Galataport With Limited Mobility: How We Handle It (2026)

Cruise passengers skew older than almost any other group we drive, and a fair number arrive with a walking stick, a folded wheelchair, a recent operation or simply less stamina than the itinerary assumed.

This is the practical version, including the parts we cannot do.

What Normally Happens

For most passengers our Galataport meeting point is simple: leave the terminal, turn right, and we are in front of Caffe Nero. It is deliberately a short walk from the doors, because the area immediately outside is crowded on a busy port day.

That walk is the whole point for most people and the whole problem for some.

What We Do Instead

We bring the car inside. When you tell us in advance that someone cannot manage the walk, we arrange to come in rather than waiting outside, so you get into the car close to where you come out.

It costs nothing extra. The only thing it needs is notice — arranging it in advance is straightforward, arranging it while you are standing there with a queue behind you is not.

Tell us when you book, or message on WhatsApp any time before the day.

What Comes as Standard and What Has to Be Arranged

This is the part other companies leave vague, and it is the part that actually matters when you are planning.

Our own vehicles are ordinary ones. Mercedes Vito, V-Class and Sprinter, with a step up through a sliding door. A driver will help, and for most passengers that is all that is needed.

A folding wheelchair travels in the boot. That is the most common case we handle and it works well. The chair counts as luggage for space, so mention it alongside your cases when you book.

If someone needs to stay seated in their wheelchair for the journey, we arrange a vehicle built for it. It is not one of our own, so it has to be sourced — which means telling us in advance rather than on the day. Give us as much notice as you can and we will confirm it before you travel.

The only thing that genuinely goes wrong here is silence. Tell us what is needed and it gets planned; tell us at the quay and the options narrow to whatever happens to be available.

Allow More Time

Disembarkation at Galataport is staged, passport control can be slow, and the walk from the gangway to the exit is longer than most people expect — before any mobility question enters into it.

None of that costs you anything with us. We wait, we do not charge for waiting, and a late ship is not your problem. But if you have a flight the same day, build the extra time into that side of the plan rather than assuming the transfer will absorb it.

Which Vehicle

The V-Class is the easiest to get into and out of: individual seats, more room to manoeuvre, and space to sit down without climbing past anyone.

The Vito is the standard choice and perfectly manageable for most people, with a sliding door and one step.

The Sprinter is higher off the ground. For a large group it is the right vehicle, but it is the hardest of the three to board.

Tell us the situation and we will send the one that suits it rather than the one the passenger count suggests.

What to Tell Us When You Book

Four things, and they take a sentence:

Whether the passenger can manage a short walk. Whether there is a wheelchair, and whether it folds. Whether anyone needs to sit in a particular seat. And whether you have a flight the same day.

That is enough for us to plan the whole thing properly, and it saves the conversation happening at the quay with everybody tired.