby are in good health, that the pregnancy is not high risk, and the estimated date of delivery.

Do cruise ships provide oxygen or dialysis?

No. Guests must supply their own oxygen and meet the line's requirements before boarding, and rental companies deliver to the ship. Carnival states that guests on dialysis are welcome only if stable, carrying their own equipment and self-administering — onboard medical staff are not equipped or trained to perform dialysis.

Is CPAP allowed on a cruise?

Yes. CPAP, BiPAP and nebulisers are carried free as medical equipment on every major line. Distilled water is free on request from Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, Princess, Norwegian, Disney, MSC and Cunard, while Carnival and Holland America charge for it. Request it on the accessibility form in advance.

Home › Mobility & Health Needs › Medical forms

Cruise medical forms, every line, one page.

Two different things get called "the medical form". There's the accessibility form you submit in advance — every line has one and hides it somewhere different — and there's the medical paperwork a line may require before it will carry you at all. Both are below, with each line's deadline. It takes about ten minutes and it's the thing people most often mean to do and then don't.

Before you start

Do it early: Most lines want 30 days. Disney wants 60. Interpreters often need 90.
Ask for everything: Bed boards, shower stools and toilet seat raisers are free on most lines, and almost nobody asks
Measure your device: Width and weight decide whether it fits the cabin door and whether it can board a tender
Keep the reply: A request is not a confirmation. Save the written response

↓ Download this list (PDF) — free, no sign-up

Two different teams — don't mix them up

Most lines split this work. The accessibility or access department handles your cabin, equipment, mobility, oxygen and dialysis — that is where the form goes. A separate accessible shore excursions team books tours, and their address usually starts with shorex. Sending your medical form to the excursions desk is the most common way it goes unanswered.

Where we know both, the table says which is which.

Cruise line	What it's called	When it's due	Worth knowing
Royal Caribbean	Guest Special Needs form	At least 30 days. Sign language interpreting 60 days.	Their online form is down as of today. Royal asks you to email [email protected] with the subject line Special Needs Request – [reservation number] – [ship] – [sail date], or call the Access Department on (866) 592-7225. Reference page: Accessible cruising. Different team — excursions only: [email protected]. Don't send your accessibility form there.
Celebrity Cruises	Accessibility Accommodation Request Form (online)	At booking, or no later than 30 days. ASL interpreting 60 days.	Celebrity has moved to an online form — older PDFs still circulate, so use the link here. Access Department (medical, mobility, dialysis, oxygen): [email protected] or (954) 628-9708. Reference pages: Accessibility · Medical needs. Different team — excursions only: [email protected].
Princess Cruises	Accessibility request, plus per-ship accessible route guides	Well before sailing — ask at booking.	Princess publishes deck-by-deck accessible routes naming which venues and restrooms are reachable. Almost no other line does this.
Carnival	Special Needs request by email	As early as possible.	[email protected] or 1-800-929-6400. General accessibility questions: [email protected]. Reference pages: Shipboard medical services · CPAP & oxygen · Pregnancy policy.
Norwegian (NCL)	Accessibility & Medical Questionnaire, via the Access Desk	45 days for most needs. 90 days for interpreters.	Completed forms go to [email protected]. An Accessibility Coordinator contacts you after it's received. Reference page: Cruising with medical needs.
MSC Cruises	Special Needs Form (PDF)	At booking, and no later than two working days before departure.	Email the completed form to [email protected].
Holland America	Special Requirements Information (SRI) form	At booking, or a minimum of 45 days before departure.	Access & Compliance: [email protected] or 800-547-8493. A second address, [email protected], is also published for their Guest Accessibility team — if one bounces, try the other.
Disney Cruise Line	Special Services Information Form (PDF)	At least 60 days before sailing.	One of the earliest deadlines of any line — worth doing as soon as you book.
Virgin Voyages	Accessibility and Medical Request Form	As soon as possible. Distilled water needs 14 days.	[email protected] or (954) 372-3721. Non-folding wheelchairs and scooters require a fully accessible cabin.
Cunard	Onboard needs questionnaire, in My Cunard	As soon as you book, and no later than two weeks before sailing.	The questionnaire appears in My Cunard once you've booked.
Silversea	Special requirements by email	At the time of booking, in writing.	Silversea asks for needs in writing when the reservation is made. We could not verify a public accessibility page for Silversea — ask your booking agent for the current process.

