Same cruise. Same dates. A staggering £5,726 price difference. And accessible cabins apparently sold out with the cruise line but available through a specialist travel agent. What is going on?

I am horrified by what I have discovered about the cost and availability of accessible cruise cabins.

Imagine being told by a cruise line that every wheelchair-accessible cabin on a particular sailing is sold out, only to discover that a specialist disability travel company can offer you one on exactly the same cruise, but as part of a package costing £5,726 more than another passenger paid for the identical cabin?.

That is precisely what has happened to me.

It raises a deeply troubling question. Are specialist travel companies effectively controlling access to a limited supply of accessible cabins, potentially creating a captive market in which disabled passengers are left with little choice but to pay substantially more?

If that is happening, it is not accessibility. It is exploitation.

Same cruise. An extraordinary price difference.

The cruise in question is P&O Cruises’ Iona, departing Southampton on 27 February 2027 for a 14-night voyage to Portugal and the Canary Islands.

I recently came across a Facebook post from a passenger who had booked a fully wheelchair-accessible balcony cabin for two people on this exact sailing.

The total price was £3,664 for two people, including the provision of an evacuation chair, now an essential consideration when booking a wheelchair-accessible cabin, plus an additional £380 onboard spending.

I subsequently approached Limitless Travel, an established specialist accessible travel company, explained my disability and requirements, and enquired about availability on the same cruise.

They confirmed that they could offer me an accessible balcony cabin.

Their quoted package price, after discounts, was an astonishing £9,390 for two people.

That is £5,726 more, over two and a half times the price paid by the other passenger.

I accept that Limitless Travel includes some additional services, such as accessible transfers, organised activities and travel support. These services have a value, and the comparison is between a cruise booking and a specialist holiday package.

But can those extras really justify such an enormous difference? And why should disabled passengers potentially have to purchase additional services they neither need nor want simply to secure an accessible cabin?

The really disturbing discovery: P&O says there are no cabins available.

I telephoned P&O Cruises directly to enquire about accessible cabin availability on the same sailing.

Their response was categorical: every accessible cabin was fully booked. None were available.

I explained that Limitless Travel had just offered me an accessible balcony cabin on precisely that cruise.

P&O told me this should not be possible. They also categorically stated that they do not block-book accessible cabins for travel agents, including specialist disability travel companies.

So something simply does not add up.

How can P&O insist that every accessible cabin is sold out while a specialist travel company is offering one for sale?

Does Limitless Travel have access to cabins that are unavailable through P&O’s own booking system? Are accessible cabins being reserved or allocated through arrangements that prevent independent disabled travellers from booking them directly?

And, critically, are those cabins then being made available only as part of substantially more expensive holiday packages?

I am not suggesting that either company has deliberately misled me, nor have I established how Limitless Travel secures its cabin availability. But these contradictions demand an explanation.

Accessible cabins must not become an opportunity for profiteering.

This is about something far more important than the price of one holiday.

As a full-time wheelchair user, I cannot simply book an ordinary cabin. Accessible accommodation is not a luxury or an optional upgrade. It is an absolute necessity.

Accessible cabins are already in desperately short supply. If specialist travel companies are securing allocations of those cabins that are unavailable to independent passengers, they could effectively control access to a scarce and essential resource.

And if those cabins are then offered only within expensive specialist packages, disabled passengers could find themselves in a captive market, forced to pay a substantial premium simply to travel.

I have not established that this is what has happened in my case. But the circumstances raise precisely those concerns.

Disability should never become a commercial opportunity to exploit people who already have fewer choices.

P&O Cruises, please explain.

I would like to know whether accessible cabins are reserved, allocated or otherwise held for specialist travel companies, and why P&O’s booking system showed no availability when Limitless Travel was offering me a cabin.

I would also like to understand what safeguards P&O has in place to ensure that accessible cabins remain available to independent disabled travellers, rather than being tied to expensive specialist packages.

And I would welcome an explanation from Limitless Travel of how its £9,390 package price is calculated, what the additional services actually cost, and whether an accessible cabin can be purchased without those services.

These are reasonable questions, and both companies should be able to answer them transparently.

Accessible travel should mean freedom of choice.

I have spent much of my life campaigning for disabled people to enjoy equal access to the sea and the maritime world. That principle is also central to Accessible Oceans.

Accessibility is not simply about installing ramps or adapting bathrooms. It is about providing genuine equality of opportunity, independence and choice.

An accessible cabin that exists but cannot be booked independently is of little use to someone who needs it.

Disabled people already face enough barriers without the possibility of being priced out of the limited accessible accommodation available to them.

We do not want special treatment. We want equal treatment.

And disability should never become somebody else’s licence to print money.