Vishal is a Marketing Copywriter Specialist at Expedia Cruises who had the opportunity to speak with Spencer Blomquist and learn about his incredible life and love of travel, and discover how – with some planning and preparation – people with disabilities can sail across the seven seas and explore amazing destinations on this beautiful planet.

Since a young age, Spencer enjoyed traveling. Throughout his childhood and teenage years, he went on about a dozen cruises with his family. But in 2008, during his final year of college, his life took a dramatic turn. “Somebody tried to rob me. They opened my car door and shot me in the neck.” He’s since been paralyzed from the neck down.

But that hasn’t stopped him from doing the one thing he’s always loved: traveling the world.

A 2023 survey by the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) revealed that 16% of survey respondents or their traveling companions experienced some form of mobility challenge, ranging from needing canes or crutches to using wheelchairs or mobility scooters due to various health conditions.

As I speak with Spencer on a Zoom call, I can’t help but ask him how he navigates air travel, knowing that wheelchairs can’t be taken inside airplanes. He says, “I can go on my wheelchair right down to the jet bridge, and from there they’ll lift me up and put me into a chair narrow enough to transport me down the aisle of the airplane before transferring me to my seat.”

Cruising, he explains, is much more convenient with easier access throughout the ship. “On a cruise, the staterooms are so consistently accessible, and so are the showers. There might be some nuances and variations in terms of the height of the bed, or the placement of the grab bars, but overall, they are extremely reliable.”

Driving to the port also makes cruising significantly more accessible, especially since a large portion of the North American population lives within a three to four-hour drive of a cruise port.

Spencer points out that accessible staterooms on cruise ships are in high demand and often sell out quickly, as travelers with disabilities realize the value and ease of cruising. Over the years, Spencer has booked hundreds of travelers with higher-level disabilities on cruise vacations around the world. A lot of them are repeat customers. “I have this one client in a wheelchair, and she and her mom cruise about 4-5 times every year.”

He has also noticed an interesting trend: when booking trips for individuals with disabilities, their family members often join them. He recalls a particularly notable example from a few years ago. “They started by saying they wanted to book for 20-30 people, but it actually turned out to be a group of over 100 people finally, including 15 wheelchair users.”

As you can imagine, organizing vacations for travelers with disabilities requires meticulous attention to detail. It can involve securing items like hospital beds, medical equipment, patient lifts, oxygen tanks, as well as certain specialized items based on individual needs. Coordination with nursing companies may also be required as some travelers, like Spencer himself, need a full-time nurse while traveling.

Curious about his career choice, I ask Spencer why he became a Vacation Consultant with a focus on assisting those with disabilities. “After my injury,” he says “I was working for a technology company installing assisted technology devices, and I thought, this isn’t me. I didn’t want to spend my whole life around just computer stuff. I realized I love cruising and traveling. As a traveler with disability myself, I had a learned a lot and thought I could help others with disabilities to travel too. Then about six years ago, a local Expedia Cruises office opened in my location, about 35-40 minutes from my house.”

Since then, he’s personally been on over 20 cruises, visited just as many countries, and has booked over a thousand travelers, many of which have higher-level disabilities. He will soon have his Elite Cruise Counsellor Certification, which is the highest certification awarded to travel agents by the Cruise Lines International Association.

According to Spencer, cruising is one of the best ways for people with disabilities to travel, thanks to ongoing enhancements by cruise lines, including regular crew training, more accessible shore excursions, and wheelchair-friendly spa facilities. “It varies across cruise lines,” he notes, “but they do a great job overall.

Traveling as a person with a disability is undoubtedly challenging, but as Spencer and his many clients can attest, it’s certainly possible—and absolutely worth it. “More than anything else, I’m doing this job for the opportunity to travel and to share my knowledge so people with disabilities can enjoy a great quality of life through travel.”