If your line has no form, send this

Royal Caribbean's online form is down, so they've published exactly what the email must contain — and it's a good template for any line that asks you to write in.

Who and which booking: names needing accommodations, reservation number, ship, sail date, email, phone, country.

What you need, in your own words. They say they don't need details of your disability, only what would help.

For an accessible stateroom: whether you need a roll-in shower, plus the sentence they ask for — "I require an accessible stateroom because I have a mobility disability or other disability that requires the use of the accessible features provided in the stateroom."

For a wheelchair, scooter, CPAP or BiPAP: width, length, height and weight of the equipment, the combined height and weight of you and the equipment, whether it folds, and the battery type.

For oxygen or dialysis: whether you're bringing supplies or having them delivered, and the vendor's name and phone number. For hemodialysis they ask you to call.

These were the links on 26 September 2026

Cruise lines move pages, rename forms and change deadlines without warning — Royal Caribbean's online form was down when we checked, and Norwegian, Holland America and Disney all use different windows. If a link here doesn't work, search "[your cruise line] special needs form" and it will usually be the first result. Tell us and we'll fix it.

Lines we couldn't verify a form for

We're not going to publish a link we haven't checked. For these, ask at booking and get the answer in writing:

Viking — A special needs email address is widely quoted for Viking, but we could not confirm it on Viking's own site. Ask your booking agent or use the My Viking Journey portal.
Oceania, Regent Seven Seas, Seabourn, Azamara, Windstar, Explora, Costa, P&O — These lines handle access requests through their guest services or booking teams rather than a public form. Ask at booking and get the confirmation in writing.
Margaritaville at Sea — Short Bahamas sailings from Palm Beach. Ask their reservations team directly.

10 min

That's all the form takes. It decides your accessible cabin, your equipment, your dietary needs and what the crew knows about you before you board. Nothing else you do in the planning gives you that much for ten minutes.

What to put on the form

The accessible cabin request — separately from any note about your mobility. They are not the same thing.
Equipment you need: bed board, shower stool, toilet seat raiser, fridge for medication, sharps container, assistive listening device.
Your mobility device's width and weight. Doors on standard cabins can be as narrow as 23 inches; accessible cabins are at least 32.
Dietary needs, including anything that needs 60 days' notice such as gluten-free on some lines.
Anything you'd want the crew to know if there were an emergency at three in the morning.

Then ask the question nobody asks

"What happens if I can't board the tender?" Get that answer before the morning it matters — and remember most lines give no refund for a port missed on mobility grounds.

Whether a port tenders depends on your line, not just the port

Celebrity's own accessibility pages list Cozumel, Costa Maya, CocoCay, St. Maarten and Grand Cayman among ports where its ships use tenders — even though several are docked calls for other lines. Celebrity also notes that guests may have to walk down a few steps to reach the tender platform, and that tender accessibility is subject to change.

So check the tender question for your line and your sailing, not the port in general. Our port pages describe the usual arrangement; your cruise line confirms yours.

The other kind: medical paperwork

The accessibility form above covers what you need aboard. This is different — these are the documents a line may require before it will carry you at all, and there is no single form for them. Most travel with you rather than being submitted in advance.

Pregnancy, and the 24-week wall

Nearly every major line refuses passage from the 24th week. Royal Caribbean, Carnival, Princess, Norwegian, Disney, Celebrity, MSC, Costa and others all use that line, though they measure it differently — some at the start of the cruise, some by the last day.
You need a physician's "fit to travel" letter stating that mother and baby are in good health, that the pregnancy is not high risk, and the estimated date of delivery.
Princess asks for the due date calculated from both the last menstrual period and an ultrasound, not a single estimate — and states the letter does not need to be submitted in advance.
Norwegian wants the letter sent ahead, on letterhead, to their Access Desk rather than produced at the pier.
Disney will not negotiate. No medical statement, waiver or liability release gets anyone aboard past that point.
Royal Caribbean has everyone sign a health questionnaire at check-in confirming awareness of the policy.

Do the arithmetic against the last day, not the first

If your due date puts you at 24 weeks on day six of a seven-night sailing, several lines will refuse you — and you will find out at the terminal. Work it out before you book, and confirm with your own line, because they do not all measure it the same way.

Oxygen, dialysis and equipment

On dialysis? There's a fuller starting point here →

Oxygen: you supply it. Royal Caribbean requires guests to bring their own and meet requirements before boarding — Access Department (866) 592-7225. Carnival asks you to contact [email protected] in advance, hand-carry it at embarkation, and label everything; their crew are not permitted to handle medical equipment. Rental companies deliver to the ship.
Dialysis: only if you're self-sufficient. Carnival states guests on dialysis are welcome if their condition is stable, they carry their own equipment and self-administer — onboard medical staff are not equipped or trained to perform dialysis of any kind, and the cruise environment carries higher risk than home.
CPAP, BiPAP and nebulisers are carried free as medical equipment. Distilled water is free on request from Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, Princess, Norwegian, Disney, MSC and Cunard; Carnival and Holland America charge for it. Carry the machine on rather than checking it, and note Royal bans surge-protected power strips — ask for a medical extension cord instead.
Sharps containers and fridges for medication are free on most lines, on request through the accessibility form.

Tell the Medical Centre you're aboard

Norwegian advises guests with chronic conditions to notify the ship's Medical Centre at the start of the cruise, and to carry a copy of their medical history, recent lab results and insurance details. Every major ship has a medical centre staffed around the clock. It costs nothing to introduce yourself on day one, and it changes how fast things move if something happens on day five.

Service animals, and going ashore

Service animals are generally welcome aboard and ships provide a relief area. Whether the animal can leave the ship is an entirely separate question decided by each country, and the paperwork differs by port. Cunard, for example, notes that under UK requirements assistance dogs cannot disembark at any port of call on certain itineraries.

Start this one months out, not weeks — some ports need documentation issued in a specific window before arrival.

The health questionnaire at check-in is a different thing again

Most lines ask every passenger to complete a short illness screening questionnaire at check-in — recent fever, vomiting, diarrhoea. Answering honestly matters: lines can and do deny boarding, and sailing with a concealed norovirus is how an outbreak starts.

Separate pieces of paperwork, in most cases. The accessibility form, submitted in advance. The physician's letter, carried with you. And the health questionnaire at the terminal. People often assume the first one covers all three.

Corrected 26 and 27 September 2026

A reader flagged discrepancies on this page and they were right. Three things changed: Celebrity has replaced its PDF with an online form, and its address for accessible shore excursions is [email protected], not the older celebrity.com version still quoted around the web; Royal Caribbean's form is currently down rather than occasionally down, and they use a separate address for accessible excursions; and tendering turns out to be a line-by-line question, not a port-by-port one. Then on 27 September: we had shown shorexaccess addresses alongside the forms, and those belong to the shore excursions teams, not the accessibility departments. Celebrity's Access Department is [email protected], (954) 628-9708. Reference pages have been added for every line we could verify one for. Keep them coming.

Where this comes from

Each cruise line's own accessibility pages and forms, linked in the table above and checked on the date shown.
How we check things — our method, and what "last checked" means.

Links last checked 26 September 2026.

We are not affiliated with any cruise line. Deadlines and forms change without notice — always confirm with your own line. Found a broken link? Tell us and we'll fix it.